AFI frontman Davey Havok has discussed the importance of hardcore music — especially emotional hardcore — in a new interview.
Speaking to Rolling Stone AU/NZ to celebrate the punk rock band’s new album, Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…, out today, Havok was all too happy to extoll the virtues of hardcore.
“[Hardcore music] was the only tangible form of music that we could ever consider making,” he said. “We only considered making it because of the D.C. scene and the LA scene. It was like… just do it. Even if you can’t play it, it doesn’t matter; just do it.
“For me, emotional hardcore, the hardcore that opened itself up outside of just pure angst and aggression, was always the most impactful to me.”
Havok wasn’t done there. “This is religion,” he added. “This is the truest religion, is art. That’s what we’re here for. The rest is bloodshed. Human connection is all we have, and that is art.
“The bleakness that is this record, the healing in and of itself is not expressed…you don’t hear the light, but you feel the light. It’s in the medium. This is what we’ve got. It’s the clarion, it’s the siren, as it’s always meant to be. But in these times, these Black Sun times… it’s fucked up. We have what we have in the moment, and we’ve got to pay attention to it.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, Havok expressed excitement about how the band’s new album could bring in new listeners.
“The dream [is] that this would be someone’s first AFI record, because the algorithm does not want that to be the case!” he said. “I think about that, and it’s harrowing to know that we don’t have any control over it. We can’t direct towards this, it’s out of ours and everyone’s hands. If young people would be able to hear this, that would be fucking cool.
“It’s been nearly 35 years now. What’s even better is that, towards the end of the process of making Silver Bleeds the Black Sun…, we went somewhere else. What you’re hearing on this album, we’ve even evolved from there – I know there’s more to come.”
AFI’s Silver Bleeds the Black Sun… is out now.
