Be Excited: AFI Announce First Australian Headline Tour In Ten Years

10 May 2017 | 10:43 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

AFI will be coming back our way in September & joining them is England's Basement & Newcastle's Introvert.

AFI will be coming back our way in September for their first headline tour on Australian soil in ten years, & joining them will be England's Basement & Newcastle's Introvert.


When a band releases a teasing video clip with a hashtag featuring their band moniker, the word 'AUS' and the current year, a tour is no doubt on its way; it's just solely a matter of when exactly that news will drop. Well, that time is right now for Australia and AFI, as the band's first Aussie appearance since Soundwave 2014 has just been announced courtesy of Josh Merriel on triple j tonight.

Since touring their self-titled effort - also dubbed the 'Blood' album - in the U.S. in February and after just literally wrapping a handful of dates in the UK, this Cali four-piece will be bringing their tenth record to Oz this September along with Basement and Introvert in support.

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With the release of Basement's 'Promise Everything' last year and returning Down Under since their sold out headline tour here in 2016, this international support slot will be the group's biggest tour in Australia to date, but something tells me that those lads will handle it all very well. As for the local support act, Newcastle's Introvert has been making solid waves within our borders. They were recently the featured artist for triple j Unearthed and rightfully so! The alternative quartet are supporting Hellions this month, and also just recently had a solid spot on Groovin The Moo. Get around these boys, now.

The tickets for this triple killer bill will go on sale Monday, May 15th at 9am local time. Check out the band's full tour dates for this Aussie stint below, as well as our recent interview with the always-kind-hearted AFI singer, Davey Havok.

Saturday, September 9th – Big Top, Sydney – Licensed/All Ages

Sunday, September 10th – Forum Theatre, Melbourne – 18+

Tuesday, September 12th – HQ, Adelaide – Licensed/All Ages

Thursday, September 14th – Metro City, Perth – 18+

Saturday, September 16th – Eatons Hill, Brisbane – Licensed/All Ages


Davey Havok Interview:

How has London been treating you lately, Davey?

It's been good! I flew in overnight from California. We're doing shows here in London, Manchester, and Glasgow and tomorrow we're doing a Radio 1 session.

Cool! With the Radio 1 sessions, is that just business as usual for you guys in terms of playing "live"?

Yeah! It's pretty much the same thing as playing in a recording studio for us and recording the songs live. But then they play them back and then it never sounds as good as the record [laughs].

Does that ever unnerve you and the band at all? As while some small edits might be able to be made, the performance is often just as is so you have to nail it. 

Oh, totally. Every time, really. Playing live always has certain inconsistencies and in that setting, I always go "Well, this won't be as good as just playing the song, but whatever, here we go!".

Well, I've seen you guys play a few times live before and you nailed each time so I'm sure you'll be fine. You know, with those live radio sessions, I find at least, they give off a different colour or vibe from the song than I'd have initially thought - especially if I haven't heard/seen the song live before. 

You're so right! When you're listening to an album it's multi-layered, but then it's far more stripped down live. Often times without those layers. Unlike a radio session, you have an audience there that imparts a certain feeling upon the actual music. But in this setting, it's straight to tape without a proper audience there.

I suppose you'll just have to work the cameras and the radio DJ!

[Laughs] yes, if there are cameras of course. You know, I do enjoy the cameras being there, actually.

I can tell. Now, with actual live shows that aren't radio sessions, AFI are returning to Australia later this year. And I'll be honest, like many people, I was expecting an announcement of a 'Decemberunderground' anniversary or celebration tour. Was that something you consciously wanted to avoid? 

Yeah... those have never really appealed to me. Those records were a time and a place, and that time and that place are over now. I don't think there's any reason to go visit one older record or another, as we've toured them before; we've already done it, you know? We've never played any of our records in full, and growing up, I never saw any band play their records in full until years later when this trend of bands playing their most commercially successful records started happening. I have always thought it was a strange thing to do.

That actually surprises me that you wouldn't do that, as in the press release for this tour and the new album, you speak highly of the album as a full concept. Playing and honouring one of your own records definitely seemed like something AFI would do to me. Because as I'm sure you're aware, if you were to announce a full 'Decemberunderground' or 'Sing The Sorrow' album tour, that would do VERY well for the band!

Oh yeah, but there are many things we could announce that would sell well but that's not our main interest! Selling and doing well are very different things than creating art and performing. When we create a record, the thought of playing that record in entirety is always appealing to me, but only at the time of that record's inception. As it's relevant to the band and I. But I feel that many fans aren't always as familiar with the newer album of the time, and would want to hear older songs, so that's part of the reason why we've never done it. I can see us playing 'The Blood' album in its entirety but as I said, I don't think we will. We also don't want to play for three hours [laughs]. We don't want to play for an hour for a full album and then another two hours for all our other big songs. We can't always get away with it, but we aim for an hour at most.

Oh, fair enough! I actually saw you play at both your 2014 Soundwave set and the Melbourne Sidewave with Crosses as well, and it was great to see both a concise festival set and a much longer headline show in a matter of days. Yet with having so much music in your repertoire now, how selective do you guys get with your sets nowadays? I mean, obviously, the new album's getting a big mention on this Aussie tour, and of course, 'Miss Murder' will end the set. 

We just play what we want, really. As you said, we have so many records that we're able to change it up and have varying setlists over the course of a tour. That happened a lot on the States tour recently. Those shows were fantastic, no matter the varying set we played every night. I think it's safe to assume that anyone coming to see us live now, is at least 90% familiar with our catalogue. Not all of it, as there is just so much of it. We do have a luxury that our fans are very loyal and dedicated, and even if they haven't been with us for the full 26 years, they're just so passionate about us they're educated on our past. We're very lucky in that regard.

No doubt! Now, something you said earlier about the goal not being of selling well, yet your music has to sell in order for AFI to keep going. This last album has sold over 30K units since its release earlier this year, which is pretty solid - not many bands in this scene do 30,000 on new albums. 

Oh, we were just so happy with that response, as we're so aware that people don't have music. So I really perceive our fans buying our music as casting a vote for our existence, and it's so kind for them to do that. As you pointed out, there has to be a commercial aspect, which has been decimated these days as a rock band today. Getting that reaction in 2017 for us was really fantastic.

I'm sure! Do you attribute that response to the fact that you guys are AFI - you'll always do well sales wise - or to the actual music on this new record, and how Jade [Pudget, guitar] stepped into the producer role?

 Well, I do think all of that helps, but I honestly think that it's down to great management. It's two parts - it's the loyalty, the passion and the support from our core fans that support us in a way that goes beyond most music fans. In addition, it's our management, their passion and their know-how of getting our music to people when it can be so difficult for that now. When you're talking about charts and numbers, that's marketing; that's the business aspect of the music. Often the reason a single is a single is not because it's necessarily good, but because the radios and the labels decide it's a single. That's how a lot of music reaches people, but music reaching people goes so far beyond radio and all the white noise. Everything is disposable and everything is fleeting. So yes, I chalk it up to the focus of our fans and our skilful management. I'm also thankful the fans enjoy what we created [laughs]. If they didn't, this just wouldn't work.

With a single-driven market, and while I don't think there's been this "death of the album", so to speak, albums have become more niche in some markets. Do you think that maybe albums need to be shorter or more concise or more?

There is still that culture of people who do want full albums, still. We come from a place of loving albums, and creating albums, and that's who we make music for. It's, as you said, become more niche. Commercially speaking, the industry has gone back to a single-based industry; single song after single song. We just create what we're happy with and it's so reaffirming to know that there are plenty of people who want that fuller experience of an album. Now, that's not to diminish a single or an EP, as they're quite viable now.

As far as our singles are concerned, 'Aurelia' wasn't a true single; 'Snow Cats' was the first proper single from the album. With 'Snow Cats' and 'White Offerings', they were simultaneous singles, which we hadn't done before as the label and the management felt they could push one to alt and one to active. 'Aurelia' wasn't a true single as I said, but our good friend Adam Mason wanted to create a visual for it, which we were thrilled with it as he's a great director. He's made some of my favourite videos too. But the third single, the hidden single is actually 'Hidden Knives'.

Oh, right! Man, singles can be a weird business, but thanks for the insight into that. We'll call it there, Davey, thank you so much for your time today. I hope that your time in England goes well and that that radio session goes smoothly!

No worries at all, thank you, Alex. We'll see you guys in September!


AFI's self-titled/"The Blood" album is out now, and you can purchase it right here, you cool cats. 

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