AFI all fire and brimstone

Rock band AFI play in Auckland on November 10.

They've been called gay, gothic and drug addicts - all of which Californian band AFI are not.

But the androgynous, and slightly anaemic-looking appearance of frontman Davey Havok and guitarist and songwriter Jade Puget, has a lot to do with people getting the wrong idea.

"There's a lot of different misconceptions ranging from what kind of music we play to our sexual orientation. You know?" laughs Puget. "Everybody's been saying we're gay for years and people have even said we died," he laughs again.

Along with Havok, Puget is straight-edge and says, "Three out of the four of us don't drink or do drugs - but Adam [Carson, drummer] takes care of the rest of it for us."

He believes the biggest fallacy is the type of music they play. Their sound is hard to define and the four albums since Puget joined in 1998 have all been different. But it's safe to say AFI - short for A Fire Inside - are a rock band with strong hardcore and punk rock roots.

"Because of our image, and especially because of Davey's image, our music gets shoved into one of these categories that doesn't really exist like goth punk. All people have to do is listen to one of our records or go to our show and decide for themselves what we're all about."

And the legions of New Zealand fans - many of whom probably belong to the band's fan club, the Despair Faction - can do just that when the band play Auckland's St James on November 10.

The beginnings of AFI go back to 1991 when Havok was in high school in Ukiah, California. Puget, also from the small Californian town, was friends with the band, but it wasn't until 1998 when the solid band lineup of today formed.

"They were just friends of mine who were in a band making music that I liked," says Puget. "It was a small town and there wasn't really much going on there. We skateboarded and listened to punk and not very many people did that and that meant we started punk bands - that was the genesis of the whole thing."

Now they are one of the biggest bands in America. AFI's inroads into the mainstream started with the release of 2003's powerful Sing the Sorrow. When Decemberunderground came out earlier this year they cracked it, debuting at number one on the US album charts and entering the top 20 in New Zealand.

"We didn't even have those expectations because we were just excited that we'd finally finished it after so long and that it was finally coming out.

"I don't have any problem with the mainstream because we never compromised to be there. We never did anything consciously to allow ourselves to go there and it was more of a case of the mainstream coming to us."

The new album gained them new fans thanks to songs like The Missing Frame and Love Like Winter which have a wider appeal. But AFI's music is also experimental. "We spent a lot of time in this band writing fast and aggressive songs, with screaming and yelling, when really that's an easy thing to do. What is more challenging is to write a hooky melody. That's one of the most difficult things in music and that's why we've evolved more towards melody and songs like Love Like Winter." Plus, his favourite bands - like the Dillinger Escape Plan who AFI toured with recently - are the ones who push the boundaries.

"With each record we try to change our horizons a little bit and expand creatively so that's always going to have the potential to appeal to different people than your last record.

"But I have a pretty strong conviction that when you start trying to write a 'hit', that's the downfall of a band because once you taint your music by trying to do that, you can never go back."

LOWDOWN

Who: AFI

From: Ukiah, California

Line up: Davey Havok (vocals); Jade Puget (guitar); Hunter Burgan (bass); Adam Carson (drums)

Essential albums: The Art Of Drowning (2000), Sing the Sorrow (2003), Decemberunderground (2006)

Playing: St James, Auckland, November 10