A Conversation with Jade Puget of A Fire Inside (AFI)

This is the original transcript of the interview, only minor editing has been applied for readability. This has been the basis for articles but has never been published in the original form.

Wortraub: This is your seventh album, in terms of commercial recognition though it is the second album. How do you feel about that?
Jade: Great, I mean, a lot of people think this is our sophomore record because the last one was our real first mainstream record. But hopefully we can avoid the sophomore record mistakes.

Wortraub: Because you are more experienced than that?
Jade: You know, a lot of people when they come out with their first successful record, the next one kind of makes it hard.

Wortraub: After you switched from Nitro to the major label, you started a sound transformation. Less hardcore, less punk. More melody. How did that change come about?
Jade: I think the main change still happened on the last album on Nitro. That was probably the hardest, most aggressive AFI album. But over the course of the record and the following writing process, we kind of started writing so many fast songs and as songwriters started branching out, explore new areas. I think, most bands as they go, they go to a more melodic side.

Wortraub: So the change in songwriting has progressed the music?
Jade: I mean, if you want to have your sound progress and branch out, you usually don’t go backwards into a more simple structure, but you go forward into a more complex and melodious one.

Wortraub: But it has side-effects, like availability for the audience. Is that part of the conscious effort?
Jade: No, if you are trying to write a hit song, or a radio single, that is just the wrong road to travel down. That kind of stuff is transparent, if a band was trying to do that, to me at least, it is always obvious, that the band is trying to write a pop song, a hit single. I don’t think that is the way to go.

Wortraub: So you are staying true to yourself ?
Jade: That is what we have always done. We are not trying to be anything but ourselves.

Wortraub: How would you introduce yourself then?
Jade: We have actually been to Germany several times. As far as the introduction goes, you always want your newest record to be the introduction. That is how we sound at this point of time. So if we are going over to Germany, this is what we want to be. But we are of course proud of all the records we have done.

Wortraub: Part of my job is placing tags to bands. How would you label yourself? What fits best?
Jade: I don’t know, I’ve always like the tag post-hardcore. I don’t know if it actually applies to us, but the other ones don’t fit either. Punk-rock, there are definitely elements of it in our music and we come from that background but it is still not applicable. We have actually gotten stuck with some very unfortunate tags like goth-rock and goth-punk, like things that don’t really exist. I think, titles like that were made up based on the way our singer looks, not based on our music. It is hard for us, I can’t really think of a catchy one-word-description or tag. I wish somebody would come up with it though.

Wortraub: The best answer I got so far was from 36 Crazyfists, who said they were Alaskan Romance Core?
Jade: There you go. That is interesting. If you hear something like that, you go: „Hm? I want to hear that?“. ? How about Dark Wave? Oh, that is taken, right? I just thought I made that up ? I’ll keep working at it. I can’t just use Wave, right? Because that is eighties, right? How about post-hardcore black wave? Ok, that is the first time it has ever been used.

Wortraub: Ok, we covered the music, let’s turn to lyrics then. Is there a constant thread through the album?
Jade: Dave is usually pretty guarded about the meaning of his lyrics. He keeps it hollow on purpose, there is probably no thread to be found.

Wortraub: Is there a concept to the album, then?
Jade: Yeah, all of his lyrics are personal. He does not explain any literal meaning to the lyrics. He leaves that open to interpretation in order to reel in what others think about the lyrics. I mean, the hardcore fans are really into that, they want to get their own ideas in the lyrics. Dave gets letters all the time of fans writing about how they were wanting to kill themselves, but that our music is one thing that is keeping them around. That is pretty heavy.

Wortraub: That is quite a bit of pressure ?
Jade: To say the least, yeah. Definitely an ongoing theme of how the lyrics are affected. Dave has actually written songs dealing with that responsibility. A great weight put on him, but at the same time if it is helping people to not end their life, how can you shy away from that and shirk that responsibility.

Wortraub: Being tagged as goth that seems to show for some dark elements ?
Jade: Yeah, the lyrics come from a more dark and melancholy place, not necessarily gothic, but coming from that darker side. People that are sad or depressed just tend to gravitate to that kind of lyrics.

Wortraub: How would you describe the changes from the last album to this one?
Jade: We were a little more driven. We wanted to surpass our success with the last album, artistically and commercially. But at the same time, for the first time we did not care about what people were gonna think of it. If the songs were too pop, or too this or that. We just wanted to do a record that was good. If the people did not like it, so be it. We are not gonna write a song for the radio, we are not try to write a song to get accepted. Any of that.

Wortraub: But with „Miss Murder“ you did write a song for the radio ?
Jade: Well, for sure. But it was definitely not intentioned to be that way. It is just a happy by-product of the writing process.

Wortraub: Well, thank you for the interview.