Interview with A.F.I.’s Jade Puget
Words: Michael Rabinowitz
Photos: James Minchin

As lead guitarist for A.F.I., Jade Puget joined A.F.I. in 1998 after knowing the original members for years from their Ukiah, CA hometown.  A.F.I.’s steerage from screamo roots toward their current dance/goth/glam incarnation has a lot to do with Puget.  Sporting tattooed quotes of his idols Ian Curtis (“Love Will Tear Us Apart”) and Robert Smith (“Boys Don’t Cry”) along with his worship of electro punk act Refused explain success of their latest album, Decemberunderground (certified platinum) and A.F.I.’s huge mainstream embrace.  And, thanks to MTV, Jade is as recognizable as the band’s pansexual vocalist, Davey Havok.  However, their current mainstream popularity is unmatched to the passion of A.F.I.’s fan club, The Despair Faction, whose adulation approaches acolyte proportions.   The Tampa Bay area definitely caught this fervor forcing the band to add a second date after selling out their January 31st show at Jannus.  Appropriately on David Bowie’s birthday, Jade explained to REAX the allure of Ziggy Stardust, acceptance of A.F.I. by the masses, and the power of Davey Havok’s sexuality.

REAX:   You delivered an excellent acoustical cover of “Ziggy Stardust” on AOL.  Why is Bowie such an influence for the band?
Jade Puget:  Bowie was one of the first big stars to reinvent himself constantly with each record.  He went through so many phases aesthetically and musically.  We’ve always done that, not emulating Bowie, but in a similar fashion in our way, with each record kind of changing.  Besides the fact he is a great songwriter.  I think that we appreciate him on both of those levels.

REAX:   Would you ever put out an all electronic album, like Bowie going to Berlin and making “Low”?
JP:  On our last two records there was quite a bit of electronic stuff.  Davey and I are making an electronic record right now.  The band is called Black Audio.  That will probably get a lot out that of our system.  Maybe our next record will go away from that side?  Because we have been going toward that side for the last couple of records.  I don’t know.  I have no idea how it’s going to go.  The electronic stuff is always cool to me.  That’s probably one of my main hobbies, programming.  So, there will always be a little bit of that element in there.

REAX:   When I hear songs like “Kill Caustic,” I observe a complete sincerity.  You can’t fake those lyrics.  How much does the ability to perform a song with total sincerity play into your writing process?
JP:  I know that Davey has always been, when it comes to lyrics, intensely personal.  He would never write a lyric that he thought, “Oh, this lyric will be catchy and any random person can identify with it so it will be a hook.”  Everything he writes he has to believe.  He writes all of the lyrics because he won’t sing other people’s words.  I mean we can do covers because that’s a different thing.  But, if someone were to write lyrics to an A.F.I. song, he wouldn’t do it.  He has to believe what he is doing up there.

REAX:   Your lyrics depict sometimes hopeless, lost emotions.  Yet, you lead a seemingly healthy, sound, adored existence. How do you mine these dark emotions?
JP:  I think as a band, I write the music and Davey writes the lyrics, when both of us come together it’s the darker side of music and darker side of emotions that has always attracted us.  That’s what we are drawn to.  That’s why the band, we’ve never been really happy fun music.  Because it is dark doesn’t mean its negative necessarily.  People take a lot of positive aspects out of our music.  Fans come to us all the time and say how much our music has helped them.  It’s nice that we can do something that’s dark but not necessarily depressing.  Songs that are darkly emotional are the ones that affected me the most since I started listening to music.

REAX:   But you also present an outsider image that attracts people.  Did you grow up as an outsider and that translates into your music?
JP:  That’s why we got into this kind of music.  Growing up in a small town in the ‘80’s, we all gravitated toward punk rock music and skateboarding.  Things at the time that were really oppositional, like tattoos.  A lot of that stuff has been co-opted now but we still have the same spirit.  We don’t want really want to belong.  And, you may look at us and say, “You are all over the TV and you are in the mainstream.”  But, we never really tailored what we did to be in the mainstream.  The mainstream kind of came to us.  In that way, I still think of us as outsiders.  I don’t really identify with most music out there, even if our videos played along side it. 

REAX:   I’ve never seen an artist since Morrissey play coy with their sexuality like Davey does.  How does that play into your music, considering a lot of your lyrics are based on being an outsider, a la Morrissey?
JP:  I know that Davey gets a kick out of that.  And that’s something that Bowie always did.  Although, I think that Bowie actually did experiment with both sides (laughs).  That comes out of a lot of the stuff that he grew up listening to.   Even with bands like Bauhaus, there has always been this androgynous quality.  He does think it’s funny that so many people think he’s gay.  He never really comes out and denies it because it is kind of funny to see people getting so caught up in that.  I don’t know if anybody likes us as band because of that.  It shouldn’t be about that.  It should never be about sexuality. 


REAX:   Music is in general heading toward a progressive, larger than life sound, including A.F.I.  Why do you think so? 
JP:  Every act probably has different motivations.  For us, we’ve always been a restless band.  We didn’t want to redo what we’ve done in the past.  A lot of people say, “Oh, I don’t want to make the same record twice.”  When we sit down, we can’t make the same record twice.  When we were making Decemberunderground, I wrote a couple of songs that were this old A.F.I. style, kind of fast.  We sat down to plan it and it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t exciting. And, even they were fast, energetic, and aggressive they still weren’t exciting because we’ve been here before.  All the other elements, the glam elements and that kind of stuff, were never planned.  We didn’t sit down and say “Ok, we have to be different on this record.  We haven’t done this thing, so lets put a little of that there.”  A lot of it comes from Davey’s personal style.  We were saddled with this goth/punk moniker for a long time even though our music wasn’t goth and it wasn’t really punk either.  A lot of what people think of us is based on our image.  There is a little of a glam element but I think a lot of that comes from how Dave looks. 

REAX:   Is there anything your listening to now that could be used as influence for your music in the future?
JP:  There is no one more curious than me about what our next album will sound like.  I have noooo idea what it’s going to sound like.  I started writing a little bit.  Davey and I have Black Audio.  It’s going to be really interesting to see where it goes.   You know, as far as music is concerned I haven’t been listening to anything that’s excited me.  I’ve started going back to the old stuff . . . with older bands.  Because, nothing new has come out that inspires me, lately. 

REAX:   What older bands are you listening to?
JP:  I busted out my old Refused collection.  That was one of my top favorite bands of all time.  A lot of songs that I’ve written have been at least somewhat influenced by that band.  They are just a little hardcore band from Sweden.  I’m getting back into that, a little more aggressive stuff.  I’ve been listening to some Bowie, some Cure, some Smiths.  And all the stuff that never gets old.

REAX:   Joy Division was certainly curious about propaganda and the effect a singular entity has on a large group.  The “Miss Murder” video definitely explores this phenomenon and certainly The Despair Faction is as you define it “is more than a fan club per se.” Is the power of propaganda something the group discusses when writing songs or presenting its image?
JP:  No.  Because propaganda . . . that would mean something where you are almost trying to, you know, fool people into liking you.  Cause propaganda isn’t always necessarily sincere.  And, if there is always one thing we’ve tried to be is sincere.  Our fans, like in the “Miss Murder” video, and our fans in general are deeply committed to us and we are committed to them.  It may look like a rally but really these people identify with our music and we like to think that its not because they see us on MTV or hear on the radio.  It’s actually the music and not the image that they are there for.