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BUTTONS HERE
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"Hardplace Interview"
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An interview with Jade Puget, guitarist with A Fire Inside, possibly the most exciting band I have ever seen live. We have got to give the love to Rancid-News.co.uk for hooking us up with the live shots to accompany the piece, go check out their site…it’s a keeper! Anyways, brown nosing over let’s get down to business…
HP: Regardless of whom you recorded it for, who was producing it and where it was made. Does the band think they have made an accurate document of their musical abilities at this point in their life?
J: Yeah, we’ve been around for a while…the band’s been around for 11 years, so really whatever label it came out on and whoever was producing we kinda know what we’re doing now as musicians. I don’t think those kind of extraneous things can affect to a fundamental degree what we are going to do…We definitely progressed on this album and its obviously nothing like any of the other albums, so as far as that I definitely think we accomplished the goal which is always to progress.
HP: Your single ‘Girls Not Grey’ I think is polarising people, some fans love it and some fans wish it had never even been made…
J: First of all, the one thing that is the same with every record is that people get always scared that something is gonna happen, that some crazy cataclysm is gonna happen with AFI’s music! When the album comes out they don’t know what’s happened, people freak out…I think it’s because they are really devoted to the music which is cool but any change has an effect on them. But it always ends up that given time, people listen and it becomes their favourite record. We’re not giving any words of reassurance because we made a record that we really think is our best work and it’s the best record we could have made, if people don’t like it then its up to them.
HP: Has there been that kind of response throughout the band’s career then, first Warped Tour slot people freak, first video on MTV…
J: Yeah totally, even the first record that AFI put out. There’s been people saying AFI have sold out for like 10 years, even when they were playing to 10 people they were selling out. There will always be detractors, there will always be people that don’t agree and think that you’re selling out. We have just completely ceased to worry about that as we do what we think is honest and true and that’s the antithesis of selling out. If we went back, got off Dreamworks, put out a record that was done with our own money and there was only 10 copies made and it was all super fast hardcore then there would be still be someone complaining about something…you just go out there and do the best you can and there is absolutely nothing more you can do!
HP: I have been asking bands recently about this whole selling out business, it’s fast becoming the most ridiculous term out there…do you think it’s a redundant term and should we retire it from use?
J: Its become such a ridiculous concept that is thrown around so easily, the people that use it don’t know what they are talking about and if you pushed them to explain what they actually meant by that term they wouldn’t know. And it’s usually kids whose first experience of punk is through MTV and that within itself, the fact that you were exposed to punk through the radio and through TV, should preclude you from using that term at all. You can sell out, there are bands that have made music specifically to be on the radio or on TV, that have tailored their sound to sell records and sold their music to car commercials for money. Selling out to me would be to change your music with the intention to make money, and I think bands have done that but at the same time the whole idea can get ridiculous.
HP: I bet people have the misconception that you guys couldn’t wait to leave the Indies for the big boys. Was it quite difficult to leave Nitro?
J: It was certainly a daunting thing and the reason we left was that Dexter himself told us we should make the move, we didn’t think we were going anywhere until Dexter came to us and told us that we needed to move on as Nitro could only do so much for us. It’s definitely scary of going from the relatively safe world of a small indie label where you know everybody there and you’re the biggest band there, to this whole unknown world of major label stuff. Luckily, we knew what we’re doing, we’re not stupid people, we’ve been at this a long time and the label knew that and Dreamworks has totally lived up to the faith that we have put in them not to screw us…cause that happens, we know bands that get screwed. We thought we could be one of those bands but so far it has worked out great.
HP: Have you set any goals that you now think are possible with Dreamworks behind you?
J: We have very simple goals in this band and that’s just to make a good record and a record that’s better than the others. The aim is always to get better and as far as the audience goes, you can’t decide who is listening and we would like as many people as possible to hear the record…I think any band would like that you know, I think our fans are very cool and happy for us as we have been doing this for a long time and they don’t begrudge us any kind of success and there is always gonna be people out there who think differently but we cant really concern ourselves with that as we want to keep true to what we are doing and you cant really ask more than that.
HP: To be honest, I agree, I think everyone is pleased as they now know that AFI are gonna get the recognition that they think you deserved. Out of curiosity, I wondered how did the new label deal actually emerge?
J: Well the guy that signed us, Luke Wood, he signed Elliot Smith and Jimmy Eat World. He came from the DC hardcore scene and he had been checking us out way before we ever got signed so he was cool and he was an instrumental part of us signing at Dreamworks as he was from the same scene that we were part of…he was in a band that got dropped from a major label so he knew what that was like. He listened to Minor Threat growing up and I think the label are just stoked, they had a lot of faith in us and I think that they think we made a great record. I’m glad that we didn’t come in and give them a piece of dogshit!!
HP: What was his band?
J: Sammy, a post hardcore band that got dropped from Geffen, so he knows all about the heartbreak! He was a publicist for Nirvana and Guns’n’Roses at Geffen too so he’s been on both sides of it.
We actually got offered an imprint too but we figured, I mean judging from the disparate styles of music we all listen to, Hunter will be listening to jazz, I’ll be listening to electronica, Adam will be listening to post indie-rock and so it would just be impossible for us to agree about a band to sign. It would have to be such a great band for us to come together and say this is the right band. I think the only band that we suggested for Luke to sign was Darker My Love…Jimmy Stardust (guitar player) from The Nerve Agents (hardcore punk band from the Bay Area) and Andy the drummer from The Distillers are in it together. Other than that there are so few good bands these days, especially from the Bay Area scene, that spawned Operation Ivy, Rancid and Green Day the scene that we came out of, these days there are few good bands.
HP: There’s too many labels, do you think it makes it too easy for a band…
J: Not only is there a lot of mediocrity out there and a lot of homogenisation, but there is a lack of imagination. Even now these new bands that are coming out sound too nu-metally for my liking. Its just getting repackaged, here is the emo nu-metal or here is the pop-punk nu-metal and they are just reselling it to give it another couple of months of life...flog the dead horse a bit more. It is true with all these labels that any band that can put a song together are all of a sudden on MTV and its ridiculous because then kids are forced to listen to it cos kids don’t know anything more than what’s there…if you live in the middle of America or the mid west, the only place you can go to find new music is MTV and the radio. Hopefully, looking at bands like Queens Of The Stone Age and Interpol that are coming up, the mainstream starting to gravitate towards these bands that are actually good rock bands or good alternative bands. That whole nu-metal paradigm is dying which is great to see.
HP: I do think the whole thing is a bit cosy though, all these bands arriving at the same time, being signed by different labels and being launched into a movement almost…but I think it happens in the listening to, people pigeonhole themselves into only liking one style of music and they stifle themselves as much as the labels that flood the shelves with soundalikes.
J: I think what’s unfortunate is that there is a lot of pressure within a scene to adhere to that kinda scene, and if you try and explore music outside of that you’re looked down upon and I think it’s important to have a wide musical scope, to appreciate hardcore then appreciate classical music and appreciate everything. But I think these kids feel uncomfortable cos if they’re in the hardcore scene they cant listen to Sigur Ros cause they will get a lot of shit but I think that’s a good idea…that’s great to really open yourself.
If you could turn on the radio and listen to The Faint, The Hot Hot Heat, Interpol and Sigur Ros and Queens Of The Stone Age that would be the biggest shot in the arm for music right now. If we were played on a perfect radio show I would like us to be sandwiched between Tool and The Smiths!
This interview was taken from www.hardplace.net.
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A Fire Inside (Nitro/Interscope) made up of Davey Havok, Jade Puget, Adam Carson and Hunter Burgan. We do not know them, don't ask.
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-QUOTE OF THE MONTH-
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"Just because I've had a few meaningless pattycake encounters does not make me a whore."
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