A Fire Inside

AFI (short for A Fire Inside) formed in 1991 when the members were attending high school in Ukiah, California. Adam Carson (drums) and Davey Havok (Vocals) first became friends after playing school soccer together. Adam used his brother's drum kit, Davey (a member of the school choir) exhibited talent as a singer even this early, and they were joined by guitarist Mark Stopholese. A Fire Inside made their first foray in recording with the EP "Dork" (1993), split with the band "Loose Change" featuring future AFI guitarist Jade Puget. Soon after, AFI broke up while its members moved to different colleges, including the University of California, Berkeley where Havok began a double major of English and Psychology and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Geoff Kresge moved to New York where he played with the band "Blanks 77". After reuniting to perform a very successful live show, the members decided to drop out of college and play in the band full-time. Between 1993 and 1995 they released many independently made vinyl EP's ("Behind the Times", "Eddie's Picnic All Wet", "This is Berkeley, Not West Bay", "AFI/Heckle", and "Fly in the Ointment"), and eventually released their debut full-length album Answer That and Stay Fashionable in 1995 on Wingnut Records, later re-released in 1997 on Nitro Records. Their second album, Very Proud of Ya, was released in 1996 by the Nitro Label, after which their bassist Geoff Kresge decided to leave the group for personal reasons. The bassist, Hunter Burgan (formerly of The Force) filled in for Kresge for the tour in support of Very Proud of Ya. He went on to help AFI record Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes and was subsequently invited to become the full time bassist.

After the recording of the A Fire Inside EP in 1998, Mark left the band to be replaced by guitarist Jade Puget, formerly of Redemption 87 and Loose Change, who was critical in forming the band's new sound over the following albums. Following on from the new approach they had taken on the aforementioned A Fire Inside EP (released on Adeline Records) the band recorded their Black Sails in the Sunset (Nitro 1999), a musical turning point. On this album, and the following All Hallow's EP (Nitro 1999), other EPs and the seminal The Art of Drowning album (Nitro 2000) their original hardcore roots were still quite apparent in their musical approach, but more 80s horror punk seemed to appear in the lyrics. Their latest album, Sing the Sorrow was released on the much larger DreamWorks label on March 11, 2003. However, many fans feel this album displays a different musical approach, which has lost some of the punk aggression in favour of a more dance orientated approach to writing. The fans spent some time trying to work out the meaning of the album, and even some aspects remain under question. The seventh AFI album is due out June 6th, 2006 and will be entitled Decemberunderground. Guests on the album include Nick 13, members of Throwdown, Day Of Contempt, Eighteen Visions and Bleeding Through, as well as some electronic programming from Ronan of VNV Nation, and vocals from fans. The new single Miss Murder premiered on KROQ on April 13th, 2006. Davey was also on the phone during the show. The full track list was announced on April 25th. The video for their song "Miss Murder" premiered on MTV's TRL on Monday, May 8, 2006.

Full Length Albums
Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995) on Wingnut Records
Very Proud of Ya (1996) on Nitro Records
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997) on Nitro Records
Black Sails in the Sunset (1999) on Nitro Records
The Art of Drowning (2000) on Nitro Records
Sing the Sorrow (2003) on DreamWorks Records [1]
Decemberunderground album due to be released June 6, 2006 in the US, and May 29, 2006 in the UK on Interscope Records
The Nitro Records and DreamWorks Records releases were all released in Cassette, 12" vinyl and CD formats.