Despite others' descriptions of AFI, guitarist Jade Puget says his band is not goth.
"One of the things that bothers us," Puget said, "is that every time we read about our band, the name is always accompanied by the phrases: 'a goth punk band' or 'goth band.' The fact of the matter is, goth really isn't a style of music.
"We're a rock band, and that's all that we've ever tried to be. It isn't about how we dress or what our image is in the press. We just play rock music."
AFI is an acronym that has a lot of meanings, the most popular among fans is "A Fire Inside," the title of the band's 1998 extended-play recording.
The band released its seventh full-length album, "Decemberunderground," on June 6 — which was the date considered satanic in some quarters, 6-6-06. The thought of that makes Puget chuckle. "We're not an evil band. If there was any band that should've released an album on that date, it'd have to be Slayer. But I heard Slayer didn't get their album finished on time. But we did. And it was just because albums are released on Tuesday, and that was the Tuesday after our album was all done."
"Decemberunderground" reunited the band with producer Jerry Finn, who worked on its last album, "Sing for Sorrow." "We basically did the same thing with the new album as we did on the last, except with new songs. We just did what came natural and tweaked a bit in the studio.
"We wrote nearly 100 songs for the album and we ended up with 12. We recorded 15."
Armed with a new batch of songs, the band is currently on tour. Puget said touring is the easiest part of the job. "We know what we have to do. We are always busy and we get to play for audiences. It's getting off the road and being at home where we start going crazy."
In keeping with loving life on the road, Puget said having more songs to choose from to create a set list is easier than in the past. "I know some bands have a hard time choosing which songs to play. But with each album we have more songs that we like and more songs the fans like. So we have more to choose from. When we do shorter sets like we do on the Warped Tour, we can just choose our hits. But when we're headlining, we can put more of our favorites into the mix."
AFI formed in Ukiah, Calif. The band now consisting of Puget, drummer Adam Carson, vocalist Davey Havok and bassist Hunter Burgan made a name for itself playing underground clubs. Puget started playing guitar as a high school student when he was sick at home with mononucleosis.
"That's all we wanted to do," said Puget. "We wanted to write music, play music, make records and tour."
That's exactly what the band's doing now. And along came a bonus when "Decemberunderground" debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 Album chart. "I never thought that would happen. It's unbelievable to me right now. Maybe there is a chance we could win a Grammy someday. That would be cool."
If you go
What: AFI, Nightmare of You
Where: Utah State Fairpark
When: Thursday, 5:30 p.m.
How much: $19.50
Phone: 467-8499 or 800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
E-mail: scott@desnews.com