Davey Havok of Blaqk Audio

It’s electronica so he could do that. I mean he would sit on his laptop and he would write audio tracks. I can’t write on the road. I have a hard time writing.

Yeah, so much going on and usually my voice is not in a condition where I feel comfortable writing. So what we would do is, any downtime that we had at home was spent with Jade at his house programming songs and then sending me files of things that he had completed, and me writing the melodies and lyrics over that. When we had completed enough songs that we felt we could go into the studio, we then converged in Los Angeles and then tracked the vocals over the music and Dave Bascombe mixed it and we had CexCells.

[Laughs] We had sex. Dave and I had sex. It was part of the deal.

Yeah, that’s how it goes sometimes.

Well, [as for] studio time, once we got there we were simply tracking vocals. It was one of the quickest vocal tracking experiences I’ve had since the days of not caring, I should say.

To some extent. Recording an AFI album vocally is a much more daunting task than the Blaqk Audio.

Yeah, you know, I wrote this record in my range, this time [laughs].

Which made it a joy to perform so I think it was actually eight days total of vocal tracking at most, and that includes backing vocals. So really, I was doing like four leads a day which was good for me. As far as tracking goes, it’s just a song-by-song basis for me. No matter what I’m doing I have exactly what I want to do planned out ahead before I go to the studio. It’s just a matter of executing that.

Yeah, we’ve never -- believe me we’ve never worked that way.

It’s very early for both of us. For me some of the earliest assets that I purchased were synth-based bands. I think within the first five, if not the first three, were Duran Duran self-titled and Devo, Freedom of Choice. You know, that began it right there. At a young age the synth pop really appealed to me.

Yeah. That’s fantastic! And look, our definitive moments both began with Duran Duran.

That’s fantastic. For me it started back then and I fell off a little bit but only briefly when I started getting into rock music but then hard core and punk rock led me to do industrial, so when I discovered Ministry and Skinny Puppy and stuff like that at a really early age. That brought me back and then through that scene I was introduced to the Lords of Acid which actually really opened my doors to a lot of different electronica because they were dark and they were Euro sounding and from there on it went everywhere.

Oh yeah, it was definitely independent of AFI. It was a matter of Jade and I talking and saying we really wanted to do something electronic and dance-y, you know, based in the different genres of music but doing something very vocal oriented at the same time and very vocal structured, which there’s not a lot of within the electronic scene. Most electronic music isn’t focused on music. And if it is, there isn’t much dynamic to that vocal and there’s less traditional structure to the song. So we wanted to do something combining those elements.

Well, it’s actually just what I said -- most of the music out there really lacks a focus on vocals and both Jade and I really enjoy strong melodies and strong hooks and so we wanted to combine that element with the electronic dance element that already exists. Again, that structure, even if there are vocals, the dynamic sometimes isn’t there and the structure sometimes isn’t there. So that was our idea.

Thrilled. Yeah, I’m so, so proud of it. I’m just so happy with it. I hope people like it but if they don’t it’s okay because I really love it.

Oh, well, the music clearly. Lyrically it’s entirely different from anything I’ve touched on lyrically with AFI. Visually it’s different. It’s got a different aesthetic stage wise -- when we play there will be two of us instead of four of us. There will be no rock.

We’re not going to. We’re going to have DJs open for us.

Yeah, we want it to have sort of a dance party vibe. In fact, the initial intent was to play dance parties around the country but somehow that just couldn’t be put together. So we’re playing one dance party and that’s in San Francisco, California and the rest are in traditional venues.

Oh yeah, not those dance parties [laughs]. The ones that end at four [in the morning], the ones that start at two.

Oh yeah.

It’s really fun. It’s amazing, I mean, the talent that goes into stage performance and writing a musical and performing a musical and singing and dancing at the same time and emoting and acting in this extremely over the top, dramatic way and yet still having a poignancy to it is something that really goes unparalleled when talking about musical theater. So it always appealed to me in that respect. The show tunes typically are great hook-y pieces of work and the characters involved in it and the otherworldliness of it, it all appealed to me. It made an impression on me when I was very young. As a five, six-year-old boy everything made an impression on me. It all appealed to me. I started doing musical theater when I was very young -- I think it was fourth grade. I would still, someday, like to do it again. I mean I started singing on stage in musical theater and certainly that began my career of being comfortable performing in front of an audience. I learned to sing for that arena, so, yeah, I can project.

Yeah, I’m sure it gave me a lot. It’s nothing that I’ve ever really focused on or thought about but I’m sure the musical theater foundation along with the alternative theme foundation led me to where I am now.

I wouldn’t call it theatrics, no, I don’t think so. I think visuals will be. Visuals and moods but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it theatrics.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly, no dancing girls or anything like that.

[Laughs] No, no, not on our stage. You know, perhaps somewhere in the room.

Relative to that? Well, I guess. I mean, most of the record is about sex.

Yeah, weird, couldn’t have guessed it [laughs]. Actually that perception of good or evil and right or wrong ties into a lot of --

A lot of sex, exactly, a lot of the different vignettes and viewpoints.

There you go, that’s it. And you can see it in the little vignettes and the little sexual perspectives that are represented within each of the songs on the record. Some songs aren’t about sex. The majority are.

Yeah.

Well, I think because most parents want a stable, happy life for their children and they are aware that the chance of having that while pursuing exclusively a career in entertainment, be it rock and roll, be it another form of music, be it dancing, be it acting, is very unlikely and it’s actually the truth. It’s very unlikely. So I think the hesitancy of supporting that stems from that basic desire for your children’s fulfillment. That’s it, at least for the most part. Then that’s at least what it was for my parents. It wasn’t so much, “You can’t be a rocker.”

Oh yeah, they don’t want to see them disappointed.

Right.

Yeah, and you know, there’s a lot of crying in Hollywood.

She never really disliked the band. My parents were both very supportive. Once she realized music was going to be what I do for the rest of my life, long before I had any sort of success at it, she resigned herself to it. You know, it was like, “Okay, this is what you want, I’m going to support you and wish you the best of luck.” And she, much like my self, prefers what I’ve done recently compared to the beginnings of what I did. She and I are in agreement on that.

Well, Blaqk Audio will finish this promotional tour and rehearse and we’ll go on an actual tour where we perform and once we’re done with the Black Audio record we’ll begin working on an AFI record.

No.

I’d like some. It would be nice, yes, sit in the hot tub…


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