inthemix | Features | Blaqk Audio: Have AFI invented emotronica?

There is little doubt that Davey Havok and Jade Puget are partners in crime; AFI’s dynamic duo have not only spent the last year and a half touring the world in support of AFI’s ‘Decemberunderground’ album, but have also been trying to flesh out the debut of their long-pending side project, Blaqk Audio.

Now, finally, after years of speculation whether this project will see the light of day, Blaqk Audio has surfaced showcasing a more industrial and alternate means to the fire inside. “I cannot begin to tell you how very different this is from AFI,” a softly spoken and friendly Davey Havok shares from his home in Oakland, California where he is enjoying a night off from Blaqk Audio’s current promotional tour. “Blaqk Audio is something I am very passionate about,” he says. “I have been such a fan of the [electronic] genre for so many years and the opportunity to do this with Jade [Puget], who in my opinion has programmed some of the most amazing songs I have ever heard. To sit down with those songs and write to them is so much fun for me,” he adds. “It’s not something I had to push for. It was so very natural.”

The debut, ‘CexCells’, dropped nationwide in August, and has been in the works since early 2000 — two years later, Havok and Puget told Rolling Stone that they were hoping to release the project in early 2004. When AFI broke into the mainstream with 2003’s ‘Sing the Sorrow’, Blaqk Audio took a back seat to the constant touring in support of the release. However, the project continued to evolve as AFI recorded 2006’s ‘Decemberunderground’. While on tour promoting the album that topped the American charts, Blaqk Audio was once set in motion, recording songs worldwide, synthesizers and laptop computers on the road enabled Puget to continue focus on what would eventually become ‘CexCells’.

“I am relieved, it’s really exciting for me, it’s really exciting for Jade and me, ‘CexCells’ is something that we wanted to complete for years and years,” Havok says. “I’m excited about how it turned out, and it’s exciting as it’s been a dream of ours to put out an electronic album for many years. It wasn’t until early 2000 where we decided to do this – we decided just to go for it… I had actually considered trying to sit down and program before jade came up to me and said ‘hey, let’s do this, I have been learning to program’ great, so of course then I wanted to learn to program, and within a week, Jade was a genius at it – which led us to the ability to create ‘CexCells’,” he explains.

It was early 2007 when Havok and Puget finally found time to focus fully on ‘Blaqk Audio’. With Havok taking control of the lyrics and vocals, Puget wrote all the music and synthesiser programming. “The album title, ‘CexCells’, ties together the whole record, it relates to fact sex sells in modern day society, and the record itself focuses a lot with differing sexual scenarios and also just goes to show that sexual culture have a place in this day and age,” he continues.

The outfit’s MySpace page best describes Havok and Puget as ‘two boys in love with synthesisers and software’, Not surprisingly, Blaqk Audio credit electronic-heavy influences that have not only been inspirational for the bands who not only inspired them as musicians, but the album directly. “Daft Punk, Depeche Mode and Front 242 are bands that Jade and I both adore – it’s because of them that our love for the genre exists,” Havok says. “Blaqk Audio is something that is a product of our influence, but at the same time, showcases our talents and demonstrates where we are at this point”

The sound won’t be totally unfamiliar to AFI fans as traces of electronic sounds have been displayed on the past three AFI releases. While Havok and Puget are without the instrumentation of the full band, the side project allows Puget to delve into diverse electronic beats, keyboards and synthesising, layered with Havok’s predictably dark lyrics and vocals. “I hope AFI fans take to the album – look at it this way, AFI fans are going to be more likely to take to this album more so than die-hard Nickleback fans, in saying that, it’s a more mature album,” the singer adds. “To be honest, I have no idea who will take to this album. I just want people to enjoy it.”

“There will defiantly be another AFI album, and at this point, another Blaqk Audio album. In five years’ time I would love to think there would be an album from both AFI and Blaqk Audio, but only time will tell. A Blaqk Audio show will be an experience, Just the two of us, Keyboards, mic stands and lights projected onto us,” Havok says. “It will be different for AFI fans. It will be very different for Jade in respect he doesn’t have a guitar in his hand, but for me it’s very much the same. Still, I hope I can share this experience with Australia”.

“Jade and I would love nothing more then to tour Australia with Blaqk Audio, but that depends how the album is received.”

‘CexCells’ is out now through Universal.