We started in the Summer of ‘91 in Ukiah, CA. My friend Mark,Vick and myself wanted to start a hardcore/punk band. I said that I can sing, Mark said that he can play guitar, and Vick could play bass. We had one problem, who was going to play drums?? Mark said that his friend Adam can play drums, and this is when AFI formed.
Then Vick was no longer in the band after 8 months, and we got Geoff to play bass. We had Geoff and we played for a while, and then we put out a split 7 inch with another Ukiah band called Loose Change. Then we put out a EP called Behind the Times, and then basically we played some show’s around here and at a place called the Phoenix Theatre. Nobody really cared for us though. Then Mark, Adam, and myself graduated from High School, and then the band broke up. I moved to Berkeley to go to College at Berkeley, Adam went to Santa Cruz, Mark went down to Southern California. Geoff went to New Jersey to join the Blanks 77.
So that happened and we were broken up. Then on December 22, while everyone was home for Christmas break, and we did a reunion show at the Phoenix Theatre. We had such a great time that we determined that we must get the band back together. People came up to us and told us that we should get back together. Before that show nobody gave a fuck about us, and after that show people kept telling us that we were great. So we got back together, and everyone knew what they needed to get to the bay area. Which was bascially quit school, and worry about it later.
Everyone quit school and we just decided to do the band full time. We recorded a live 7″ called Eddie Pinic’s All Wet, which was from the reunion show at the Phoenix Theatre. We recorded a 7″ called Fly in the Ointment and we put it out on Wedge Records. We did our first tour with the Swingin Utters in 94, and that was great!! We did our second show with them also. We have been recording and touring ever since.
Geoff has officially left the band, his last Bay Area appearance was at Slim’s on March 25, and his last show ever was in New York City at the conclusion of the recent tour with Sick Of It All. After AFI’s recent U.S Tour, Hunter joined the band, as the new full time bassist. They then released the new disc called Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes on Nitro Records. AFI parted ways with old guitarist Mark during the fall of 98, and now have a new guitarist, Jade, who used to be in a old school hardcore band called Redemption 87. They have now realeased their new full length entitled Black Sails in the Sunset on Nitro Records.