Photo Credit: Marisa Rose Ficara
After American rock band AFI announced a new ablum for January 2017, they’ve dropped a few gems for their fans to enjoy in the meantime. On Jan. 20 will release their tenth studio album called AFI (The Blood Album), and they dropped another single from the upcoming LP called “Aurelia,” the third track unveiled to us this far. The song has gotten over 5,000 views on YouTube so far since being posted four days ago. Click to check the song out yourself.
The release of their album will mark the beginning of a 24-date tour called The Blood Tour, beginning at the Troubadour in Los Angeles CA. AFI will then travel all over the United States, Toronto, then eventually make their way back to the Golden State in sunny San Diego, CA at the Observatory North Park. Make sure to snag your tickets and check below for a complete list of dates.
AFI (The Blood Album) will be following their 2013 album Burials which debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200 list and sold 25,000 copies in the first week. The new album undoubtedly has some big shoes to fill, but band members are feeling positive about what they’ve created.
“It was a major evolution for me to step up into a producer role on this album, something that’s been germinating for a while,” said the band’s guitarist Jade Puget. “It’s daunting to spend a year grinding it out in the writing room with Davey and then turn around and produce what you’ve just written, but it was liberating in an artistic sense to guide the album from gestation to final product.”
It will be the first time collaborating with Matt Hyde of the Deftones who co-produced the album alongside Puget. Puget noted “Matt and I gelled really well and our approaches on recording dovetailed. He’s a great producer and was open to doing things differently than he normally would with no ego. For instance, I engineered, tracked, and produced all the vocals with just Davey and I in the room while we were tracking drums, which is an odd but very efficient way to make a record, and he was totally open to that. He was a great co-producer.”
Lead vocalist Davey Havok gave some insight on how they struggled with narrowing down only a select group of songs from their massive collection of music. Havok said, “The process of cutting down approximately 60 songs to fourteen is difficult. But when we create, we do so with an honesty and a hope to satisfy our artistic needs. We were raised on albums, which had far greater impact on us than singles alone.”
UPDATE (3/10): AFI have added a second leg of their summer tour. See dates below.
The Blood Tour Winter 2017
Buy tickets on Ticketmaster | Buy tickets on Ticketfly
01/20 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
01/21 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
01/23 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
01/24 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
01/25 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
01/27 – Salt Lake City – The Depot
01/28 – Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre
01/30 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
01/31 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theater
02/01 – Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall
02/03 – New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
02/04 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
02/06 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
02/07 – Washington DC – 9:30 Club
02/08 – Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live
02/10 – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Live
02/11 – Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre
02/13 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
02/14 – Austin, TX – Emo’s
02/15 – Dallas, TX – South Side Music Hall
02/17 – Tempe, AZ – The Marquee
02/18 – Las Vegas, NV – The Joint
02/20 – San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park
02/21 – San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park
04/08 – Santa Ana, CA – When We Were Young Fest
05/05 – London, UK – Alexandra Palace w/ Deftones
05/06 – Manchester, UK – O2 Apollo w/Deftones
05/07 – Glasgow, UK – SECC w/Deftones
06/02 – Richmond, VA – The National
06/03 – Pittsburgh, PA – The Stage AE
06/02-06/04 – Cincinnati, OH – Bunbury Music Festival
06/06 – Norfolk, VA – The Norva
06/07 – Hartford, CT – Webster Theater
06/10 – Derby, UK – Download Festival
06/15-18 – Dover, NE – Firefly Music Festival
06/17 – Providence, RI – Lupos Heartbreak Hotel
06/18 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
06/20 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
06/21 – Portland, ME – Aura
06/22-06/25 – Montebello, Canada – Amnesia Rockfest