I have noticed that a number of AFI fans are vegan/vegetarian and/or straight-edge like various members of the band so I wondered if being a fan of AFI has had an impact on your lifestyle at all?
I am certainly more aware of veganism and more inclined to try vegan foods and recipes since I got into the band.
I had never heard of straight-edge before I got into AFI and although I am not SxE (I do drink occasionally), I can relate to it and think it’s a positive thing.
How about you?
I’m vegan and straight edge. I kind of have to be vegan, though, because of how sick most food makes me, and I never liked real leather/fur.
I definitely got more into straight edge when I saw Davey and Jade are, but I knew about it before them. But they were definitely an influence on both choices. Davey also made it seem okay to be into the scene and still be really into healthy lifestyle choices, so that definitely helped me be okay with my love of working out and eating healthy.
The lifestyle choices of the band members have not done much for me. I respect them and their choices, but I like what I like, as it were. I do try to be conservative and conscious of what how o do affects others, but I am not driven to the straight edge or vegan lifestyle, as far as that goes.
What I will say is that AFI has greatly influenced me in art. I’m a visual artist, so I draw, paint, sculpt, etc. Without afi, I strongly believe I may have just… stopped. Years ago. I had no encouragement from family and a lot of negative outside factors.
But I always listened to their music and thought how beautiful it was, and how deeply it touched me. And hoped I could somehow do that for someone with my own art. And the mental imagery from their music also inspired a lot in me, in addition to crafting neat little whatevers based on their official artwork.
They really gave me something to lean on and draw from when it was hard to create. They still do.
I’m not a vegan, vegetarian but I suppose I could be considered straight-edge since I do not drink nor do I do any drugs.
However, Davey has been a role model for me since '00 when I first got into AFI. I’ve tried to mimic his looks (hair) multiple times and am currently growing out the front of my hair again to see if I can still pull it off.
But yeah, AFI definitely changed my life. I consider myself a life AFI fan, hence the wording in this intro video I made, “I Am AFI.”
@SacrificeTheory It’s cool that they’ve influenced you in a different way. Your post made me smile- it’s wonderful to know that their art and music encouraged you.
@STORMS I admire your dedication to this band! Do you follow his current looks or do you like to try past hair-eras?
I love his Black Sails/AOD era look where it’s just long in the front.
If only I had photos of myself from like 2004, 2005… I even used a hair straightener.
It’s not that long anymore now but I’m growing it out again. I’m also not dying it black again because that will get expensive.
OMG, FIND PHOTOS! LOL.
I am going to admit that my decision to grow my hair to my ass in middle/high school was inspired by Davey Havok (it was either that or do the Jade fringe thing, but I was so not cool enough to pull that off). This started a decade or so of being compared to poor Mr. Havok. He also totally influenced my style since then. Lots of black, bold accessories, and skin tight pants. It’s a problem.
Hmm…I don’t think AFI has influenced any actual lifestyle choices for me, per se. I had already made the decision to begin cutting meat out of my diet as young as 10, when I found out how ground beef is made. shudders It was before I really knew about AFI, and before I knew they were vegetarian/vegan.
Drugs never appealed to me. I just don’t see the point. They just make stupid people act stupider, and I have zero tolerance for obnoxious behavior. I’m not edge, because I drink sometimes, but I don’t get trashed. I really don’t see the point in that, either. I did it one time in college, I woke up so hung over I honestly thought I was dying lol.
However, I guess you could say they’ve influenced me in certain ways, not that I’ve changed because of them, but ever since I was maybe 14 I started feeling brave enough to try to be who I am, not what other people wanted me to be. My parents were so ultra strict, they always had this preconceived idea in their mind about who I am, and when I turned out to be someone so very different from what they wanted, they didn’t take it well at all, and I was always forced into things I didn’t want to do or be.
Davey was an enormous part of this. I really was in awe of how he portrayed himself so confidently while wearing makeup and with some of his more delicate, graceful mannerisms, not just at shows, but in all the interviews I’d seen of him. I identify as genderqueer, and it was so helpful to me to see someone like him really fuck with binary gender expression, he was very much someone I looked up to in that respect. I really began to discover my own personality at this time as well. I had always just done whatever my parents wanted, I was the good rule-abiding Catholic schoolkid (a cultural background I was actually quite delighted to find I share with Davey; I’m Italian-American as well). I really began to rebel against them and the way they had treated me from a young age. I began dressing how I wanted, cut all my hair off, pierced my nose. My father especially couldn’t stand it.
I don’t think Davey ever influenced my own ideological beliefs. They were already there after my experiences with people. But he did really help me articulate my beliefs. I remember watching interviews with him talking about how disrespectful and selfish people are, and how society has become such a disgusting place, and it was like he’d taken the words from my mouth. I relate to Smile so much. I hate humanity as well. I can’t stand people in general, I really just want to be left alone. The older I get, the more I observe people’s totally self-obsessed narcissistic behaviors, the more that people I thought I could trust turn and betray at the drop of hat and use my trust as a weapon against me, the more I want to dwell in self-imposed isolation.
And also, man this band has gotten me to love music in a way I never had before. I always enjoyed music from a very young age, but after I discovered AFI I began looking up older bands, obscure bands, hundreds of them. I love music so much. I’ve been trying to learn to play guitar, but I have a shoulder injury that has put a stop to that since January, sadly. I really want to play, I find it like a compulsion sometimes, but it hurts my shoulder badly. I’m so afraid I won’t be able to play permanently. 
He also totally influenced my style since then. Lots of black, bold accessories, and skin tight pants.
Right on! I think maybe 90% of my clothes are black. The ones that aren’t black are grey/dark blue/crimson. Lots of silver a pewter jewelry too.
Haha, I literally have a gradient from black to grey to white in my closet. It’s a serious problem. Ask me how this works in the summer.
And I am so sorry about your shoulder. I remember when I had to stop playing soccer- which was my life- when I hurt my shoulder and had to stop playing contact sports. It’s devastating. Do some slow exercises in your apartment with it, slowly building the muscle again. There’s a ton of info on Google on how to slowly move the shoulder and get it back to decent shape. I know going to see doctors is rough because of various reasons, so I guess the next best thing is to slowly try and get it back into shape. In the last two years, I have finally been able to get back to doing a lot of what I was able to do back in high school; it took a while to get to that point, but after a lot of slow therapy and at home exercises, I did get all the mobility back with little pain. Good luck with it! [quote=“Vanished, post:8, topic:316”]
I remember watching interviews with him talking about how disrespectful and selfish people are, and how society has become such a disgusting place, and it was like he’d taken the words from my mouth. I relate to Smile so much. I hate humanity as well. I can’t stand people in general, I really just want to be left alone.
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And, yeah, I was already feeling this before I discovered AFI; I read all of Salinger by 9 and decided that everything sucked, the world sucked, and could I please just live on my own, mom. LOL. But, seriously, I feel this on a personal level. At least there’s someone who can articulate our disdain for humanity better than we can. Haha.
@STORMS Yeah, his early AoD look is my favourite too 
[quote=“Vanished, post:8, topic:316”] it was so helpful to me to see someone like him really fuck with binary gender expression
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I definitely admire Davey for being brave enough to dress and look how he wants, especially when he did look more feminine. I think Placebo did more for opening my eyes to different types and expressions of sexuality but AFI did play a part. I remember at school having having a notebook covered in pictures of my favourite musicians (nearly all of which I had crushes on) and a teacher asking me who all the women on my book were. I then had to tell him they were all men! Naturally, Davey, in his DU era was on there.
Yeah I don’t know, I really need to see an orthopedist or a physical therapist but my insurance only covers ER and inpatient hospital treatment. I can afford to see a chiropractor, which helps minimally, but I suppose it’s better than nothing. I had some x-rays done and there’s nothing physiologically wrong with the shoulder joint, like it’s not becoming partially dislocated or anything when I move it. I have some mild/moderate scoliosis, I don’t know if that’s a contributing factor. There’s no muscular atrophy either - that shoulder and arm is actually bigger than the other, because it’s my dominant arm. I started doing yoga because I read it’s supposed to help with chronic pain, and anything that stretches my chest and the front of the shoulder joint helps, so that leads me to believe the problem is actually in a tendon or a ligament or something. It just really sucks. Even on days when it feels a little better, I’m afraid to try to play my guitar because I don’t want to make it lock up again. I’m honestly sort of afraid I’m eventually going to have to have shoulder surgery or something…
Lol. I always just thought Davey was totally badass. Especially in his stage presence and the way he performed back in the Drowning/Sing the Sorrow days. He always seemed like someone who wouldn’t take any shit from anyone. Like “yeah, I wear lipstick and lace and I manicure my nails and sometimes I sing in a falsetto , but I’ll still kick your ass”. 