Sexy Vegan AFI Bassist Talks New Album and Twitter and MC Hammer

Feb 22, 2009 Author: admin | Filed under: Celebrity News

Last week, Hunter Burgan, bassist for Cali goth-pop foursome AFI, took home Top Music Twitter honors for his site Tranquil Mammoth at the 2009 Shorty Awards in Brooklyn, NY. We caught up with him earlier today to find out what it feels like to be a Twitter champion and how the new AFI album is coming along.

BLENDER: Congrats on your Shorty Award! What makes Tranquil Mammoth the best Music Twitter?

HUNTER BURGAN: I wouldn’t say it’s the best, but I was probably the only musician or music-related person who really campaigned. I put out a couple of tweets, asking my followers if they would voted for me. I beat out the Cardinals, Ryan Adams’s band. The other finalists were just some random people, like an IT manager and a woman who runs a digital PR firm for musicians. Those were just the finalists—theoretically I beat out every musician who uses Twitter. How does the win make me feel? Like a nerd, I guess.

B: You accepted your award from MC Hammer. What’s he like in real life?

HB: He was actually really nice. We hung out a little bit in the backstage area. He was not familiar with AFI’s music but said that he was going to download a few of our records and check them out, which I thought was really cool.

B: Did you talk collaboration? Maybe he could rap over “Miss Murder.”

HB: He didn’t say anything about that, but we’re totally open to that. I wanna see him dance in one of our videos. I’d like to think that our fans are open-minded enough to accept Hammer.

B: What’s been a favorite tweet of yours of the past year?

HB: Sometimes I ask questions, and I get a lot of responses to those. I asked all the people who follow me who are vegans why they decided to become vegans. The answers were really great, everything from being against factory farming to, “So-and-so told me to.” So-and-so was me a couple of times, but I’ve never told anybody to be vegan, so that’s a lie. I think it’s a choice people have to make for themselves.

B: What can you tell me about the next AFI album?

HB: In typical AFI fashion we’re taking our time. We’ve been working on it in the studio or writing it for like a year and half. We’ve done an extensive amount of demo-ing, more so than we’ve ever done in the past. This is definitely more of a rock album—more immediate and definitely more of a focused, direct approach musically. Compared to [2006’s] Decemberunderground, where some of the songs were more subtle, these are more in-your-face. We expect to be done in time to tour on the record this summer. But whether or not it’s out, we’ll be on the road.

B: You ran a fan video contest to find people to sing on the album. Have they recorded their parts yet?

HB: That’s actually happening tomorrow. One is a guy name Marc who works at Buzznet, who right in the first batch of videos performed an autobiographical version of an R.E.M. song. That set a creative precedent that almost nobody could even come close to.

B: Finally, are you going to twitter about this interview?

HB: Sure. I can do it right now… Done. Check it out.