Today sees the release of MATERIAL (Blaqknoise/Kobalt), the much-anticipated new album from BLAQK AUDIO, the electronic alter ego of AFI’s Davey Havok and Jade Puget. Fans can now pick up the album via iTunes.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘ANOINTED’ HERE
Produced and recorded by Puget, MATERIAL is Blaqk Audio’s third release following 2012’s Bright Black Heaven and 2007’s Cexcells. Though best known for their work with multi-platinum rock band AFI, Havok and Puget’s shared love of electronic music runs deep. Havok, who counts Devo’s Freedom of Choice and Duran Duran’s self-titled debut among the first albums he owned, saw his tastes evolve over the years from the synth pop of Erasure and Pet Shop Boys to Depeche Mode and ultimately to the heavier, darker Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Lords of Acid. Later, Havok immersed himself in the “futurepop” genre, which combined dark dance-y electronica with melodic vocals. From roughly 1999 to 2003, his contemporary musical diet consisted almost exclusively of artists falling under the industrial/ebm/futurepop/bigbeat/trance umbrella.
Puget shared his bandmate’s long-standing love of electronic music, beginning with a passion for Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Ministry, Squarepusher, Nitzer Ebb, and Front 242, spending a great deal of time programming electronic music, which in turn led to a plan to start an entirely electronic side project: no organic instruments, just synths, keyboards, drum machines, and software.
In an interview with influential Los Angeles radio station KROQ, Havok talked about the differences between Blaqk Audio and AFI: “Blaqk Audio is pure electronica whereas AFI uses organic instruments,” says Havok. “AFI has drums and bass and guitar and there’s none of that in Blaqk Audio.”Being huge music fans and fundamentally driven by music in a creative sense, BA is a wonderful outlet for our long-standing love of electronic music,” says Havok. “Were it not for BA, I’d still be writing this type of music, even if it never saw the light of day.”
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