AFI frontman Davey Havok says the band received some unusual advice from their label while working on their 2006 album Decemberunderground, according to NME. Among the ideas was a collaboration with 50 Cent and, separately, the suggestion that the band make a ringtone album.
Havok discussed the period in a new interview with Metal Hammer, calling the process of making the record a miserable one. He said the label was trying to get attention from Jimmy Iovine, whose company had absorbed DreamWorks Records’ music division and placed AFI under the Interscope umbrella.
According to Havok, one A&R representative proposed that AFI work with 50 Cent, describing him as Iovine’s “great love at the time.” Havok said he had nothing against 50 Cent, but questioned what the collaboration would have meant.
He also said the ringtone album idea came during the peak of the mobile ringtone trend. AFI did not make a full album for that format, though songs from Decemberunderground were later released as ringtones. The album, released in June 2006, became AFI’s first to reach No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 and included the singles “Miss Murder” and “Love Like Winter.”
