Snow Cats
by AFI

Album: AFI (The Blood Album) (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Directed by Drew Kirsch ("Lean" by O'Donis), the video shows lead singer Davey Havok's head floating in space, singing the track, while the band whirls by playing their respective instruments. Havok told Pitchfork that the clip is meant to show a cyclical struggle.

    "Expanding endlessly from an empty room, the 'Snow Cats' video animates a cyclical struggle with the surreal colors of applied persona and identity," he said.
  • Guitarist Jade Puget expanded on the visual during an interview with Artist Direct:

    "It's a very odd video, like nothing we've ever done. We read the treatment and it was just like "Let's just try this, it sounds crazy!" A video like that, you can't really know what it's going to look like until you see it, because obviously there's a lot of video effects on it.

    But people see it, my wife saw it and she was laughing at it, and I was like 'You're laughing, I don't know if that's the right response to this!' But she was laughing in a good way. It's funny, it's funny in a way - it intentionally slash unintentionally funny where we're just outrageous and silly."
  • At one point, Puget is walking down a sort of space path as he plays his guitar solo. "Yeah - there's a Thor kind of vibe there," he said. "The original idea was to have me playing a white guitar - a glowing guitar - and it looked like Guitar Hero, I thought 'No! - I can't be playing that, walking around' So, luckily that didn't end up in the final product."
  • This was released as the first single from AFI, which is also referred to as The Blood Album. "Originally, we wanted just have it self-titled because it's been 10 records and AFI has never had a self-titled record," Puget explained to Alternative Press. "But because the album artwork has these three blood drops on the front, we just started calling it The Blood Album. So people started thinking it was the actual title, and because we didn't want to confuse anyone, we made it official."

Comments: 2

  • Ryan from UsI think this song at least speaks to (if it is not about) unrequited love. The feelings of hopelessness, sadness, not being good enough, wondering what is wrong with you, what you did (are doing) wrong, trying to prove yourself and win their love/attention, and the struggle with self esteem.
  • Deedee from Okemos, MiIn my opinion, the song is about a virgin or someone who is sexually inexperienced and tries different ways to please her husband but in the end he leaves her to cheat. And she is broken inside, and tries to understand what she can do to fix the situation if that is even possible. She’s sad, confused, and heartbroken. I love this song and the meaning behind it.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Edie Brickell

Edie BrickellSongwriter Interviews

Edie Brickell on her collaborations with Paul Simon, Steve Martin and Willie Nelson, and her 2021 album with the New Bohemians.

Real or Spinal Tap

Real or Spinal TapMusic Quiz

They sang about pink torpedoes and rocking you tonight tonight, but some real lyrics are just as ridiculous. See if you can tell which lyrics are real and which are Spinal Tap in this lyrics quiz.

Jon Oliva of Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Jon Oliva of Trans-Siberian OrchestraSongwriter Interviews

Writing great prog metal isn't easy, especially when it's for 60 musicians.

Charlie Daniels

Charlie DanielsSongwriter Interviews

Charlie discusses the songs that made him a Southern Rock icon, and settles the Devil vs. Johnny argument once and for all.

Kevin Godley

Kevin GodleySongwriter Interviews

Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.

Max Cavalera of Soulfly (ex-Sepultura)

Max Cavalera of Soulfly (ex-Sepultura)Songwriter Interviews

The Brazilian rocker sees pictures in his riffs. When he came up with one of his gnarliest songs, there was a riot going on.