After years of playing hard if not impossible to get, the most signable name in local punk has inked a deal with RCA.

But drummer Pat Thetic is quick to clarify that Anti-Flag was not pursuing RCA.

Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Anti-Flag, from left: Chris Head, Justin Sane, Pat Thetic and Chris #2. Click photo for larger image. Anti-Flag Discography

It's not the first time Anti-Flag has had to deal with such pursuit from major labels.

As Thetic explains, "We've been getting offers for a long time, and then last year, a year and a half ago, the offers started to get more serious. And what we did is we sat down and said, 'This is what we want. Unless you are willing to give us this, there's no point in talking.' "

By the time the band got to RCA, as guitar-playing vocalist Justin Sane says, "Pretty much everyone on the inside of the major-label world knew that Anti-Flag had walked away from every single label that wouldn't give us creative control."

Most recently, the members were in negotiations with Rick Rubin at American. But Rubin couldn't get them what they wanted from his label's parent company, Geffen -- a "creepy bunch of people," according to Thetic.

What they wanted, first and foremost, was a written guarantee of creative control but also certain other guarantees, including vinyl rights and the right to put out Anti-Flag EPs on A-F Records, the band's own label. RCA agreed to all of that and more, including control of the artwork and Web site ownership.

Mostly, though, the company jumped through hoops.

As Thetic says, "We pushed the boundary. We said, 'What if we said this?' And they're like, 'We wouldn't feel comfortable.' So we're like, 'Well, [forget] you, we've got to be able to say it 'cause that's what we do. And ultimately, they said, 'OK, we'll give you control.' "

And giving Anti-Flag total creative control is not the same as giving, say, the Strokes or Britney Spears control. They might actually use that control to say something inflammatory about, for example, the Bush administration.

But as guitar-playing vocalist #2 says, "Being who we are, Anti-Flag, they know what they're getting into. With each record, we've grown exponentially with our ideals and try to use our voice to do as much good as possible. And I feel like RCA as a record label knows that. So the idea of us changing that for them was in nobody's mind when the deal was made."

It's a two-record deal, with options to renew if both sides are agreeable.

Recording could begin by mid-July in the hopes of having something on the streets by early 2006.

"I would say we have 50 songs, easily," says Sane. "So it's really just going to be a matter of picking the ones we like the most. And it's hard because everyone has their favorites."

As #2 explains the potential for dissension in the ranks, "You have different people who write different things. And they may not have expressed their full vision on the demo version of the song, so you've got someone holding steadfast to this sort of dream of what the song is, and then everybody listening to what we got out of it. So there will be plenty of fights. Don't worry."

Lyrically, the album should be everything fans and detractors alike have come to look for in an Anti-Flag release.

Sane promises "a very strong anti-militaristism-for-profit theme," for instance.

"And we're definitely targeting certain corporations that we feel have committed crimes against humanity," he continues. "We're certainly going after politicians who are homophobic and regressive. So I think you're going to see all the themes you would normally see on an Anti-Flag record -- obviously, with the war in Iraq still raging."

One downside to the deal, of course, is that as vocal as they've been about advancing their political ideals, that only makes the major-label-signing backlash that much more inevitable.

And potentially damaging.

"With everything we've ever done," says #2, "there's been a backlash. Before I was part of the band, I was part of the backlash. Whether it was leaving [record label] New Red Archives for Go Kart or Go Kart for Fat, there's always been people who think they know why we're doing it and therefore it's wrong. So we were mentally prepared.

"But beyond that, when you read the e-mails or letters we've gotten, you can tell the people that have serious concerns versus the people that are full of hot air. It's a matter of addressing the concerns of the people that have been supporting us for so long and sort of letting the other ones go to the wayside. If someone's making these outrageous claims that all of the sudden we're gonna sound like Britney Spears, then, that doesn't even need to be addressed. But if it's someone with a legitimate concern, like do you guys have control over your records, for sure, we'll talk about it."

In the end, says Sane, "it comes down to the fact we believe we're going to be able to do good things. We believe good things will come out of this situation. And in that respect, it is kind of frustrating to try to get that across to people who don't necessarily want to believe or are not willing to believe it."

Part of what they hope the deal will bring is the mainstream clout they saw when Michael Moore or Tom Morello would hold a press conference on last year's Rock Against Bush tour.

"It was incredible," says Sane. "We would do press conferences on our own on that tour and maybe one or two people would show up. And whether it actually made it to print was always questionable. We'd have the same press conferences with Tom Morello and Michael Moore, and they would say the exact same things we were saying, but the whole press corps was there. And they were definitely writing down the things they had to say. So it occurred to us that there was a lot of mass media we were missing. I think that's important for a voice that isn't represented in the mainstream media."

Fat Wreck Chords couldn't get their message to the mainstream, and that's something even Fat admitted.

"I think the last record sold fine," says Sane. "But at a certain point, you realize there are other people interested in the things you're saying and the music you're making and it's impossible to reach those people."

And a good percentage of the people they haven't been reaching shop at Wal-Mart in what CNN would call the red states.

"If you look at the last election result," says #2, "I'm sure you've seen that map with the coasts being blue and the middle being red? Our records aren't in the middle, and we would like them to get to the middle."