Angels & Airwaves

Angels & Airwaves

Angels and Airwaves performing live during their I-Empire tour.
Background information
Origin San Diego, California, USA
Genres Alternative rock, pop punk Space rock, neo-progressive rock
Years active 2005–present
Labels Geffen, Suretone
Associated acts Blink-182, Box Car Racer, The Offspring, Rocket from the Crypt, 30 Seconds to Mars, The Distillers, Hazen Street, Over My Dead Body, MOTH, Social Distortion, Weezer, Foo Fighters
Website modlife.com/angelsandairwaves
Members
Tom DeLonge
David Kennedy
Matt Wachter
Atom Willard
Past members
Ryan Sinn

Angels & Airwaves (also known as AVA and often stylized as AvA) is an alternative rock supergroup led by Blink-182 guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge. The band also includes guitarist David Kennedy, notably from Over My Dead Body, Hazen Street and Box Car Racer, drummer Atom Willard from The Offspring and Rocket from the Crypt, and former 30 Seconds to Mars bassist Matt Wachter, who replaced The Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn in May 2007.

The band has released three studio albums thus far: We Don't Need to Whisper (2006), I-Empire (2007) and Love (2010). They also have released a rockumentary Start the Machine (2008) and are working on their first feature film, also entitled Love (2010).

Contents

History

Origins and formation: 2004-2005

Tom DeLonge began working new material during the Blink-182's final tour in 2004 and shortly after they began their hiatus in February 2005. For half a year he worked alone in his home studio before gathering musicians to form the band. Upon fiddling randomly for several weeks with the band's logo, Tom realized that if he were to invert the middle "A" of the band 's acronym into what appeared to be a "V", he would have the name of his daughter, Ava. As rumors were floating around about the band's "break-up", DeLonge chose to abstain for half a year from any interviews surrounding the issue and his future plans; instead he concentrated on writing and recording in his home-based studio. In September 2005, he finally spoke publicly in Kerrang! magazine, where he unveiled the name of his new band, "Angels & Airwaves". The band included former Hazen Street guitarist and high-school friend David Kennedy, former Rocket from the Crypt drummer Adam Willard and former The Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn.

We Don't Need to Whisper: 2005-2007

Soon after forming the band began recording their debut album in Tom's home studio in California. The band recorded from mid 2005 to early 2006. Angels & Airwaves released their first single, "The Adventure", after a fan hacked into Tom's email account and stole four demos from the album. "The Adventure" was leaked onto radio stations, resulting in the band having to release it on May 18, 2006. They released their first album, We Don't Need to Whisper, a few days later, on May 23, 2006. The album reached 4th on the Billboard 200, and went gold. The band toured for most of 2006 and early 2007 and then retreated to the studio at the start of the year to work on the follow-up.

I-Empire: 2007–2009

On April 23, 2007, AVA announced that Ryan Sinn would not play at the Free Earth Day concert at the M.I.T. campus due to difficulties within the band. Following this incident, on May 15, Sinn posted on the Army of Angels fan club message board stating that he was "no longer a part of Angels & Airwaves," and had received a call on the evening of April 19 concluding his relationship with the band.[1] Matt Wachter (former bassist of 30 Seconds to Mars), filled in for the show and was later confirmed as a permanent member.

The new album, titled I-Empire, a departure from the heavy effects found in We Don't Need To Whisper, wаs released on Universal/Island Records.[2] I-Empire debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 9 with sales of 66,000 in its first week. It also reached number one on the iTunes Top Albums chart. The first single from the new album, "Everything's Magic", was leaked onto the internet, and on August 25, 2007 it was the most requested song on California radio station KROQ. Angels & Airwaves began streaming the song on their MySpace profile on August 28, 2007. It also became available on iTunes, and reached number three on the iTunes Rock Chart on September 11, 2007, before the song was even made available for nationwide airplay. The band shot the video for the single on January 20 and 21, and it premiered on MTV2 Unleashed on February 25, 2008 The band came out with a third single, "Breathe", that was released onto the internet June, 20.

Angels & Airwaves performed at every location on Warped Tour 2008.[3] They also underwent a Fall tour in support of Weezer.[4]

The band took a break from performing in 2009 while Tom Delonge reunited with blink-182 for a summer tour. During their time off, Atom Willard joined Social Distortion as their touring drummer, while Matt Wachter and David Kennedy began work on the upcoming LOVE film. When Delonge and Willard returned in the fall, the band resumed production of the LOVE album.

The Love project: 2009–present

Love Part I

Love is the third studio album by Angels & Airwaves, which was officially released worldwide on February 14, 2010 after being delayed from Christmas 2009. Fuel.tv also released it two days earlier for Modlife members, along with Mark Hoppus' remix of Hallucinations available to those who donated when downloading the album.[5] The album was released free of charge due to "corporate underwriting". They began producing it in January 2009 but progress was slow due to Blink-182 reuniting and going on tour. AVA finished the album in time for its release on Valentine's Day 2010. The first single from the album, "Hallucinations," was made available for free through the band's Modlife on December 23, 2009. The band have also released the video via Modlife on March 7, 2010. Love was downloaded nearly 500,000 times during the first 48 hours after its Valentine's Day release.

The band toured North America, starting March 27 in Anaheim, CA. The tour wrapped up on May 30 in Ventura, California, and Delonge returned to Blink-182 to prepare for their upcoming album and European tour. Delonge has also revealed that there will be another tour after the release of the Love movie later in the year to support the Love project. This tour is rumored to have UK dates.[6]

Love Part II

In a recent Modlife modcam update on July 14, 2010, Delonge has confirmed that a second studio album in the Love project will be released along with the film of the same title in early 2011. He has also revealed that the upcoming studio album would be titled Love: Part II.

In a recent "transmission" (blog posting) on Modlife, Delonge confirmed the film has been completed and is "very close to being finished up" and he plans the movie to be completed in September. He also confirmed that there will be a "bunch new music coming your way with a double album selling with the movie."[7]

Live history

At concerts the band is known for its showmanship and also for their effects-laden performances, directly opposing the clean, fully rock sound of Blink-182. While Tom handles vocals and guitar, second guitarist David Kennedy, bassist Matt Wachter, and drummer Atom Willard are also handling keyboards, synthesizers, and drum samples, respectively. For the LOVE 2010 tour, Tom also plays synthesizers during "Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce".

In previous tours prior to the Blink-182 reunion, Tom frequently solo-performed "I Miss You", "Down", "Reckless Abandon", and "Not Now" during concerts, leading into songs such as "The Adventure" or "Rite of Spring". He has also performed Box Car Racer's song "There Is" as a solo piece or with David Kennedy, who was also a former member of Box Car Racer. The whole band has also performed "My First Punk Song" (another Box Car Racer song), at several concerts.

On March 22, 2010, the band played on Jimmy Kimmel Live, which aired on May 6, 2010.

Other media

Start the Machine is a rockumentary that focuses on the break-up of Blink-182, the genesis of Angels & Airwaves, and the making of their debut album We Don't Need to Whisper. It was released on DVD on June 17, 2008.[8][9] Start the Machine was filmed over a course of almost 3 years.

Love (formerly titled I-Empire) is a science fiction film to be released sometime in 2010. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tom was asked what the movie Love was about. He said, "It starts in the Civil War and you travel through time and space. There's a couple of different storylines. The main one is, a guy gets sent up to the International Space Station, and he gets abandoned up there. He doesn't know why. So throughout his years of being stuck up there, he sees the Earth starting to collapse below. He ends up basically becoming the last person alive. And then decades later, he wakes up one day and there's something outside of his spaceship, in low Earth orbit with him."[10] The official movie trailer was released on Apple Trailers on Friday, October 30, 2009, and is available on Modlife.[11] In an interview with Shave Magazine, Atom explained that "the idea behind the movie was really to accompany the music with tools that we could really get behind. The idea was that, the first time you ever heard the music for a certain record it would be accompanied by all these images and iconography of things that we believe in and that we love, or that have inspired us - like deep-space travel or a horrible war scene or whatever it is that we were thinking about when a certain song came around. The movie was meant to accompany the music and try to give you a full experience."[12] On April 11, 2010 in an interview with ThePunkSite.com, Tom DeLonge said that they're currently planning on putting the finishing touches on the film by July 2010 and after that trying to get the film into theaters. He also explained the hope behind the movie saying: "I can tell you, honestly, the movie is ten times better than I thought it would be. But it’s not meant to compete with Transformers. This is an art-house film and no band has really done this in a very long time. So we’re hoping that we catch some people off guard and we’re also hoping that we do something that is very credible as far its artistic acumen goes."[13]

Band members

Members
Past members
Session members

Discography

Awards

  • Nominated: Best New Artist in a Video (2006) for "The Adventure"
  • Nominated: Best Special Effects in a Video (2006) for "The Adventure"
  • Nominated: Best Editing in a Video (2006) for "The Adventure"
  • Nominated: Best Band of 2006 (2006) for "We Don't Need To Whisper"

Other appearances

References

  1. ↑ The Angels and Airwaves Movement Fan Site
  2. ↑ Kerrang! interview on punkdisasters
  3. ↑ AbsolutePunk.net Chat: Kevin Lyman
  4. ↑ Weezer Announce Tour With Angels & Airwaves, Tokyo Police Club
  5. ↑ http://modlife.com/angelsandairwaves/lovealbumfueltv
  6. ↑ Angels & Airwaves' DeLonge Talks 'Love' Tour, Movie
  7. ↑ [1]
  8. ↑ Amazon.com – Start the Machine
  9. ↑ Loserkids.com – Start the Machine
  10. ↑ http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/02/10/angels-airwaves-love-blink-182/#more-11880
  11. ↑ [2]
  12. ↑ "Angels and Airwaves: Atom Willard". ShaveMagazine.com. http://www.shavemagazine.com/entertainment/angels-and-airwaves-adam-atom-willard/2. Retrieved 2010-12-04. 
  13. ↑ "Angels & Airwaves Interview - Tom DeLonge and David Kennedy". ThePunksite.com. April 11, 2010. http://www.thepunksite.com/interviews.php?page=angelsandairwaves. Retrieved 2010-03-21. 

External links

Angels & Airwaves
Tom DeLonge · David Kennedy · Adam "Atom" Willard · Matt Wachter
Ryan Sinn
Studio albums
We Don't Need to Whisper · I-Empire · Love · Love Part II
Singles
"The Adventure" · "It Hurts" · "The War" · "Everything's Magic" · "Hallucinations"
Films
Start the Machine · Love
Labels
Geffen · Suretone
Related articles
Discography · Blink-182 · Box Car Racer · The Offspring · 30 Seconds to Mars · Rocket from the Crypt · The Distillers · Hazen Street · Over My Dead Body · Social Distortion