Angels & Airwaves
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Angels & Airwaves |
Left to right: Wachter, Kennedy, Rubin, and DeLonge in 2012 |
| Background information |
| Origin |
San Diego, California |
| Genres |
Alternative rock, space rock, neo-prog |
| Years active |
2005–present |
| Labels |
Geffen, Suretone, Independent - Adventure Intermedia, To the Stars |
| Associated acts |
Blink-182, Box Car Racer, Denver Harbor, Lostprophets, The Offspring, Rocket from the Crypt, 30 Seconds to Mars, Nine Inch Nails, The Distillers, Hazen Street, Over My Dead Body, Moth, Alkaline Trio, Social Distortion, Special Goodness |
| Website |
angelsandairwaves.com |
| Members |
Tom DeLonge
David Kennedy
Matt Wachter
Ilan Rubin |
| Past members |
Atom Willard
Ryan Sinn |
Angels & Airwaves is an American
alternative rock supergroup led by
Blink-182 guitarist and vocalist
Tom DeLonge. Other members are guitarist
David Kennedy (from
Over My Dead Body,
Hazen Street and
Box Car Racer), bassist
Matt Wachter (from
30 Seconds to Mars) and drummer
Ilan Rubin (from
Lostprophets and
Nine Inch Nails). Former original members are bass guitarist
Ryan Sinn (formerly of
The Distillers), who left the group in 2007 for reasons still unclear, as well as drummer
Adam "Atom" Willard (formerly of
The Offspring and
Rocket from the Crypt), who amicably parted ways with the band in fall 2011 shortly before the release of their fourth album.
Formed after Blink-182 went on hiatus in 2005, the band has continued
to record and tour despite DeLonge reigniting his career with Blink-182
in 2009. The band has established themselves as very prolific musicians
having released four studio albums
We Don't Need to Whisper (2006),
I-Empire (2007),
Love (2010) and
Love: Part Two (2011) in the space of 5 years. The project also resulted in the documentary film
Start the Machine (2008). In 2011, accompanying the two
Love albums, the group scored and produced the
science fiction drama film Love by director
William Eubank in 460 theatres nationwide during their multimedia event,
Love Live. The band is recording their next album called
POET, slated for release sometime in 2013.
Of the first two albums, the band says that they were mainly influenced by the music of
Radiohead and
Pink Floyd, combining them with the grandiosity of
U2.
[1]
Of the first album, Delonge said that it would be "the best music in
generations", but afterwards admitted that during this time he was
addicted to painkillers.
[2] Love
project shows further blending of the band's musical aspirations of
epic and grandiosity and the cultural revolution in the digital era.
[3]
Music history
Formation and origins: 2004–2005
Tom DeLonge began working on new material during Blink-182's final
tour in 2004 and shortly after they began their break 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, DeLonge 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 six months
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
Atom Willard and former
The Distillers bass guitarist
Ryan Sinn. Atom Willard told
Shave
magazine that the experience of all the members of the band made the
band formation very easy. "There’s nobody trying to figure out what is
and what isn’t going to work, not just for themselves but for music and
for a band, what life’s going to be like on the road and all that kind
of stuff. Everybody had enough experience to just buckle down and do the
work. It really has made it easier than anything else."
[4]
First albums and development: 2005–2009
Soon after forming, the band began recording its first album in
DeLonge's studio in California from mid-2005 to early 2006. However,
after a fan e-mail hacked DeLonge and stole four demos, Angels &
Airwaves had no other choice but to release "The Adventure" as their
first single, which was leaked onto radio stations, causing a premature
release on May 18, 2006. A few days later, on May 23, they released
their first album,
We Don't Need to Whisper.
The album reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200, and went gold in both the
US and Canada. Despite this success, critics gave generally mixed
reviews, with one noting that “while well-intentioned [the band] failed
to reach the lofty heights to which they aspire”, especially in light of
claims made by DeLonge that the album was “the best music made in
decades”. Yet, later that year, popularity picked up with the release of
singles "
The War", "
Do It For Me Now" and "
It Hurts".
The remainder of the year into 2007 was taken up with tours, and in
early 2007, the supergroup returned to the studio to work on a follow-up
album.
However, problems accumulated and 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. Matt Wachter (the former bass guitarist of
30 Seconds to Mars), filled in for the show and was later confirmed as a
permanent member.
The new album, titled
I-Empire and the first song "
Everything's Magic"
were leaked to 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 recorded the video for the single on January 20 and 21, and it
was premiered on MTV2 Unleashed on February 25, 2008. The band released a
third single, "Breathe", that was released onto the Internet on June
20.
Angels & Airwaves performed at every location on
Warped Tour 2008.
[5] They also made a fall tour in support of
Weezer.
[6]
Art projects: 2009–2011
The band took a break from performing in 2009 while 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 film. When Delonge and Willard
returned in the fall, the band resumed production of its next album.
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.
[7]
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. The band finished the album in
time for its release on Valentine's Day 2010.
Love was downloaded
nearly 500,000 times during the first 48 hours after its release day
making it the most downloaded album in history.
[citation needed]
The first single from the album, "Hallucinations", was made available
for free through the band's Modlife on December 23, 2009. The band also
released the video via Modlife on March 7, 2010.
The band toured North America, starting on March 27 in Anaheim,
California. The tour ended on May 30 in Ventura, California, and Delonge
returned to Blink-182 to prepare for their upcoming album and European
tour. Delonge originally revealed that there would be another tour,
rumored to have UK dates, after the release of the
Love film in the autumn, but plans were changed due to Delonge's commitments with Blink-182.
[8] "Epic Holiday" is on the soundtrack to the German film
Kokowääh with
Til Schweiger.
The second studio album in the
Love project,
Love II, was released on November 8, 2011.
[9] DeLonge described the album as better than the first part of
Love and also confirmed that there would be a box set with both albums and a DVD of the movie.
[10] The first single to be released was "Anxiety"; it was premiered following
Love Live on August 10, 2011. The music video for "Anxiety" was released on
YouTube on August 11, 2011.
[11] It was made available for purchase on
iTunes on September 14, 2011.
Line-up change, current work: 2011–present
Before the release of
Love II, Delonge revealed that Angels
& Airwaves had already begun working on two new albums and two
corresponding films. On October 4, it was announced on their Facebook
page that drummer Atom Willard had left the band. The departure seemed
to be a mutual understanding and Atom thanked the members of Angels
& Airwaves for a great six years of making music together.
[12]
On October 7, it was announced that Angels & Airwaves would be part
of the lineup for the Soundwave Festival in Australia, in February and
March 2012. It was announced on October 20, 2011, that
Ilan Rubin, famous for his work with
Lostprophets and
Nine Inch Nails, was the new drummer of the band.
[13] According to the band's website, the band will release an album to accompany a film called
Poet Anderson.
[14] In March 2012, it was confirmed that Angels and Airwaves would perform the 2012 Reading & Leeds Festivals in August 2012.
[15] The band also performed at the annual
KROQ Weenie Roast concert on May 5, 2012.
On November 9, 2012 a new EP bundle pack titled
Stomping the Phantom Brake Pedal was announced as limited pressing.
[16] The band are working on their next album called
POET. A new album and movie
Strange Times was also in the pipeline, and there was a website named after it, however recent posts on Ilan Rubin's
Instagram account suggest that they have been concentrating mainly on
POET,
[17] and also the website Strange Times has been down as of 2012.
[18]
"Different mediums"
The group has been described by Delonge as more than a band but more accurately "an
art project [that approaches] larger
human themes and tackles them in
different mediums", or simply "a multimedia project".
[19] This has been seen in the group's films, live events, and novel approach to fan-artist interaction.
[20]
Films
Start the Machine is a documentary that focuses on the break-up of
Blink-182, the genesis of Angels & Airwaves, and the making of their first album
We Don't Need to Whisper. It was released on DVD on June 17, 2008.
[21][22] Start the Machine was filmed over a course of almost 3 years.
Love is a
science fiction film directed by
William Eubank and starring
Gunner Wright that was released in a special event called
Love Live
on August 10, 2011. "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 the
ISS, in low Earth orbit with him."
[23]
The band is working on a new movie called
Poet Anderson[14]
Graphic art
The band's albums have featured space rock images with considerable influences from the work of
Storm Thorgerson as band members explicitly state that there are
Pink Floyd influences in their work.
[24]
In November 2011 the band released a special edition copy of the feature film
LOVE in Graphic Novel format with the double album and movie from the band's official website.
[25]
Band members
- Current members
- Former members
Discography
- Studio albums
Awards
-
Notes
- ^ Adam Willard performs on Love: Part Two although he had left the band by the time of its release.
References
- ^ "Angels & Airwaves". musicOMH. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
- ^ "Exclusive: Tom DeLonge Talks About Blink-182 And Being ‘Spun Out’ While Building An ‘Empire’". Buzzworthy.mtv.com. 2007-11-15. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
- ^ "Angels & Airwaves "Anxiety" Official Music Video". YouTube. 2011-08-11. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
- ^ Stevens, Match. "Interview: Atom Willard". ShaveMagazine.com. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- ^ "Chat: Kevin Lyman". Absolutepunk.net. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ Weezer Announce Tour With Angels & Airwaves, Tokyo Police Club[dead link]
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ "Angels & Airwaves' DeLonge Talks 'Love' Tour, Movie". Billboard.com. 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ "NME". NME. 2011-04-08. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ "Theresnosolution.com". Theresnosolution.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ "Angels & Airwaves "Anxiety" Official Music Video". YouTube. 2011-08-11. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ Common, Tyler (August 14, 2011). "Angels & Airwaves working on two more movies". Alternative Press. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ "Angels & Airwaves Announce New Album". Female First. 2011-10-20. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ a b http://angelsandairwaves.com/?project_id=4
- ^ "First Reading & Leeds Announcements Made". Hevypetal. 2012-03-12. Retrieved 2012-03-17.
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152218464400144&set=a.144012620143.232344.12431865143&type=1
- ^ http://instagram.com/p/U4mGVcvW17/
- ^ http://www.strangetimes.com/
- ^ Steve Forstneger (2011-08-01). "Cover Story: Blink-182 - Everything Hits At Once". Illinois Entertainer: In Print and Online. Illinois Entertainer. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ George Varga (2011-08-08). "Tom DeLonge discusses Angels & Airwaves' debut film". The San Diego Union-Tribune. The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
"I always thought that when a band creates a concept record, it seems
to live and die in a period of a year. We decided to make the theme and
energy of what we're doing stronger, and to dive in deeper and try and
keep these things living for years to come. To do that we have to create
a multi-media company: a band, a record label a merchandising company
and a film studio."
- ^ "Start the Machine". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ "Start the Machine". Loserkids.com. 2008-06-17. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ Franich, Darren (2010-02-10). "Music-mix.ew.com". Music-mix.ew.com. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
- ^ "Angels and Airwaves Think They are Pink Floyd". HollywoodGrind. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ "Angels and Airwaves LOVE Deluxe Gold Bundle". Avashop.com. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
- International Index to Music Periodicals – Teitelman, Bram.
“Reviews: Albums – Rock: Angels & Airwaves – ‘We Don’t Need to
Whisper.’” Billboard – The International Newsweekly of Music, Video, and
Home Entertainment 27 May 2006: 49. Print.
- Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians – Encyclopedia of Popular
Music – “Angels and Airwaves.” Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Copyright
Muze, Inc. Last Updated 9 November 2006. Web. Last Accessed 10 October
2011.
- International Index to Music Periodicals – Carpenter, Ellen. “My
Look: Rock & Style [Tom DeLonge].” Rolling Stone 29 November 2007:
38. Print.
