Angels & Airwaves

Angels & Airwaves

Angels & Airwaves (often abbreviated as "AvA") are an alternative rock band led by Blink-182 and Box Car Racer 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 former The Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn in May 2007. The band has released two albums thus far: We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire. They released a documentary entitled Start the Machine on June 17, 2008. Their third album and feature film, both entitled Love, are due out on Valentine's Day 2010 and sometime in April 2010 respectively.

History

We Don't Need to Whisper: 2005-2006

Tom DeLonge began working on the debut album, We Don't Need to Whisper, shortly after Blink-182 began their hiatus in February 2005. 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". Upon fiddling randomly for several weeks with the band's logo, Tom suddenly 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.

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 then retreated to the studio at the end of the year to record the follow-up.

I-Empire and Start the Machine: 2007-2008

On April 23, 2007, it was 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 (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. 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.

On June 21, 2008, DeLonge launched Modlife, a social-networking site and online operating system for musicians, bloggers and businesses. DeLonge's purpose is to "fix" the music industry. The band then released a documentary involving their music, titled Start the Machine.

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

Tom DeLonge frequently performs Blink-182 songs "I Miss You", "Down", "Reckless Abandon", and "Not Now" during concerts, as part of an extended intro to songs such as "The Adventure" or "Rite of Spring". DeLonge has also performed Box Car Racer's song "There Is" as a solo piece or with David Kennedy, who played in the band with him.

LOVE: 2009-present

LOVE is the third studio album by Angels & Airwaves, which will be officially released worldwide on February 14, 2010 after being delayed from Christmas 2009. It will be released free of charge due to "corporate underwriting". They began producing it in January 2009 but progress was slow due to Tom Delonge's original band Blink-182 reuniting and going on tour. On February 10, Tom DeLonge posted a blog on Modlife stating that, "Angels and Airwaves is never going to go away". This brought an end to any lingering rumors of a possible break-up of the band due to the reunion of Blink-182. In April 2009, Atom Willard joined Social Distortion.

On February 2nd Fuel.tv wrote this: "Angels & Airwaves is the brainchild of Tom DeLonge, which came to fruition during the extended hiatus of blink-182. With aspirations to transcend the limitations of the pop-punk genre, AVA released their debut album "We Don't Need to Whisper" in 2006. The band's new album, "Love", is scheduled to drop on 02/14/10... but FUEL.TV giving away the entire album for FREE, two days early".

On July 31, Angels & Airwaves uploaded a new video to their website, giving people the first official glimpse of their new album LOVE. Seen in the video was a piece of artwork that contained a new Angels and Airwaves logo, which has similarities to the Masonic Square and Compasses. This new logo also contains the Latin words "Et ducit mundum per luce." Which translates to "Lead the world by light".

The first official trailer for the band's feature film LOVE was released on October 29 on the band's website. The film is directed by William Eubank. The trailer appeared on Apple Trailers on October 30, 2009.

On December 14th, Tom posted a blog where he previewed a new song entitled "Soul Survivor" and stated that half of the songs on the album are finished mixing.

The first single from the album, "Hallucinations," was made available for free through the band's website, Modlife, on December 23, 2009. The band is currently shooting the music video for "Hallucinations".

A remix of Hallucinations by blink-182 band-mate Mark Hoppus will be available to all of those who donate money when downloading Love from Modlife and to all Premium members of the website.

Band members

Current members

• Tom DeLonge — lead vocals, guitar (2005–present)
• David Kennedy — guitar, synthesizer, keyboard (2005–present)
• Atom Willard — drums, percussion (2005–present)
• Matt Wachter — bass guitar (2007-present)

Former members

• Ryan Sinn — bass guitar, backing vocals (2005-2007)

Discography

Main article: Angels & Airwaves discography

• We Don't Need to Whisper (2006)
• I-Empire (2007)
• LOVE (2010)

Awards

• MTV Video Music 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"

TV show appearance

The band appeared on the sixth season of One Tree Hill at Peyton's USO concert she held for her real brother and his fellow marines. They played "Secret Crowds" and "Lifeline."

External links

• Official website
• Template:Myspace