Jump to content

Tom DeLonge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Tom-Robbo1234 (talk | contribs) at 12:09, 27 May 2010 (→‎Box Car Racer (2002-2003)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Tom DeLonge

Thomas Matthew "Tom" DeLonge, Jr. (born December 13, 1975) is an American rock musician. He is the guitarist and one of the two lead vocalists for the punk band Blink-182 as well as the guitarist and lead vocalist for the space rock band Angels & Airwaves.

Early years

Tom DeLonge was raised by his mother, Connie, and his father, Thomas, in Poway, California. He has an older brother, Shon, and a younger sister, Kari. DeLonge was expelled from Poway High School during junior year after being caught drinking at a school basketball game. He then went to Rancho Bernardo High School. When he returned to Poway High School during his senior year, the students voted him Homecoming King, despite the fact that he wasn't even on the ballot. [1] Becoming a musician was not his first calling. "I was originally going to be a firefighter. I was in the San Diego Cadet Program", says DeLonge.[2] Some of his influences are the Descendents, Screeching Weasel, Dag Nasty, Bad Religion, NOFX, Pink Floyd, and The Cure.

Musical career

Main article: Blink-182

When DeLonge attended Rancho Bernardo High School, he was introduced to Mark Hoppus through Hoppus's sister, Anne. DeLonge had previously met Scott Raynor at a school's battle of the bands and decided to form a band together that would become Blink-182, originally just Blink but the band had to change for legal reasons with supposed plagiarism from an Irish techno band. Raynor was replaced with Travis Barker in 1998 when Barker had filled in for Raynor on tour. It was later announced that Raynor had been asked to attend rehab, due to a serious drinking problem. Barker was on tour with The Aquabats, another band touring along with Blink-182. After sitting in on two shows Barker formally joined Blink-182. With Barker on board Blink-182 released Enema of the State, which was met with a huge amount of mainstream success, spawning three hit singles. Follow-up Take Off Your Pants and Jacket went straight to No.1 on the Billboard 200. In 2003, Blink-182 released their selftitled album. DeLonge then decided to leave the band, allegedly due to mounting tensions and communication difficulties, creating a rift between him and the other members of the band. Blink-182 announced an 'indefinite hiatus' on the 22nd February 2005.[citation needed]

Following Travis Barker's Learjet crash, DeLonge's former band mate, Mark Hoppus, posted on his blog (himynameismark.com) on November 18, 2008, that all three band mates had communicated for the past couple of months after Barker's plane crash, which killed 4 people and left Barker and DJ AM in critical condition. This post fueled rumors among fans that a reunion was imminent [citation needed]. Adding to the speculation was an announcement made by MTV.com on February 5, 2009 that Blink-182 would reunite to present an award at the 51st Grammy Awards. This presentation marked the first time the trio had been together on stage since 2004.[3] Before presenting the award for Best Rock Album, the band announced that they were reuniting; this announcement was followed shortly by a message posted on the band's website.[4] DeLonge was quoted as saying, "live life as if it was the last record played on the jukebox."

On February 9, 2009, DeLonge opened up to Extra about the Blink-182 reunion saying: "When you're in a band, you have this unspoken bond. You're kind of family with your boys. We took a break for a little bit. I think when Travis had the event happen to him it was something that pulled us back together... we always knew it was inevitable, we just needed something to break the ice." [5] Blink-182 toured across the United States and Canada along with Weezer, Panic! at the Disco, Chester French, Asher Roth, All American Rejects, Taking Back Sunday, and Fall Out Boy, and are planning to release their newest album around late 2010 or early 2011.

In April 2010, DeLonge stated that although he is currently on tour and busy with Angels & Airwaves, he is happy and excited to be back with Blink-182. He also said that the breakup of Blink was his biggest failure, and is glad to have made amends with Hoppus and Barker. Tom will join Blink in the studio in June before they head out on a European Tour this summer.

Box Car Racer (2002-2003)

-182 on the song "Elevator", and Tim Armstrong from Rancid. Tim Armstrong did vocals with Tom in the song "Cat Like Thief".

Angels & Airwaves (2005–present)

Main article: Angels & Airwaves

Tom DeLonge is the lead vocalist and solo guitarist for Angels & Airwaves (often stylized as AVA). Other members in the band include high school friend and former Hazen Street guitarist and Box Car Racer guitarist David Kennedy, on drums former Rocket from the Crypt and The Offspring drummer Atom Willard, on bass former 30 Seconds to Mars bassist Matt Wachter. AVA is influenced by a number of bands including U2, Pink Floyd and The Cure. They released their debut album We Don't Need to Whisper on 20 May, 2006. On April 23, 2007 it was announced that Ryan Sinn would not be playing at the free Earth Day concert at the M.I.T. campus due to difficulties within the band. He was later replaced with former 30 Seconds to Mars bassist Matt Wachter. The band's second full-length album entitled I-Empire debuted on the Billboard 200 Chart at No. 9 and sold 66,000 in its first week.

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.

Love is the third studio album by Angels & Airwaves, which was officially released worldwide on February 14, 2010 after being delayed from Christmas 2009. A movie, based on the album, is being produced and will show in theaters in Spring 2010 (DeLonge has mentioned a possible Fall 2010 release date at Sundance Film Festival on Modlife.), it is also called LOVE.

Musical equipment

Fender Guitars worked with DeLonge to create the Tom DeLonge Stratocaster (signature guitar) which consisted of a solid alder body fitted with a single Seymour Duncan Invader Bridge pickup. It was controlled by a lone volume knob adding to its simple design. At first, the Stratocasters were fitted with an American 2-Point tremolo system and was later replaced by a hardtail bridge. Its neck was made of solid maple with a rosewood fretboard, although there have been some custom Stratocasters that were fitted with maple fretboards. The necks included a large 1970s "CBS" headstock.

In 2002, whilst touring with Box Car Racer, Tom began collaborating with Gibson to create a new Signature Model. He started off by using a standard Gibson ES-335, with all but the bridge volume knob removed, and the bridge pick-up replaced with a Gibson Dirty Fingers bridge pick-up. This guitar was eventually covered with many different stickers including band stickers and clothing line stickers from Atticus Clothing, Macbeth Footwear and Famous Stars and Straps. This guitar can be seen in Boxcar Racer live photos and in the studio videos for the Untitled Album. In one of the videos, a prototype for his signature is seen that included an orange stripe instead of cream with a matching orange headstock and a metal volume knob. In 2003, Gibson released his signature model, the Tom DeLonge Signature ES-333, which has only been available since its release in Brown and Cream, with a Natural neck and headstock. Along with his Gibson signature, Tom also used a Fender Jaguar live, as seen in AOL live sessions with the song "Obvious". The Tom DeLonge Signature starts with Gibson's classic semi-hollow body design and then extends it into punk rock with an overwound 'Dirty Fingers' humbucking pickup. Its thick, distorted tone is the signature sound of DeLonge's band Blink-182.[6] On Angels & Airwaves albums, We Don't Need to Whisper and I-Empire Tom has used his signature Gibson ES-333 for all of his live shows. However, he has a number of touring guitars, which he has had made in a few different color combinations, including matte black with a black racing stripe, natural with a black racing stripe and white with a black racing stripe. Since the Blink-182 reunion, he has been seen using his original brown and cream guitar (which now has a Blink-182 'smiley logo' sprayed painted onto the body), his natural and black guitar (which has now been abused with burns, scrapes and stickers), and a new black and white guitar, which is a custom Baritone version of his standard signature guitar, made for playing the song Obvious, and other down-stepped songs. Epiphone has since come out with a lower cost version of the Tom DeLonge signature guitar, manufactured overseas, but fitted with the same Dirty Fingers humbucker.

From very early on in Blink's career, Tom had used a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier amp head and a Marshall JCM 900 amp head along with Mesa Boogie and Marshall cabs for live shows. As his career progressed, Tom began using a intricate rack system along with three matching 4x12 and three 2x12 Mesa Boogie cabs. The rack system still made use of the Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier amp head but it also included a Mesa Boogie 2:90 power amp and Triaxis preamp, Marshall EL34 power amp and JMP-1 preamp and a Voodoo Labs GCX Audio Switcher, all controlled via a Custom Audio Electronics midi footswitch (The rack discontinued the use of the Marshall JCM 900 amp head). The rack system also included a Furman power conditioner and Shure wireless unit.

For Angels and Airwaves, Tom made use of the same rack system minus the Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier but also included a TC Electronic G-Force effects unit as well as two Palmer PGA-04 amp simulators (one for the Triaxis preamp and one for the JMP-1 preamp).

Since the 2009 Blink 182 reunion, Tom is now using two Fender '65 Twin Reverb Amps for clean and two VOX AC30H2 Amps for distortion. For AvA, he uses the same amps but only one of each, while second guitarist David Kennedy uses the other two.

Personal life

DeLonge lives with his wife Jennifer, daughter Ava Elizabeth (born July 15, 2002) and son Jonas Rocket (born on August 16, 2006), German Sheperd Grey, and Labrador Retriever Chloe in Rancho Sante Fe, California. He is the owner of Macbeth Footwear, which he founded with Mark Hoppus (who has since sold his share in the company). DeLonge has sold his share in Atticus Clothing, which he founded together with Mark Hoppus and another friend. He was politically active during the 2004 and 2008 presidential races. In 2004, he supported the Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, and in 2008 voiced his support for Barack Obama. He also created a vegan footwear line through his company Macbeth Footwear. Tom is a firm believer in UFOs and aliens. [7][8]

Tom DeLonge, 2008

Other accomplishments

Tom directed the music video for Taking Back Sundays song "This Photograph Is Proof (I Know You Know)" in 2004.[9] Tom made a cameo appearance as the Burger Jungle drive thru clerk in the movie Idle Hands. Blink-182 is featured in the music documentaries: Riding in Vans with Boys, The Urethra Chronicles, The Urethra Chronicles II: Harder Faster Faster Harder, and upcoming film The Blinkumentary. Tom also made a cameo appearance in the blockbuster film American Pie with his fellow band-mates in Blink-182, acting in a scene while one of their songs, "Mutt", played in the background. Tom made a cameo appearance in The Simpsons with fellow band-mates, while "All The Small Things" played in the background.

Tom has created his own website called Modlife; the site allows bands and their fans to meet up and interact with each other. The artists can also choose whether to have paid subscriptions for certain items.

Clothing companies

In 2001, DeLonge started Atticus Clothing and Macbeth Footwear with fellow Blink-182 band member Mark Hoppus. However, after Mark Hoppus sold his shares in both companies after the hiatus of Blink-182, Tom sold his shares in Atticus Clothing and is currently the sole owner of Macbeth Footwear.

Discography

With Blink-182
Main article: Blink-182 discography
With Angels & Airwaves
Main article: Angels & Airwaves discography
With Box Car Racer

References

  1. ^ Hoppus, Anne (2001). Blink-182: Tales from Beneath Your Mom. MTV. p. 112. ISBN 978-0743422079. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Business Magazine Articles - Your Business Magazine". bizSanDiego. 2008-01-07. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
  3. ^ Montgomery, James (2009-02-05). "Blink-182 To Reunite At The Grammys - News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News". Mtv.com. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
  4. ^ Official website
  5. ^ Extra Warner Bros
  6. ^ Tom DeLonge Signature
  7. ^ "Angels & Airwaves' Tom DeLonge // Out There // peta2". Peta2.com. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
  8. ^ "International Vegetarian Union - Tom Delonge". Ivu.org. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
  9. ^ Blink-182's Tom DeLonge Directs Video - News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tom_DeLonge&oldid=364469341"