Angels & Airwaves

Angels & Airwaves

Angels & Airwaves (also known as "AVA") is an alternative rock band fronted by blink-182 and former 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, former Rocket From the Crypt and The Offspring drummer Atom Willard, 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, and also plan on releasing a feature film involving their music, entitled I-Empire, although in a Modlife video broadcast, Tom admitted that the movie may no longer be titled 'I-Empire' but instead, it will be named after the new album (which is currently in production).

History

We Don't Need to Whisper (2005-2007)

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 "indefinite hiatus", 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 acronym (A)ngels (A)nd (A)irwaves 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 5 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.

On April 23, 2007 it was announced that Ryan Sinn (now former bassist) 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.

I-Empire and Start the Machine (2007-2008)

Tom DeLonge revealed in an interview with Kerrang! that the new album would be titled I-Empire and would be released on Universal/Island Records. He stated that the new album will be stripped down, a departure from the heavy effects found in We Don't Need To Whisper. DeLonge also revealed that I-Empire would contain 12 tracks, including "Star of Bethlehem", which was recorded in late 2006 and had already been released on the KROQ 2006 Christmas CD. 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. Delonge mentioned possibly releasing a fourth single recently at an interview for the premiere of Start the Machine he said there were many possibilities including "Call to Arms" and "Love Like Rockets".

On June 21, 2008, DeLonge released 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, and plan on releasing a feature film entitled I-Empire, named after their second album. The documentary had been submitted to several festivals for consideration, and DeLonge has said he hoped it would be released to theaters before coming out on DVD, though it never did. In an interview with SuicideGirls, David Kennedy described the feature film as "all these vignettes that intertwine kind of like Pink Floyd's The Wall meets Crash".

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

Third studio album (2009-present)

In January 2009 the band returned to the studio to begin recording their third album. On February 8, it was announced that Tom DeLonge's former band, Blink-182, had reunited. 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.

In May 2009, Tom DeLonge revealed, via Modlife, that the band will release their third album and long-awaited movie simultaneously on Christmas Day for free.

Band members

Current members

• Tom DeLonge — lead vocals, guitar (2005–present)
• David Kennedy — guitar, keyboards (2005–present)
• Matt Wachter — bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2007–present)

Former members

• Ryan Sinn — bass (2005-2007)

Discography

Main article: Angels & Airwaves discography

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

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"

External links

• Official website
• Template:Myspace