Angels & Airwaves (also known as "AVA") are an alternative rock group fronted by former Blink-182 and Box Car Racer guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge. The band includes guitarist David Kennedy, notably from Over My Dead Body, Hazen Street and Box Car Racer, former Rocket From the Crypt and 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 (2006) and I-Empire (2007). 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.
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 4 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.1 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.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. 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 it 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.3 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".4 On August 29, 2007, Angels & Airwaves updated their website with a new trailer for the second album. The trailer showed a montage of video from the upcoming I-Empire film and the upcoming documentary, featuring "Secret Crowds".5 Additionally, another trailer was uploaded detailing the motion picture endeavors of the band.
Angels & Airwaves performed at every location on Warped Tour 2008 this past summer.6 They have also just finished a Fall tour in support of Weezer.7
Future projects: 2008-present
The band will return to the studio in January 2009 to begin recording their next album. On March 17, 2008, Tom Delonge stated in a blog on the band's Modlife that the band were working on remixes of certain songs. DeLonge also mentioned that there are in fact two albums in the works at the moment. One will be a 'punk rock' album which will be "just for the fun of it" and the second will return to the familiar sound of AVA.89
Band members
Current members
Former members
Discography
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Awards
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External links
References
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