Angels & Airwaves

Angels & Airwaves
File:Angelsandairwaves2.jpg
Background information
Years active	2005 – present
Members	Tom DeLonge David Kennedy Atom Willard Ryan Sinn

Angels and Airwaves is a gay alternative rock band created by former blink-182 and Box Car Racer guitarist/vocalist [[Tom DeLonge]. Tom is chill, but he should have stuck with blink. Angels and Airwaves is emo. alongside former Hazen Street and Box Car Racer guitarist David Kennedy, ex-Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn and current Offspring drummer Atom Willard. The band released their first single, "The Adventure," on May 18, 2006 and their debut album, We Don't Need to Whisper, on May 23, 2006.

History

Formation

File:AVA logo.jpg

Angels and Airwaves' logo

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, DeLonge trademarked the name "Angels and Airwaves" on June 24, 2005 amidst the lingering confusion of blink-182's abruptly announced "indefinite hiatus". DeLonge quickly recruited friends and fellow musicians David Kennedy, Ryan Sinn and Atom Willard to round out the band's roster.

In an interview with British magazine Kerrang!, DeLonge commented about the band's beginning:

Just before all the blink-182 stuff happened when we were in Europe, I had a really weird epiphany. My heart was beating about a hundred miles a minute for three weeks straight and it had never happened to me before in my life. I really felt like I'd been touched by something and I felt I was meant to do something massive.

Debut

Originally, "Valkyrie Missile" was slated for release via iTunes on December 13, 2005, DeLonge's 30th birthday. However, due to discussions with their record label, Geffen, the band decided to push the release date back to a later date. Instead, the Angels and Airwaves website produced the first ever glimpse at the movie currently in production, a 1-and-a-half minute long trailer featuring portions of the delayed song.

Angels & Airwaves released both a music video and a short film for their first single, "The Adventure"; the band also released a short film for "It Hurts" via the band's official website. Both are short sci-fi films and together form the first part of a proposed ten-part series, following the cast's struggle through an unfamiliar world. On October 3, 2006, the band released the third installment in the series, "The Gift".

File:Avacdcover.jpg

Angels and Airwaves' debut album We Don't Need to Whisper

"Do It for Me Now" was released in the US as the second single and "It Hurts" was released in the UK as the second single at the same time. The music video for "It Hurts" is in fact the short-film released on April 18th and was available to select on the UK music television channel Kerrang!.

In 2006, the band embarked on their first full-length tour, which was headlined by Taking Back Sunday and supported by Head Automatica and The Subways. Numerous one-stop dates at the Give It A Name 2006 festival were played with the likes of My Chemical Romance, Lostprophets, We Are Scientists, Hundred Reasons, Panic! at the Disco, The Bled, Thrice, Billy Talent, Goldfinger, Underoath, Paramore, The Ataris, Aiden and Atreyu. The band also played on The Late Show with David Letterman on May 15, 2006. Currently, the band is headlining a tour in the US, supported by The Sounds, which ends with a stop in Mexico City, Mexico. After this tour, the band plans to perform in Japan and Australia.

They also performed at two shows at London's Hyde Park and in Manchester supporting the Foo Fighters on their successful In Your Honor tour. Over 100,000 people over both days. Other bands they played with over the two days included The Strokes, Eagles of Death Metal, Motorhead, Queens of the Stone Age, Juliette and the Licks, and Brian May and Roger Taylor from Queen

On May 26, 2006 "We Don't Need to Whisper" was certified gold in Canada. The album has also gone two times platinum in the U.K.

Future Plans

Among the plans for a big future, AVA have announced they are planning on releasing a film involving their music. The World War II-based movie is being created primarily through the use of CGI. This "story" is apparently based upon Tom's life and will give viewers insight into the hiatus of blink-182. Currently, the only known cast member is Michael Ostman.

Before the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, DeLonge revealed news about the current events of the band. "The War" is the next single and the short film was released October 27th, 2006. The band is also writing the script for the new movie and filming for this is currently underway [1]. Furthermore, in September, on a MySpace bulletin, DeLonge stated that a new song, which is 8 and a half minutes long and contains 3 movements, would be released in a few weeks, and is tentitively called "Stars from Bethelehem - An Anthem For Peace", otherwise known as "Stars in the Sky". It was later debuted at the concert at Brisbane, Australia on October 19, 2006.

Recently, MTV asked Tom about the future of the band. Delonge stated that the next part of his three-to-five year process would be revealed next year. "It's bigger than just the band itself. It's a mixture of my businesses and the band, and when people laugh and say, 'Oh, yeah, what a big revolution that was!' ... they have no idea. I have access to developing this record far beyond what people can understand," he went on to say.

Experiencing music

Tom DeLonge stated in his PR Editorial Review:

So preachy, I know. And I don't mean for it to be. I wanted it to be the recording of an emotional event in my life. I love the idea of an album doing that, because I knew that if I could get 150,000 people in an arena to have the same feeling at the exact same moment, it would end up feeling like a religious event. I really want the room to be dark, with black light or a candle. People should have headphones on, and they should be really comfortable, maybe sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed. I spent a year and a half working on this record, trying my hardest to give people a moment of escapism. All I ask is 50 minutes of a lowered heart rate.

Band members

• Tom DeLonge - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Programming
• David Kennedy - Guitar
• Atom Willard - Drums
• Ryan Sinn - Bass, Back-Up Vocals, Tambourine

Band Assistance

• Roger Manning - Keyboardist on "We Don't Need To Whisper"

Discography

Albums

Album Cover	Date of Release	Title	Label	UK Album Chart Peak Position	UK sales	US Album Chart Peak Position	US sales
File:Avacdcover.jpg	May 23rd 2006	We Don't Need to Whisper	Geffen Records	6		4	430,000

Singles

Year	Title	Chart Positions				Album
		US Hot 100	US Modern Rock	Pop 100	UK Singles Chart
2006	"The Adventure"	55	5	51	20	We Don't Need to Whisper
2006	"It Hurts"	-	-	-	59	We Don't Need to Whisper
2006	"Do It for Me Now"	-	21	-	-	We Don't Need to Whisper
2006	"The War"	-	29	-	-	We Don't Need to Whisper

Trivia

• Recording of drums of the band's debut album, We Don't Need To Whisper, took place at the Foo Fighters' studio and at Tom's studio inside his house, also called "Never Pants Ranch".
• Angels and Airwaves' abbreviated name, AVA, is a partial reference to DeLonge's daughter, also named Ava. The abbreviation also, according to DeLonge, represents the band's initials with an inverted "A" in the middle, which stands for "victory". A third cause for the abbreviation is that when the letters are pronounced individually, it sounds like Avia, the beginning of the word "aviation", one of the band's artistic themes.
• The album cover for We Don't Need To Whisper was stated by Tom to represent "the infinite potential of a human being."
• At some of the later concerts, at the very end of the show, a banner is dropped with "LOVE" written across it. The "V" in "LOVE" is formatted the same as the second "A" in the logo.
• "The War" is the theme song for the MTV reality football show "Two-A-Days" and has also been used as background music during select televised PGA events.
• In the 2006 NFL Opening Night Game, the instrumental intro for "The Adventure" was used while the Pittsburgh Steelers introduced members of their previous Superbowl winning teams.
• In his ESPN NHL Season Preview, John Buccigross used a verse from "The Adventure" to describe the Chicago Blackhawks.

External links

• Angels & Airwaves Official Site