Angels & Airwaves Band Music;
is an American alternative rock supergroup led by Blink-182 guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge. Other members are guitarist David Kennedy (from Over My Dead Body, Hazen Street and Box Car Racer), bassist Matt Wachter (from 30 Seconds to Mars) and drummer Ilan Rubin (from Lostprophets and Nine Inch Nails). Former original members are bass guitarist Ryan Sinn (formerly of The Distillers), who left the group in 2007 for reasons still unclear, as well as drummer Adam "Atom" Willard (formerly of The Offspring and Rocket from the Crypt), who amicably parted ways with the band in fall 2011 shortly before the release of their fourth album.
Formed after Blink-182 went on hiatus in 2005, the band has continued to record and tour despite DeLonge reigniting his career with Blink-182 in 2009. The band has established themselves as very prolific musicians having released four studio albums We Don't Need to Whisper (2006), I-Empire (2007), Love (2010) and Love: Part Two (2011) in the space of 5 years. The project also resulted in the documentary film Start the Machine (2008). In 2011, accompanying the two Love albums, the group scored and produced the science fiction drama film Love by director William Eubank in 460 theatres nationwide during their multimedia event, Love Live. Tom Delonge has said in an interview that the band is working on two new films (Strange Times and Poet Anderson) with accompanying studio albums.
Of the first two albums, the band says that they were mainly influenced by the music of Radiohead and Pink Floyd, combining them with the grandiosity of U2. Of the first album, Delonge said that it would be "the best music in generations", but afterwards admitted that during this time he was addicted to painkillers.Love project shows further blending of the band's musical aspirations of epic and grandiosity and the cultural revolution in the digital era.
Formation and origins: 2004–2005
Tom DeLonge began working on new material during Blink-182's final tour in 2004 and shortly after they began their break in February 2005. For half a year he worked alone in his home studio before gathering musicians to form the band. DeLonge 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. As rumors were floating around about the band's "break-up", DeLonge chose to abstain for six months 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. The band included former Hazen Street guitarist and high-school friend David Kennedy, former Rocket from the Crypt drummer Atom Willard and former The Distillers bass guitarist Ryan Sinn. Atom Willard told Shave magazine that the experience of all the members of the band made the band formation very easy. "There’s nobody trying to figure out what is and what isn’t going to work, not just for themselves but for music and for a band, what life’s going to be like on the road and all that kind of stuff. Everybody had enough experience to just buckle down and do the work. It really has made it easier than anything else."
First albums and development: 2005–2009
Soon after forming, the band began recording its first album in DeLonge's studio in California from mid-2005 to early 2006. However, after a fan e-mail hacked DeLonge and stole four demos, Angels & Airwaves had no other choice but to release "The Adventure" as their first single, which was leaked onto radio stations, causing a premature release on May 18, 2006. A few days later, on May 23, they released their first album, We Don't Need to Whisper. The album reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200, and went gold in both the US and Canada. Despite this success, critics gave generally mixed reviews, with one noting that “while well-intentioned [the band] failed to reach the lofty heights to which they aspire”, especially in light of claims made by DeLonge that the album was “the best music made in decades”. Yet, later that year, popularity picked up with the release of singles "The War", "Do It For Me Now" and "It Hurts". The remainder of the year into 2007 was taken up with tours, and in early 2007, the supergroup returned to the studio to work on a follow-up album.
However, problems accumulated and on April 23, 2007, AVA 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 , filled in for the show and was later confirmed as a permanent member.