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“I honestly think we are going to create world peace and I believe everyone is going to have one more baby because of this record. Even people who can’t have kids will have one baby because of us. That’s how fucking great it is!” Tom Delonge is certainly back, and by the sounds of things isn’t planning on keeping his feet on the ground. There’s excitement in his voice and the more he talks about his new ‘masterpiece’ its clear his grand predictions that embodied the release of Angels and Airwaves debut ‘We Don’t Need To Whisper’, have neither evaporated nor shrunk.
Delonge is a man on a mission and is using Angels and Airwaves as the vehicle in which to transport his ideology. He laments to Gigwise: “I do think as far as what is happening in music and what we have done previously in our careers, this is the best work we have ever done. Angels and Airwaves have absolutely the ability to compete with anyone.” Their ‘best work’ Delonge is beaming with pride about is ‘I Empire’, their second album in two years.
Everybody changes with time, a natural progression if you will. But there’s gradual change and then there’s a complete personality transplant. The Tom Delonge that helped drive Blink-182 to a world-conquering status was a carefree, immature skater-dude that spouted dick and fart joke at any given opportunity. There songs included ‘Fuck a Dog’ and ‘Dick Lips’. But then came the split nobody, including himself, had predicted nor prepared for. The band he had grown up with, the two best friends he shared everything with, disappeared in an instant. Delonge was understandably lost and despondent as he reveals: “I never saw the end of that band coming so when it did come it was a shock. I was sitting there when I didn’t want to play music and I was really depressed. So I said ok, how am I going to create a piece of music that makes me love music again, and make me feel the way I want to feel again.” This indicated a new direction and a visible growth in both Delonge’s music and his own personality. A fresh maturity was found “We came up with this sound. This very epic atmospheric music built on a crescendo and has a sonic lift. The lyrics are very optimistic and describe a world you want to be involved in. and that definitely had to come after something tragic in my artistic career” said Tom.
After the hype that surrounded Angels and Airwaves beginnings and the stark statements Delonge boldly spouted around the release of their debut LP, it is fair to say the impact was more of a whimper than a scene-smashing triumph. But Delonge is not about to back down, and certainly doesn’t show any sign of admitting he may have over sold himself. “When the last record came out and I said it was the best band in the world everyone gets so angry when you say that. Like ‘how could you be so fucking pompous! But music is totally subjective. Like how can you say one piece of art is better than another? And that’s what I thought was so funny about it. Because people start arguing and get pissed that you say that, but I’m basically just going out there and saying red is the best colour and everyone says you can’t say reds the best colour, how dare you. And that’s what so funny about it all.”
Though with a little more probing Gigwise gets the nearest thing to a ‘maybe I was a bit over ambitious’ declaration from Delonge as he reluctantly admits: “I do think we will eventually be the biggest rock band, but it might take 20 years or 2 years or somewhere in between . I think two years is a tiny bit ambitious to say that. It is an on going work of art”
Although Delonge is deeply serious about his work and the avenue he is furiously carving out, there is glimpses of his old mischievous self, this is evident during his revelations of what Angels fans can expect at a gig, he declares: “I can pretty much guess that every single person in the audience will be crying or jumping up and down shitting their pants at the same time.” Delonge even prepared a theory to why this will happen, “We actually approach that by just having really low frequencies on our instruments which makes people do it physically.” Jokes Tom
The majority of those fans, who have been promised quite a show, are there because of Delonge and fundamentally because of his past. They were Blink-182 worshipers and will therefore support anything that one of their disciples dabbles in. But Delonge is fully aware of this and thus includes snippets of Blink songs and Box Car Racer’s ‘There Is’ into Angles and Airwaves live shows. He explains: “I knew that the kids were there at the early parts and so a way for me to tip the hat and make a nod to them, is to play a verse of a Blink song then I would lead into an Angel’s song. Except we played ‘There Is’ whole because it is just David and I and we were both in Box Car Racer together. I wouldn’t say we would never play blink songs in there entirety but it’s still to be determined.
This inclusion of Blink in his new venture signifies that although the end was ugly and cost him two of his best friends, he still holds it so close to his heart as Delonge reveals: “I’m super proud of what I achieved with Blink. We sold 30 million records which is a feat in itself. The whole thing was based on rebellion and doing what you want, when you want, and not caring. Therefore as far as being in a rock band and having that tag, it’s probably the coolest one you can have. It certainly gives me a lot of heritage and it plays into where I’m at now. But the coolest thing is that Angels is the polar opposite. This band is about caring for every little detail and has so much message, when Blink had so little message.
While Delonge was having a musical rebirth, experimenting with the most epic and atmospheric sounds, the other two amigos from the defunct Blink-182, singer/bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker embarked on another pop-punk band called +44. They have publicly slated Delonge about the way he called it a day and his overwhelming self-belief and arrogance about his new project, but Delonge is not interested in a slagging match. He rather diplomatically states: “It was sad the way it ended, I think after so many years we found ourselves in such different places in our lives and with different priorities. We just hit a wall and wanted to go on different paths. I think we will come back and rekindle our friendships, but I think we need time to go off and be ourselves first.”
A second Angels and Airwaves album release in little over a year, signifies a rapid turn around that you may associate with the McFly’s and Girls Aloud’s of this world and not from a band who declare their sound to be ‘epic’ and a ‘journey’. Delonge sheds some light on it: “We are a very creative group of guys and it’s a really hard to balance being on tour and recording a record. As one you are really creative and the other you are really expressive. So if you go for too long without the other you can work yourself into a rut where you are just expressing yourself and not creating or vice-versa. We should have toured ‘We Don’t Need To Whisper’ more but we were itching to get back in the studio and create something even better”.
So what can we expect from ‘I Empire’? “it’s an extension of the first half of the record ‘whisper’ it’s more diverse and more songs are stripped down but it also has songs that are even bigger and more epic so I think everyone will be excited and love it” states Tom. And what does ‘I Empire’ mean and represent? Delonge tries to explain: “I Empire is about personifying itself here in real life, the iconography and imagery involved is about landing on this place and moving across on these machines and claiming the territory for itself. But the whole philosophical message is I-Empire, meaning the world that you want to create, see and experience exists everywhere you go.” Hmm simple as that then!
This awareness of his surroundings has also lead Delonge into the political field and with his brother in the Navy he also harbours strong views on war. “I’ve always been very involved in politics and have always followed that.” states Delonge: “I have had an obsession of how the world works and who makes the decisions that affects everybody, and if they want to affect a positive change. I think there are people that do and I can’t imagine why you ever need to kill anybody. It seems like the same reason why parents beat their kids or spank them because they can’t communicate with them. To me it’s just like a bunch of old republicans spanking each other.”
Delonge seems to shy away from anything negative theses day and this is the case when viewing the present music scene he admits: “Every band seems to be pissed and wearing make up and acting like they are angry, so the coolest thing is to be as positive as we are and that makes us really unique. We are all about camaraderie and optimism and we have these massive flags at every show that symbolises personal triumph”. Although Delonge is immensely proud of his pop-punk past he is not ready or keen to solely go down that avenue again. “I think there’s a total chance for Angels to play standard punk-rock music but to just be in a band that only plays that, nah I couldn’t do that it’s too limiting.”
Delonge is one hell of a talker, and this is demonstrated anytime the subject of Angels and Airwaves new album ‘I Empire’ is brought up. You are left wondering if it is perfect PR speak or completely from the heart. There is evidently a burning desire and love about the place he finds himself at, but you can’t help but feel something deeper and more fragile is hidden by this most outwardly arrogant persona. He has boldly embarked on a project without limitations or boundaries, has declare they will without doubt conquer all, and thus far taken any media criticism and the odd stray bottle at Reading/Leeds festival on the chin. For this Delonge claims a certain amount of respect for the sheer balls of it all, but will ‘I Empire’ give Angels and Airwaves the songs to back up the grandiose statements? Or is Tom Delonge just on another planet.
