Tom DeLonge has big plans for Angels and Airwaves in 2008, on both stage and screen.
The group has a small venue tour set for early in the new year. But DeLonge tells Billboard.com he has more ambitious designs for a “large” tour that will take place in the fall.
“There’s 25 partners we’re gonna have,” says the former blink-182 guitarist, “but the first one is NASA, and I’m working on doing some incredible things with them and incorporating NASA’s technologies into our show. I think people will be wowed with what I have in mind. Hopefully I can pull it off.”
DeLonge says AVA’s late January and February shows will be “more straightforward … primarily more about theatrical lighting and getting the message straight across.” But that’s no small concern, either.
“A lot of our songs are religious in nature,” DeLonge explains, “not with faith-based religion but more about unity and what’s happening at that moment. The whole crowd is there and feeling the same thing at the same moment and very optimistic, and the message is full of hope. It’s just something different than running around and saying “f*ck, f*ck, f*ck,” which is what I did for 10 years (with blink) — and we still do a little bit now, too.”
Besides the live shows, DeLonge is also excited about the prospects for “Start the Machine,” a documentary about the formation of Angels and Airwaves. The film has been submitted to several festivals for consideration, and DeLonge is confident it will be released to theaters in 2008 as well before coming out on DVD.
“We started out making this documentary about the making of the record (AVA’s debut, ‘We Don’t Need To Whisper’), and so much more happened,” DeLonge says. “I told (director Todd Fjelsted), ‘Dude, just make it true and make it real and don’t let me come in there and edit you at all.’ I saw it the first time … and I’m like, ‘Jesus Christ, look at me. I’m crazy!'”
