In 2005, when pop-punk superstars
blink-182 announced an indefinite hiatus, the band split into two side projects:
+44 and
Angels & Airwaves. The latter group, fronted by
Tom DeLonge, went in a synth-friendly, arena rock direction, debuting in 2006 with
We Don't Need to Whisper. By the late 2010s,
DeLonge had officially parted ways with
blink, and
Angels & Airwaves was a full-fledged entity with half-a-dozen releases in their catalog including the two-part Love and 2014's
The Dream Walker. After a short break,
DeLonge resurrected the project in 2019, with their sixth album,
Lifeforms, arriving in 2021.
With the hiatus of pop-punk superstars
blink-182 in full effect by the fall of 2005, singer/guitarist
DeLonge revealed the formation of his new band -- one he'd already been working with for six months -- called
Angels & Airwaves.
DeLonge proclaimed that his new music would borrow arena-sized elements from bands like
U2 and
Pink Floyd and, ultimately, be something of a revolution to change the face of rock & roll forever. Rounding out his lineup were guitarist David Kennedy (
Boxcar Racer,
Hazen Street), drummer
Atom Willard (
Rocket from the Crypt,
the Offspring), and bassist
Ryan Sinn (
the Distillers), and the group made their live debut on April 12, 2006, to a sold-out crowd at Pomona, California's Glass House. Those unable to attend the show were given a taste of
Angels & Airwaves' shimmering, arena-ready rock later that spring, when
We Don't Need to Whisper was released on the Geffen label.
The album was met with mixed reviews but went gold nonetheless, due in large part to a popular presale that ensured the band a healthy first week of sales. Several U.K. festival appearances and a month-long headlining tour followed, and the group also served as an opening act for
Head Automatica and
Taking Back Sunday during a tour of American venues. After replacing
Sinn with former
30 Seconds to Mars bassist
Matt Wachter,
Angels & Airwaves returned in 2007 with their second album, the equally dramatic
I-Empire. Although deemed by
DeLonge to be "as exciting as rock 'n' roll gets!" in an interview with Kerrang!,
I-Empire didn't fare nearly as well as the previous album, with sales eventually stalling around 260,000 copies in America. A stateside tour in early 2008 proved to be fairly popular, though, and the group remained on the road by joining the Warped Tour later that year.
At the Grammy Awards on February 8, 2009,
DeLonge climbed on-stage with
Travis Barker and
Mark Hoppus to announce plans for a
blink-182 reunion. The band toured that summer and spent a significant amount of time in the recording studio, where sessions for a new
blink-182 album kept
DeLonge busy. He found enough free time to record a third album with
Angels & Airwaves, however, and the finished product -- simply titled Love -- was released free of charge on Valentine's Day 2010. The second part of Love arrived in November 2011, not long after
DeLonge released his reunion album with
blink-182, along with a set that combined both parts of the album.
The next stage of
Angels & Airwaves began in April 2014, when
DeLonge announced plans for another ambitious multimedia project. During the recording of the album, bassist
Wachter left the band and was replaced by ex-
Thrice member Eddie Breckenridge. The new album, entitled
The Dream Walker, appeared in early December; it debuted at 39 on the Billboard 200. Also in 2014,
blink-182 were purportedly in the planning stages of recording another album. However, in 2015,
Hoppus and
Barker revealed to Rolling Stone that they had parted ways with
DeLonge and replaced the guitarist with
Alkaline Trio's
Matt Skiba.
DeLonge then responded on social media that any decision for the band to move forward was made without him.
Following the split with
blink-182,
DeLonge revealed that he would release two
Angels & Airwaves albums -- as well as two solo efforts -- in 2015. He managed to release a single
Angels & Airwaves EP in September (...Of Nightmares) as well as his first solo album,
To the Stars: Demos, Odds and Ends, which featured demos recorded for both
blink-182 and
Angels & Airwaves projects. The second promised
Angels & Airwaves effort was issued in April 2016. The
Chasing Shadows EP debuted in the Billboard 200 at number 109 and was paired with a novel of the same name, written by
DeLonge and A.J. Hartley.
The group returned three years later with a new lineup --
DeLonge and Kennedy were joined by drummer
Ilan Rubin (
NIN,
Paramore) and bassist Matt Rubano -- and a new label, Rise Records. They issued the synth-washed single "Rebel Girl" later that year, with "All That's Left Is Love" arriving in 2020. The former track eventually landed on their sixth official set, 2021's
Lifeforms. Produced by the band and
Aaron Rubin, the album also included the singles "Euphoria" and "Spellbound." ~ Corey Apar & Andrew Leahey