Angels and Airwaves Movement // News, Forum, Downloads, Gallery, Art Work and a Positive Movement of LOVE!

[SPIN MAGAZINE] Hey, Tom. You've become quite the businessman recently. Did you envision this for your career?
No. But what started as a hobby has grown into a real business with real people and families and mortgages. With Modlife, I'm hoping to help bands. So I'm very fortunate.

It's like you're leading two different lives. Is it awkward cracking nasty jokes after having become a family and businessman?
No, because I'm still that guy. My friends and I still go out, have some drinks and crack dick jokes and try to offend people. But then we talk about larger world concepts. It's indicative of my generation -- you're smarter than people give you credit for but at the same time you don't care if people give you credit at all.

Angels & Airwaves released LOVE as a free download. How are you making any money?
[Laughs] You know, if a band on a label sold a few hundred thousand copies of their record these days they wouldn't make any money. But if a band can pump out 10 million copies of a record for free, and 50,000 of those fans come to the band's website to watch pay-per-view videos or buy a t-shirt, that's roughly $10 million in revenue per year. Modlife combines all these new revenues streams and that's what financed our new album and movie -- and we were the first band to use it. It's a whole new economic equation and we're trying to solve this music industry crisis from the inside, not from the top where the executives are.

Is there anything you'd like to tell those top executives?
It's funny, as soon as Universal found out about Modlife they flew me to New York and had me present the technology to Universal Worldwide via satellite. I didn't know it at the time, but it was all because Universal thought Modlife meant the end of their business. They were actually doing intelligence work -- they're scared to death.

What's the concept behind LOVE?
We loved the idea of esoteric symbolism. Geometric shapes hold an energy pattern and scientists did some experiments, which say certain geometric shapes can affect matter around them. It's simply because when a human looks at a shape, they instantly receive energy from their brain. So we reworked the geometric shape of the word "Love" (see here), so when people see that word it instantly provides energy. That was the foundation of how we built the album and the movie.

You've said that with LOVE you wanted to send chills down listeners' spines. What music still sends chills down yours?
I'm a huge stadium rock fan, but I'm also a fan of everything from Massive Attack to Peter Gabriel, U2, the Police, Radiohead, and Coldplay. I've realized that I love all forms of music and get excited when any artist goes crazy and creates something that is an experience. As I've matured as an artist, I've realized how hard people work to deliver something like that.

Tell me about LOVE the movie.
It evolved into something much grander than originally planned -- it blew our minds. The movie is meant to be a sonic and visual experience. The narrative crosses time and space. It's a story of hope, love, and the interconnectedness between people. There are real actors and incredible cinematography. We recruited Oliver Stone's editors, Darren Aronofsky's sound designers, and specialists who worked on computer-generated imagery on Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. But we're not competing with Avatar. It's an independent film and it took us four years to film because the director built a space station by hand. It's an art film that's meant to further the ambition and message of the band.

Was LOVE influenced by your favorite sci-fi movies?
Oh, yeah. We're huge Stanley Kubrick fans. The director of LOVE [27-year-old Will Eubank] used to be a cinematographer and he aspired to shoot scenes the way Kubrick would. So, LOVE has that Kubrick tonality to it, but this is not a Stanley Kubrick movie -- there will never be another. At the same time, LOVE has a modern feel. For example: In one scene, these astronauts go through a wormhole sequence and you feel like you're being slapped around inside your head by a sonic boom. It's meant to have a juxtaposition from classic sci-fi movie to something more modern you might see in theaters now.

What's the plan with Blink-182?
We have a lot of ideas and a lot of exciting stuff, but I'm so deep into the Angels & Airwaves stuff. There's no news I'm going to release without the other guys.

During the recording of the first A & A album you were addicted to narcotic painkillers. How does it feel to look back at that time after coming so far?
I was going through a big change in my life, coming from a band that was gigantic to starting all over again. It wasn't an easy thing for me and I said stupid shit in the press and made myself look like a moron. The only thing I can say is that, well, I am a moron and I do say stupid shit. I don't believe that I'm better than anybody, but I do believe that I'll try harder than most and I hope that people just join me for a little bit of a ride.

I thought I would make a special video update today, we've got two interviews with the band and two incredible covers.

Interview on the Big J Show

Interview with MTV
http://mtv.com/news/articles/1632245/20100219/angels_and_airwaves.jhtml

Acoustic/Violin cover of The War


Cover of The Gift


Also fans are posting video blogs on the forum, fancy joining in?

 

Update: All dates and tickets can be found on Modlife http://modlife.com/angelsandairwaves/tour

All the North American tour dates have surfaced *Cue fireworks*

3/27 Anaheim, CA Bamboozle at the Angel Stadium of Anaheim: on sale!
4/5 San Francisco, CA Warfield Theater on sale: Sun, 02/21/10 10:00 AM
4/7 Seattle, WA The Showbox SODO
4/8 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
4/9 Vancouver, BC Vogue Theater
4/11 Edmonton, AB Edmonton Event Center presale begins: Wed, 02/17/10 10:00 AM
4/12 Calgary, AB MacEwan Hall Ballroom presale begins: Wed, 02/17/10 10:00 AM
4/14 Fargo, ND The Venue
4/15 Des Moines, IA Val Air Ballroom presale begins: Wed, 02/17/10 10:00 AM
4/16 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theater
4/17 Milwaukee, WI The Eagles Club
4/18 Minneapolis, MN Epic Nightclub presale begins: Wed, 02/17/10 10:00 AM
4/19 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
4/22 Columbus, OH PromoWest Pavillion presale begins: Wed, 02/24/10 10:00 AM
4/23 Cleveland, OH Time Warner Cable Amphitheater presale begins: Thu, 02/18/10 10:00 AM
4/24 Chicago, IL Aragon Theater
4/25 Cincinnati, OH Bogart's
4/27 Detroit, MI The Fillmore Detroit on sale!
4/28 Toronto, ON Sound Academy presale begins: Thu, 02/18/10 10:00 AM
4/29 Rochester, NY Main Street Armory on sale: Sat, 02/20/10 12:00 PM
4/30 East Rutherford, NJ Hoodwink Festival
5/1 Potsdam, NY SUNY Potsdam
5/2 East Rutherford, NJ The Bamboozle Festival
5/3 Baltimore, MD Rams Head Live
5/4 Boston, MA House of Blues
5/6 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
5/7 Philadelphia, PA Electric Factory on sale: Sat, 02/20/10 10:00 AM
5/8 Wallingford, CT The Dome
5/10 Norfolk, VA The NorVa
5/11 Charlotte, NC The Fillmore Charlotte on sale!
5/13 Tampa, FL The Ritz on sale!
5/14 Pompano Beach, FL Pompano Beach Amphitheater presale begins: Wed, 02/17/10 10:00 AM
5/15 Orlando, FL Hard Rock Live
5/16 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle
5/18 Houston, TX House of Blues
5/19 San Antonio, TX Sunset Station on sale: Sat, 02/20/10 10:00 AM
5/20 Dallas, TX The Palladium Ballroom
5/22 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium presale begins: Wed, 02/17/10 10:00 AM
5/24 Salt Lake City, UT In The Venue
5/25 Tempe, AZ The Marquee
5/27 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Palladium
5/28 Las Vegas, NV The Joint/Hard Rock Hotel & Casino

Ticketmaster is where you can buy the tickets and find out available sale dates.

Alernative Press was the source for the full list of dates.

It was suggested on the AVA Movement forum that we rise up and gather!

Are you ready to do that?!

Here's the directive number 1: If you have a Twitter account, go now and Tweet: "#avaLOVE http://modlife.com/angelsandairwaves/love"
The point is to get it in trending topics, which would essentially be a lot, a whole hell of a lot of exposure.

Here's the directive number 2: If you have a Facebook account, go there now and download the album using this link: http://apps.facebook.com/modlifedigital/ Tom's request states, "Please use this link to download the album one more time from your facebook page."

Are you in?! MOVE!