Tom DeLonge’s space-rock project Angels & Airwaves played their first show in seven years Wednesday night, where they debuted new songs like “Rebel Girl,” and revived throwbacks like “The Adventure” and Box Car Racer’s “There Is.” It was the beginning of a big tour that will take them through October.
To mark the beginning of their comeback tour, the band has released “Kiss & Tell,” a new song featuring the driving New Wave sounds and atmospheric hooks that differentiated Angels & Airwaves from DeLonge’s other group, blink-182. “The beginning of the song is really an ode to the Beach Boys,” DeLonge said of the song, which came with a video directed by Matt Thompson. “It opens with three-part harmonies to create an introduction with multi-dimensionality. We wanted to create a sound that had electronic elements right alongside classic rock and pop punk melodic structures. Lyrically, this song is specifically about balancing on the edge of a razor blade. Doing something you’re not supposed to be doing, and although you might die while doing it, it’s still very much keeping you feeling alive.”
Earlier this summer, DeLonge gave an in-depth interview to Rolling Stone about his work as a UFO researcher, and where Angels & Airwaves were headed. “What I want is to bring back a lot of those atmospherics and soaring landscapes,” he said. “And we are doing that. So far, on the first third of the record, there’s a bit of that in there. The big crescendo when it builds and all that kind of stuff. The second song that we’re planning on releasing, if we still go with it, [could have] lived on the I-Empire and We Don’t Need to Whisper records.” It appears that song was “Kiss & Tell.”
DeLonge also said that he’s working on the band’s first set of new songs since 2016’s Chasing Shadows. ” It’s coming out with a movie. I co-wrote a movie and it goes into production in just a few weeks. Then when I come out of that and go into post, we’ll score it. That will kind of dictate the second half of the album. Both of those will come out together somewhere around the tour or shortly thereafter. It’s going to be hard to say because this is a big project.”
See Angels and Airwaves’ (guitarist David Kennedy and drummer Ilan Rubin, and touring bassist Matt Rubano) tour dates here.