Angels & Airwaves Are The Valkyrie Missile Of Rock

Angels & Airwaves are looking to change the way you think about music.

If not that, then they at least want to change the way you think about their band. The quartet — featuring ex-Blink-182 frontman/guitarist Tom DeLonge, Offspring/Rocket From The Crypt drummer Atom Willard, Distillers bassist Ryan Sinn and Box Car Racer guitarist Dave Kennedy — doesn't want to be thought of in terms of its members' past achievements.

"One of my goals is to definitely be looked at as a new band," states Willard. "I want it to be, 'Here's this new band, here's these new songs,' not, 'What have they done before?,' you know? I want that to be less of a focal point and more of an aside."

It's not hard to separate the group from their stints in other bands, as their We Don't Need To Whisper debut is miles away from anything you could consider pop-punk. It has more in common with U2 than Blink-182.

"Getting that sense of space travel, just complete velocity, that was the whole thing about the 'Valkyrie Missile' song," Willard says of the opening track, which opens with Morse code and conversing fighter pilots.

"The Valkyrie Missile was the thing that carried the atomic bomb. It was just gonna come out and wipe out everything that you knew and destroy everything that you knew, change your whole way of life.

"In a way, that's what we wanted that song to do, and that's what we wanted the record to do, to open up another world. It's going to destroy everything you know about music and completely destroy everything you know about us."

The band are taking a multimedia approach to their music through high-concept music videos and a movie that's in the works.

"The whole idea was to give people other reasons to be excited about the band and the music," explains Willard.

"It's another way to visually experience what you're hearing. When I was a kid, we'd get records and open up the cover and you would just look at the insert and look at the jacket, and that was what you had to identify yourself with the band.

"In this day of crazy technology and all the information that's available on the internet, people need more than just a CD cover to make that same connection. We're trying to make that 'record cover' through the internet and through these short films and the different pictures we have out to bring people closer."

Following a brief run through clubs across North America, the band will embark on a tour of larger venues this summer.

"The reason we decided to do the clubs was because we didn't want to seem as though you should appreciate us and that we should be allowed to sell out arenas because we were in these bands or whatever," says Willard. "We're a new band, and these are the places you play when you're a new band.

"The reality is, the stuff is set up to be huge and grandiose with production, huge sweeping lights, banners and backdrops — all the production you can think of. We just want to go all the way and create a whole other world for you to come into and experience the music.

"We want you to feel velocity, we want you to feel that you're flying through the trees. We want the music not only to surround you, but just bombard your every sense. We want to give you some kind of show that's beyond a regular rock concert."

You can feel the music at these shows:

May 24 Toronto, ON @ The Phoenix
July 5 Toronto, ON @ Molson Amphitheatre