Thomas Matthew Delonge was born in Poway, California on December
13, 1975. While attending Poway High School, he was given a
guitar at the age of 15 where he proceeded to teach himself how
to play basic chords. Tom claims his biggest influences at the
time were Fugazi, NOFX, Descendants, Screeching Weasel, Jimmy
Eat World and The Queers.
During his tenure at Poway, he meet Mark Hoppus and formed the
band Blink 182 in 1992 with friend Scott Raynor. Delonge played
guitar and shared lead vocals with Hoppus who also played bass
with Scott Raynor on drums. While the band practiced in Tom's
garage at night, Delonge kept random jobs like delivering cement
and being a waiter at Gary's Chicken and Ribs. Raynor was
replaced as drummer in 1998 with Travis Barker of The Aquabats
right before the release of Blink 182's Enema Of The State
Record, which launched them into mainstream success, selling 12
million albums with it's catchy, Pop-Punk sound.
In 2001 Delonge started Really Likeable People(RLP) with two
other partners. RLP was intended to be a collection of companies
whose purpose was to support up and coming artists. These
companies include Loserkids.com, Atticus clothing and Macbeth
footwear. By 2005 Tom has sold over 20 million combined albums
with Blink 182 and spent some time in Box Car Racer, a more
serious side project he formed with Travis Barker and David
Kennedy, a highschool friend. During the release of Blink 182's
Greatest Hits album, Blink announced they were going on an
"Indefinite Hiatus" due to artistic differences and Delonge's
wishes to spend less time on the road and more time with his
family.
In November 2005, Delonge started Angels And Airwaves, a new
group where he was committed to creating positive music that he
hoped would inspire kids to make a difference. AVA's first album
was, We Don't Need To Whisper reached #4 on the Billboard 200
and went gold.
Tom currently resides in The Rancho Santa Fe Community in San
Diego, California where he lives with his wife and two kids.
David Kennedy
David James Kennedy was born in San Diego, California on July 8, 1976.
With San Diego being a breeding ground for the hard core punk scene.
David found himself surrounded by like minded musicians. He had
extensive experience playing the guitar and joined the hardcore band
Over My Dead Body in 2001. In 2002 he teamed up with lifelong friend Tom
DeLonge and decided to switch his musical efforts to DeLonge's new side
projects, Box Car Racer. The group put out one CD on MCA Records with
their single "I Feel So" reaching #8 on US Modern Rock Chart. After Box
Car Racer, David went on to join the hardcore punk "Supergroup" Hazen
Street with members of MadBall, H20, The Cromags and New Found Glory.
Right before they released their self-titled debut in 2004. the band
became recognized after an extensive tour with P.O.D. The band played a
few shows after that and had a goal to release another record, but that
never came to fruition. When Blink 182 went on indefinite hiatus in
2005, DeLonge once again approached David to write music together for
Angels And Airwaves. David now plays guitar for AVA, infusing his
hardcore punk influence into the deep sound of the band. He currently
lives in Poway, California.
- David designs and fabricates furniture with his brother Jacob.
- David's only mode of transportation is motorcycle (currently a Buell
RIP Triumph)
- He has a dog named Zissou.
Adam "Atom" Willard
Atom Willard, born August 15, 1973, currently lives in Los Angeles,
California, with his wife, Heather. He is best known for his amazing
drumming in The San Diego Band, Rocket From The Crypt. Atom was one of
the original founding members of the band, joining when he was 16 years
old. After two records on Cargo (Also home of Blink-182's Cheshire Cat)
Rocket signed with Interscope Records and gained a huge amount of
popularity in the mid-90's. After ten years in the band Atom left
R.F.T.C. in 2000. He kept busy playing with various friends and artists,
including Melissa Auf Der Maur, The Alkaline Trio, Moth, and with Pat
Wilson, (Weezer) released "Land Air Sea" on Epitaph Records with the
band The Special Goodness in 2002. In 2003 Willard began drumming with
The Offspring until 2007, embarking on several tours around the word
including the 2005 Vans Warped Tour. While Offspring were on a break from
touring in 2007, Atom began to focus his efforts in the direction of
Angels And Airwaves, making the decision to devote his drumming skills
full-time to the San Diego Band.
Matt Wachter
OK....I don't like to talk about myself....So this is weird. I'll try to
be brief.
My name is Matthew Wachter and I was born on January 5th, 1976 in Scenic
Pottsville, Pa. I grew up in New Jersey with my mum, dad and 3 brothers.
I always love music from as far back as i can remember. My mum made my
brother and I take piano lessons when we were kids. We all hated it, but
I seemed to be pretty good at it so she made me stick with it. I think
this was the bargaining chip for convincing her to let me play the
drums. Enter the school band Nerd. Yup...That was me. At least it was
the drum section and not the flute. My dad bought me my first drum set
from a yard sale for $100. It was a rogers holiday series, 4 piece,
mother of pearl kit. Sadly it was stolen by a metal band that I played
with when I was 12. Burn in hell fuckers.
My older brother started to pick up the guitar during this time. He
showed me 3 power chords and I played them every day....All day.
From there it was a slow, gradual transition to the bass. A friend and I
started a band in the 9th grade. He played guitar better than me so it
was decided that I should play bass. As with any new instrument I became
obsessive compulsive. I was still listening to alot of metal at the
time. Cliff Burton, the original bassist for Metallica, was my
inspiration for the four strings. A band called the suicidal tendencies
bridged the gap for me between metal and punk. From there I got turned
on to bands like the Descendants, Green day, Gorilla Biscuits, Bad
Religion, Fugazi and on and on.
I played in various bands throughout high school. All different
styles....Indie, punk, hardcore. Fast forward through those 4 years of
torture and in 1994 I graduated and moved to Boston to attend Berklee
college of music. There I studied music production and engineering. I
still played bass and guitar in alot of different bands. I graduated in
1998 and immediately went on tour playing guitar with a band called
Boxer. It was short lived and found myself back in Boston playing more
bands.
In 2001 I decided it was a good time for a move.... To Los Angeles.
About 3 months after moving to LA, I joined 30 Seconds To Mars and
recorded and toured with them for the next 6 years. In March of 2007 I
left the band. It was nice being home...Sleeping in my own bed...Next to
my wife...And my dog. Oh yeah...I got married in 2006 to my beautiful
wife Libby. She put up with alot of my shit throughout these years. She
rules. We have a dog called Izzy. He rules too.
You can read an
interview to find out the romantic details of how I got in Angels and
Airwaves. I love being in this band and i'm a happy person these days.
