Since its formation and their 2006 debut album hyperbole, Angels and Airwaves have carved out quite a notoriety in the music business, thanks to ex-Blink182 man Tom DeLonge, who once proclaimed the band to be the "greatest rock and roll revolution for this generation" amongst other grandiose statements (tongue firmly in cheek obviously). Beyond establishing their stadium rock appeal, DeLonge had also been actively working on his entrepreneurial endeavours and launched Modlife this June, an online social networking service that enables artists to sell digital content directly to consumers. When they dropped by Singapore for a show recently, we caught up with the band -comprising guitarist David Kennedy (Over My Dead Body, Hazen Street, Box Car Racer), ex-Rocket From the Crypt, Offspring drummer Atom Willard and bassist Matt Wachter (30 Seconds to Mars)- and had a rather interesting time discussing Modlife, how it might effectively eliminate the need for record labels, as well as future album plans.

What was the general idea when you came up with Modlife?

Atom: Modlife kind of encapsulates everything from MySpace, YouTube, Facebook even to eBay, but you can pretty much do whatever you want with this website. With that, I introduce to you Tom DeLonge...

Tom: With this band, we are very ambitious and we want to do different things, like film and different types of media. We want to build a fanbase that we can have a real connection with. So when Modlife was created, we were not only able to have one-on-one conversations with our fans and live broadcasts to thousands, it also gives us the ability to have tools to do everything as small as a photo, or something as big as a pay-per-view. It is a time capsule that stores all the things that our band is involved with. It is definitely a blessing, and a tool that has challenged us in a lot of ways. I'm proud of it. I love it and I honestly can't think of any other website that I'd rather design or have. Websites are becoming complicated and now, there's a need to be economical. Modlife is not only really economical, it has everything you'll ever need and it's going to continue to grow, as far as tools available for bands.

Let's go a little further: in theory though, Modlife is not too dissimilar to social networking websites like the ones you mentioned, and Last.FM. What is Modlife's selling point?

Tom: There are a few different things on Modlife. It offers an operating system of sorts for the artist to use. They have live broadcast capabilities, they can sell their own music, put up videos, photos, pay per view, chatrooms...those are all on the site.

David: And it's really dumbed down for the user. It's super easy. For MySpace and the rest, there's usually a disconnection there, whereas for Modlife, it's as simple as literally clicking a button and uploading to the site. For us to be connected, that was the thing we had such a hard time with past fan clubs and being motivated to use MySpace or Facebook. For ourselves, this is so user-friendly where we can instantly connect with people without fail. Like, Matt's on another level with computers-

Matt: (I'm smart)

David: and I'm that guy that doesn't really know how to do anything besides check my email. But you can see that I have done things, and I can do everything with Modlife. That's a big selling point for artists.

Tom: That's for the artists. For the fans, they have their own user sites; not just a page, but a whole website that helps them not only to communicate in real time with their friends and meet people, but it creates a network of individuals who self-market and self-distribute their content on the operating systems. So it's very different from MySpace or Facebook. Yes, there's a social network component, but the social network is supporting the systems that, for the first time, give artists the ability to broadcast themselves in many different ways and create many new different types of revenue streams, and be in charge of their own careers...and to grow the art.

David: We can't just be dependent on other corporations to be investing in our band anymore. We have to go back to the true DIY mentality, and Modlife allows us to create that world where we are no longer committed to other people. It gives us a lot more freedom.

Is that part of the reason you decide to charge music consumers, even for videos, podcasts, etc? That's unconventional, since most bands nowadays are all about giving away such for free.

Tom: It's up to the band. If a band opens up a Modlife site and uses the operating system, they get to choose how they use it. They can have the whole thing up for free, or they can say 'subscribe to this and get X, Y and Z'; they can do pay per view events for their music, VIP parties, meet and greets, all using an automated ticket system. There are many ways to make money on it. The point is, it's up to the band. From subscription revenue of the Angels and Airwaves site alone, we were able to fund the I-Empire movie. Now that's an amazing thing. It's a new revenue source that has never existed before, and we were able to pay for a feature film which, in our minds, it's furthering the ambitions of the band. It was the most challenging, artistic thing we've ever done, and it's giving back to the fans a value of what the band, the music and the message is.

Atom: That's where the do-it-yourself avenue comes in, because it's a way to do what you want to do, create your art and express yourself without relying on conventional forms, like record sales. Record sales are not what they used to be, bands who used to rely on that for income and making sure they can tour, do the things they want to do, make more records and stuff…it's just no longer there.

What you're saying is, Modlife actually creates a new, stable income stream for bands? Even for smaller bands?

Tom: Yeah! Absolutely.

David: The idea is to put the money back into your business, you can go out and do two dollar bill shows or even free shows. If you create your own world, then you have your own money. Our idea was like, "What if a record label gave us money and we can market our band, what would we do with that money?" Well, record labels have definitely never done that, as far as giving somebody a cheque and say "Here you go, market your band however you want to", so we're always at the mercy of how they would market our band. So we're trying to figure out a way to earn our own money to market our band. There just isn't any more money coming from a label to do the marketing. We're trying to create that pool to put money back into it, and to move on with all the other ideas that we want to do. At the end of the day, this thing costs money. It costs a lot of money to develop the website itself, to do the movies…you know how much it costs just for the bandwidth, doing the webchats, the modcams and all that stuff? We're trying to be proactive and hopefully create a really cool environment that people do find value in.

Tom: If you ask anybody who subscribes to it, they'd say it's the best site they've ever been to, the best band site they've ever been to, and the best money they have ever spent.

David: It becomes a community, and they start creating mod into their vernacular, like Modcasts, Modblasts…

Tom: Thing is, Angels and Airwaves have to work to make the best use of their money. If a band opens a Modlife site and they don't update it with anything, they don't do any live broadcasts, and people are paying for nothing, then that's their fault. Modlife gives you the tools, and whenever we do anything on the site, whether we put up a photo, a video, or a live broadcast, we choose -at that moment-, if it's free or if it's only available to a premium member. It is at the band's mercy. They get to use the tools however they want. And it's pretty exciting.

With Modlife, do you reckon this system will be able to 'fix' the music industry?

Tom: Absolutely. This is huge, and as it grows over time, this can make ten times more revenue than record sales ever could. It's not going to be right away, but it can. And I think in the future, that's what a band needs. They need to use their own formula of how they use Modlife. Some subscription revenue, some sales from their music, some special events, some pay-per-view, and hopefully when it all adds together…

David: Hopefully a band can sustain itself without having the need for a label. As soon as labels decide you don't have any value, they just leave you behind. And for some bands, it's weird, but they just don't have the ability to take care of themselves.

Tom: We tried to come here on the first record but we couldn't do it. The label couldn't afford it.

David: And we can't get to Australia right now. It's like, we're right here now but we can't get to Australia because of the money. So we want to create our own sustainable business that isn't relying on anybody else. That way, we can truly do whatever we want without anybody else's influence, and hopefully people will want to be a part of it and be involved.

Atom: Ultimately it's not just about the band and the money; it's about creating a community. If people love the band, they can get as involved with the band as they want, and as close to us as they want to get. The more time they spend on the site, the more times they'll see us get on and chat or be there whenever we do a live Modcast. It's like the original fan club. Like way back in the day, where it was really exclusive and people got something really special for subscribing to a fan club. This is bringing back the same idea. Buying a record now is like, people don't even have the hard copy anymore. They just have songs that show up on their iPods. They don't look through the artwork, so this is a chance to give people images and videos to hang on to.

David: At the end of day, you don't have to pay for that part. You still can get photos on the regular website. But I promise, once you sign up and see Tom do a showercam, you're not going to regret it. You know what I mean? All of a sudden it becomes a small world you can play around in.

Tom: You gotta imagine…I just got a letter the other day from a parent and it was awesome, saying, "Tom you are an overpaid idiot borderlining on perverse". It's like, how could I have done that without Modlife?

Right, point taken. Looking forward, what can we expect from your next album?

Tom: In the past, we talked about doing a punk rock record or a drum n bass record. We all have a lot of ideas, one of which I talked to Matt about was to make a record and have Matt engineer something different on the side. The music we create is very atmospheric and can be beautiful on its own without the singing. I think it will be very cool for us to release music for people to play in their houses when they don't want to turn the TV on, just live, and have cool music in the background. But we'll see what happens.

We also hear you guys are planning a remix album of sorts. Tell us more about that, and will you be keen on giving away free music in the future?

Tom: We are working on a bunch of ideas in that category. We were working on some remixes, we just haven't had time to dive into it and finish it all. It's our goal to break down the barriers of getting our album out, and we would love to have free music. But we also want to have music that people can buy, songs that have a certain value to them. It's our goal to do different things like that.

Here's a generic question: which of your songs hold a special meaning to you?

Tom: Sometimes I refer to 'The Adventure' as the flagship moment where everyone understood what this band was going for.
Matt: 'The Adventure' is pretty consistent because so many people can relate to the idea of being stuck in a situation or relationship they're trying to get out of. Even before I joined the band, I heard that song, and it really, really was a powerful thing to me, because I was in a situation that I didn't want to be in anymore, I was trying to move on. Then playing that song for the first time, it was a pretty special and powerful moment for me…and everybody can relate to that. It's a good feeling seeing everyone connect at the same time like that...and now Atom is going to make fun of me.
Atom (pats Matt's shoulder): Aw it's an emotional thing, and it's special!

What do you see in the near future for Angels and Airwaves?

Tom: There's a little city outside of Colorado, it's called YeahYeahville, and YeahYeah is an old Indian word for testicles.
David: You see yourself in testicles in the near future?
Tom: I see myself in Testicleville.
Matt: Atom's going to be in an old folks' home.
Tom: Hopefully we'll be doing music more so on our own terms, since we already do everything on our own terms, to a degree that our ideas are larger than the band. We will be floating in midair-
David: We might be catching up to our ideas.
Tom: Yeah, and there'll be no gravity at our shows.
David: In the future we don't actually play anything. We just look at people and get them pregnant via our minds.
Tom: We will populate the Earth like a sea urchin. We'll release our seed into the air.
David: I don't think sea urchins do that.
Tom: Well they do it in the water. That's like the only thing I learnt in Biology. [IM]

Angels And Airwaves MySpace
Angels And Airwaves Modlife site

Modlife currently boasts profiles for Forever the Sickest Kids, The Color Fred, From First to Last, Finch, Runner Runner, The Silent Comedy and more. To sign up and find out more about Modlife, visit http://modlife.com.

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