Tom DeLonge is an incredibly busy man. Not only is he developing a paranormal kids’ TV series Strange Times, tackling some jaw-dropping projects with his multifaceted To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science company and working on a six-part mini-series called Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation, this week he also returned with new music from Angels & Airwaves.

It’s been two days since the trio – completed by guitarist David Kennedy and drummer Ilan Rubin – unveiled epic new single Rebel Girl on Rise Records, as well as news of their first headline tour in seven years. With the triumphant new track also set to feature on an upcoming AVA album and feature film, it’s hard to imagine just how Tom has found the time to embark on yet another ambitious project. But, as he tells Kerrang!, his many ventures outside of music also impressively tie up perfectly within the band’s comeback.…

“Music is my life and who I am, but I’m a lot more than that as well, and I got sidetracked starting my company because I had an opportunity,” he explains of how Angels & Airwaves’ new music first came about during this start-up period. “I actually created To The Stars as an entertainment company to create the multimedia parts of the Angels & Airwaves albums – it was to bill these movie projects that could be coupled with an album, so we could do these big art projects.

“One of those stories was about UFOs, and I was going to put out there some stuff that I knew had never been out there, and it would probably ruffle some feathers in a bad way in the U.S. government. I spent the greater part of a year working my way into those places within the U.S. government that manage that subject, making relationships and getting them to understand what I was doing so I wouldn’t get in their way. It’s not some big conspiracy, but it’s just a very difficult subject that they have to deal with, so I didn’t want to come out and create a bunch of uproar by putting out a hundred million dollar movie and scare a bunch of people that have hard jobs to do!

