Q&A: Tom DeLonge

Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge (left to right), with their customized Honda Civic Si Coupe (Credit: Scoop Marketing for the Honda Civic Tour)

If you tell Tom DeLonge he’s the hardest working guy in rock music right now, he won’t disagree. “I know,” he acknowledges with a sigh. “It’s nuts.”

Here is DeLonge’s to-do list for the next four months:

On Aug. 5, he and his Blink-182 bandmates launch the 2011 Honda Civic Tour alongside co-headliners My Chemical Romance. (They’re also giving away a custom Honda Civic Si Coupe they helped design.)

On Aug. 10, he and his other band, Angels and Airwaves, will perform at the one-night-only premiere of “Love,” the sci-fi feature film they spent the past five years working on with writer/director William Eubank.

On Sept. 27, Blink-182 will release “Neighborhoods,” their first studio album in eight years and first since reuniting in 2009, brought back together in the wake of a plane crash that nearly killed drummer Travis Barker.

On Nov. 11 (“11/11/11,” as DeLonge likes to say), Angels and Airwaves will release the complete “Love” project: the feature film and a double album, the first half of which debuted as a free download on the band’s website on Valentine’s Day in 2010.

Got all that? Oh, there’s also a behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of “Neighborhoods,” but DeLonge admits he’s a bit sketchy on the details. “I do not know the plan for that, sadly enough. It’s just been so much stuff going on the past year, I keep forgetting that we even have that, too.”

Still, despite all the craziness, the 35-year-old singer/guitarist sounded relaxed and happy as he filled Metromix in on what he did know—about “Love,” Blink-182, his recent brush with cancer, and the highly celebrated return of “Boomer,” the fun-loving, mustachioed ‘70s character he introduced in Blink’s “First Date” video in 2001.

I just watched the trailer for “Love” and it kind of blew my mind. It looks like “2001” mixed with a Civil War epic.
We tried to tackle different elements of the film with very limited tools—just our passion and our endurance to try to do something that was far beyond what people could expect us to do. That’s why it took us five years. But we were able to present something that’s extraordinarily ambitious for the $500,000 budget that we had. I mean, you never film a war scene if your budget’s five hundred grand. You don’t go to space. And you definitely don’t get CGI. You don’t get any kind of special effects. But we got all those things, because people really worked hard to get by on the bare minimum, but still deliver something that was really artistic and cool and credible.

What was the idea behind doing the one-night-only screening? Did you want to make it feel like more of an event, or was it just a good opportunity to get the film into a whole bunch of theaters?
It was both. We talked to a lot of different companies about all of our options, but it was by far the best opportunity for what we are. You know, we’re able to perform and have a movie, all in the same thing. And hit 500 theaters, which never would have happened with any other independent distributor. They just don’t have the budgets anymore. The independent film industry is hurting really bad, the same way the music industry was.

Are there plans to release it in some other way, like as a DVD?
Oh, absolutely. Starting on 11/11/11, it will be coupled with the double [“Love”] record. From AngelsandAirwaves.com, you can get all three.

Have Mark [Hoppus, Blink-182's singer/bassist] and Travis seen the movie?
No, they haven’t. But most of my friends haven’t seen it, either. I don’t know what they would think of it. We’re all so different in Blink that it’s hard to say if it’s their style. But I think they would totally support me and want to [see it]. Everybody’s really supportive of each other’s stuff in Blink.

Is the lead single, “Up All Night,” a pretty good hint of what the rest of the new Blink album sounds like?
Not totally, because there’s much diversity. There’s a few throwback songs from the ‘90s, there's a few experimental things, there’s a few things that sound like our independent side projects. If you take everything that we do as individual artists and put it in a big can and shake it up and pour it out, it’s all there.

I would think coming back together again after all those years not playing together—your playing styles are probably all a little different, right? And you’re probably all better musicians, too.
Yeah, we are. We’re better musicians, we’re better songwriters, I think better performers. And better communicators. So I think all of us are always in a state of transition and flux, but for the better.

Following the 2005 breakup or the hiatus or whatever you want to call it—do you remember the first time you saw Mark and Travis after that?
Yes, I do. It was after Travis’s plane crash. I went up and met with both of those guys up at Travis’s house. That was sad, it was awkward, it was exciting—all in the same breath.

Do you remember the first thing you guys said to each other?
I think it was kind of a half-smile, like “Hey.” Like, “What’s happening?” [Laughs] It was odd. I remember asking them specifically, “What did you guys learn about yourselves in that time off?” I remember that question. “I’ll tell you what I learned about myself.” I remember saying that.

And what was the answer to that question?
Ah…well…personal.

Fair enough. Your alter ego Boomer is back doing this “Boomer Loves Boobies” campaign for breast cancer awareness—and just recently, you also revealed that you’d been treated for skin cancer last year. Were those two things interconnected?
Yeah, they were. Keep-A-Breast.org is in my building, where my other companies are and my studio. I got diagnosed with skin cancer and it was actually on the left side of my chest—which is technically kind of your breast. Men can get breast cancer, but mine was skin cancer. And [Keep-A-Breast] were already sponsoring the Blink tour, so it made sense to do something with them.

Was the idea behind connecting it to Boomer just to keep it light-hearted?
I think so. That character holds a nice place in hardcore Blink fans' hearts.

How’s the onstage chemistry between the three of you these days? I saw some videos from the 2009 reunion tour and it looked like you and Mark were right back into the old banter and cracking jokes at each other’s expense that you’re famous for.
Yeah, that’s still there. That won’t ever go away. I just think we play a lot better. Not so much on that tour, ‘cause I was sooo drunk. [Laughs] I don’t drink like that anymore—as of today, I’m stopping. It’s a new thing, it’s a new me, it’s a new morning.

It’s pretty cool that on the one hand, you get to make this art house film that has a more serious tone and explores all these big ideas—and then while you’re doing that, you get to play Boomer and do the Blink tour. You seem to have the best of both worlds right now.
I do. I get to go and act like an imbecile and break things and play really loud and fast with giant production, and then come back and become an aspirational poet at my other job. It’s a lot of work and a lot juggling—but I feel totally satisfied artistically right now.

For a list of theaters screening the film “Love” on Aug. 10, along with a live performance by Angels and Airwaves and a Q&A with Tom DeLonge, writer/director William Eubank and actor Gunner Wright, visit the Angels and Airwaves official site.

To enter to win the Honda Civic Si Coupe customized and autographed by Blink-182 , visit the Honda Civic Tour website.

For more on the Keep A Breast Foundation, visit “Boomer Loves Boobies” on Modlife.com.