In a series of posts spread across his social media accounts, Tom DeLonge mapped out his massive plans for 2015 while also shining more light on the details behind his bitter split with Blink-182. The guitarist previously announced that he’d release a new solo album titled To the Stars… Demos, Odds and Ends in on April 21st, but he then followed that up with a tweet promising “4 albums in one year.”
DeLonge later clarified that he’s currently working on “2 albums with [Angels & Airwaves], 2 albums from myself. 3 of them are released with Novels. This has been in the works for a couple years.” He also told fans, “I have the fastest punk song I’ve written in 15 years on my new album… I hope it makes you destroy stuff.”
Throughout the vigorous finger-pointing in the rift between DeLonge and his possibly former band mates Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker – the drummer has publicly demanded that DeLonge “man up and quit” the band – the guitarist has reiterated that other projects and obligations prevented him from entering into a contract with Blink-182 to finally record a follow-up to their 2011 reunion disc Neighborhoods.
“I can’t just slam the brakes and drop years of development, partnerships and commitments at the snap of a finger,” DeLonge explained in January. In an Instagram post Saturday night, he detailed the staggering amount of “partnerships and commitments” he’s currently involved in and how hitting the studio with his Blink bandmates would jeopardize what he’s working on.
“One of the reasons all this Blink stuff went haywire was because I am in 6 contracts with Best Selling Authors that are co-writing 15 Novels with me personally. Each one has an EP soundtrack that launches with it,” DeLonge explained on Instagram. “I told my manager the contract that was sent to me for the Blink deal contained weird new language that I had to drop all that music for almost a year. I said I couldn’t, but I could record the album in and around those things that were already in the works. He wrote them an email saying I’m out- (I didn’t know- and he was only talking about the deal) next thing you know, a press release saying things I didn’t say. Here we are….. Well…. Read a fucking book- at least one of mine, please.”
Meanwhile, Blink-182 are scheduled to perform tonight at Barker’s Musink Festival in California with Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba filling in for the departed DeLonge.
