Tom Delonge says his commitments to Blink-182 were holding him back from exploring other avenues of creativity.
The singer and guitarist walked away from the pop punk icons earlier this year, with his place later being taken by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba. Blink bassist Mark Hoppus this month revealed they were working on new music with Skiba.
Even though he’s hinted he’d be open to a return to the band, DeLonge has revealed his reasons for leaving and says it allowed him to expand his horizons, such as his band Angels & Airwaves and a series of novels based around the Poet Anderson character.
He tells Radio.com: “I hit a very specific part in my life. I’m 39 years old. If I was to continue to stay in the studio for a year to write a record that I need to rehearse for eight weeks to go on tour for another six months, and it’s only about those 12 songs, I’m going to be severely limited in what I can achieve artistically.
“I’m going to be looking back when I’m 50 going, ‘Fuck, I really love all these other forms of art, I really wish I could have done something with it.’ So what happened was that I decided just to do it. It afforded me the ability to be with my family a hell of a lot more. It afforded me to inspire other artists.”
DeLonge adds that he wanted to make the most of the skills he’s learned over the last 15 years in regards to the “monetisation of the arts.”
He adds: “I built a platform that Kanye and Nine Inch Nails and Pearl Jam would use to monetise all of their art, their fan clubs, ticketing and all that stuff.
“It’s a better use of the skill sets that I’ve acquired to be doing what I’m doing now than just being on stage playing the songs over and over again. I love attention but I need to create things. That’s where I win emotionally.”
