USA Today – Life
On the verge: Airborne Toxic Event flies high,
stays grounded
Checking off the to-do list: The Airborne Toxic Event has gotten a lot accomplished in the past year. The L.A.-based indie rock quintet’s self-titled album, released in August, has passed 100,000 in sales. Hit single Sometime Around Midnight peaked at No. 4 on USA TODAY’s modern rock airplay chart and is at No. 30 on the hot AC. In March, the band signed with major label Island Def Jam. And on a radio show that month, U2’s Adam Clayton name-checked Sometime Around Midnight as a favorite song of his. “Check that off our list of things to do,” says lead singer/frontman Mikel Jollett, 35. “Now I just have to write a novel and father a child.”
Paying dues: “Journalists have asked us how we feel about our ‘meteoric rise,’ ” says bassist Noah Harmon, 27. “There’s been nothing meteoric about it. We’ve played 300 shows in eight months.” The group will perform at Milwaukee’s Summerfest (Sunday) before kicking off its world tour at Dublin’s Oxegen Festival (July 11). The band is back in the USA in September for a fall tour.
Keeping up the pace: Airborne makes a concerted effort to avoid the usual pitfalls of the rock-star lifestyle. “We don’t do drugs, not because of some moral obligation, but because we know that drugs are usually what split up bands,” Jollett says. “And I want everyone to stay healthy.”
Literary beginnings: The band’s unusual name refers to Don DeLillo’s White Noise, a 1985 postmodernist novel about a man who faces death after a chemical mishap, dubbed the airborne toxic event.
Different vision of the future: The rootless life of a rocker wasn’t what Jollett had envisioned for himself. “I pictured myself in a house with a wife and kid, living comfortably on my novel sales,” he says. Then in one week, everything changed:His mother was diagnosed with cancer, he was diagnosed with a genetic skin disorder, his girlfriend dumped him and he quit a two-pack-a-day smoking habit. “I realized I wasn’t working on a novel, I was writing songs,” Jollett says. “So I started this band.”
Creating Airborne: Daren Taylor was the first to join. “He was a pizza delivery boy, but all drummers used to be delivery boys,” Harmon says. “(They) get a lot of practice banging on their steering wheels.” Guitarist Steven Chen and viola player Anna Bulbrook held office jobs until the band took off. “Noah was the best bass player in L.A.,” Jollett says. “He turned me down for months, but I just had to have him.”
Treading carefully in today’s economy: “We’re still a DIY band — we load our own equipment, we sleep several to a hotel room,” Jollett says. By necessity, rock stars are being forced to cut back on “private jets, big entourages and pouring Champagne on themselves,” Harmon says. “It’s not a great business model.”
2 Comments
Saw the band with the henry clay people at the Crofoot in Pontiac on Thurs. 10/22/09. Great show, nothing like a cute girl on the fiddle, broken social scene like, thought you guys were canadain until I read the bio. will definately follow your band. thank you. john h.
i also seen you guys at The Crofoot in 2009, and i’m TRYING to wait patiently till you come back. . . BEST CONCERT I HAVE EVER BEEN TO, the room was absolutely electric. Getting goosebumps just thinking about hearing the opening chords for ‘Sometime Around Midnight’ PLEASE hurry back to the Detroit area!! Thanks!