Blink 182’s Tom DeLonge on UFOs, Bigfoot, and his debut film Monsters of California

Forget all the small things. If Blink 182's Tom DeLonge was to sit down and write the hit song today, it'd more likely be called ‘All The Mysterious Things’, or ‘All The Secret Things’. Maybe even ‘All The Government-Conspiracy-Military-Industrial-Complex-Cover-Up Things’.

In the years since DeLonge's rise to pop punk superstardom, the Californian songwriter has been a vocal public advocate for transparency around supernatural topics that many would consider "out there". He's staked his reputation on it, and has steadfastly stood alongside truthers looking for answers and disclosure on everything from UFOs to ghosts, and even the hunt for Bigfoot.

He's put his money where his mouth is too, forming the To the Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences, and was even name-dropped in the fascinating and surprising Congressional hearings of 2023 that, in part at least, saw the US government concede knowledge of some unexplainable phenomenon.

Monsters Of California - Official Trailer - YouTube

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Now DeLonge is taking those extraterrestrial extra-curricular activities and channeling them into an all-new medium — Film.

Monsters of California is DeLonge’s debut feature, getting its UK release this week, and crams in a bit of everything the star is known for — from skateboard-culture goofiness to super-serious conspiracy scrutiny, all wrapped up in a Sunshine State story that dips its baseball cap to the best of Spielberg.

With our PKE Meters charged and our telescopes pointed to the stars, we caught up with DeLonge to find out what life on the other side of the lens is like...

Shortlist: How’s it going Tom? Let's chat about your new film, Monsters of California. What inspired you to make the movie? How long has this idea been in the works?

Tom DeLonge: It was in the works for many years! I really wanted to get into film, and I knew that when I made my first movie, I was going to be limited by resources, a micro budget, with only myself really writing the script. I pretty much had everything stacked against me, and honestly I knew I'd be learning on the job a bit.

So I came to the conclusion that if I was gonna do it with all these things stacked against me, that I need to make a movie about me, what I've been through, subjects that I understand, culture that I understand, in a location that I understand. Just to try to take some of the pieces away that might go wrong!

SL: There’s lots in the film that you’ve been involved in over the years — sci-fi themes, paranormal themes, there’s a coming of age story. All these things that have weaved into your music over the years, too. So what are some of the biggest influences here for you — films, books, personal experiences?

TD: Kind of all the above. In Monsters of California you've got these skateboarders that talk a certain way and have a certain kind of chemistry with each other. That's very indicative of the group of skateboarders I grew up with, which Blink was born out of. That tone is literally verbatim how we were with each other and how Mark [Hoppus, Blink 182 bassist] and I still are with each other.

The paranormal themes are something I grew up on — I was always captivated by what could be and what is undefined. And then later interactions with the government and having face-to-face conversations with the people that hold the keys to these subjects. That's in the film, but my personal experiences and stories go much deeper than even that, so this is kind of a combination of all of that.

Also, growing up on Spielberg's Amblin films that just had characters that didn't really tally with the kids that I grew up with. My friends were rough around the edges and said a lot of dirty shit, you know!? So this is my version of that, on a much smaller level.

SL: Who would you be in any of those Spielberg films? Any character or movie that stood out to you as a mirror image, or thematically felt close to your experience even if tonally it was a little softer?

TD: Oh, God —You know, it's funny, because I think we can all relate to the movie E.T. in some way. You know, a painful, unorganized or disenfranchised family, and trying to find your way as a kid where everything just seems so over the top, so stacked against you.

SL: You've been deeply involved in the UFO disclosure movement, for instance with your work with the To The Stars Academy. How much of your experience there, and the knowledge you’ve built up with the academy, made its way into the film?

TD: A lot — obviously not everything, but a lot. The more pointed, distinctive conversations in the film about the subject matter are very important, and people should pay attention to that. And it's just the tip of the iceberg. Everything that's being said in this film about it all is the beginning of a conversation. I'm hoping to spark people's curiosity.

SL: Do you think storytelling through film and fiction can be more effective than, say, documentary in shifting public perception?

TD: I guess it depends. You could watch a documentary on Oppenheimer, but when you watch Nolan's film, it probably really gave you a lasting impression on the stakes, because there's emotion involved. There's never emotion in a documentary — I mean, you can be emotional about the gravity of the facts being told to you. But when you watch a movie that puts you in the moment itself, you can walk away with a distinctive point of view. And that's what I think art is supposed to do.

SL: The film is full of capers and hijinks — but how much of the story is based on real encounters or events that you've researched and looked into?

TD: All those subjects I've researched heavily. You know, I haven't had a ghost encounter myself — my brother has had some really crazy, weird shit. But I have been with friends out looking for Bigfoot in the forest of California. Never found it, though! And I have been to the desert looking for UFOs, and had an encounter, and have seen them.

I have been with military officials in weird locations where I was in way over my head and trying to understand what I'm involved in, you know, because I was too deep to pull out. So there's a lot of things in this film that are very strong parallels to myself, although adapted to fit in this type of a story.

SL: Would you be comfortable telling us a little bit about your UFO kind of encounter?

TD: It’s probably not for here. Other than that I will say when I had hard questioning for two days straight by some… certain people in the government, that the very first question they asked was wanting to know everything that happened in the desert. So it gives you an idea of how seriously they take it.

SL: You mentioned your brother is also interested in the paranormal. Is this a family interest?

TD: Kind of, but not really, no. My brother has always been fascinated by ghosts. He grew up in a different house than me, with a different father. We share the same mother. He lived in a house that was severely haunted. So he has crazy stories that blow my mind to this day around what happened there.

SL: How do you respond then to skeptics who dismiss your interest in the paranormal and extraterrestrials?

TD: I don't know. It's like somebody dismissing the fact that we're in a trade war with China. You know, it's like ‘it's in the news! What do you want me to tell you?’ You just don't want to believe the news — like, you'll believe any other congressional hearing under oath with a government official? But when they talk about this you don't? I know I've done my work, you know, I'm moving on to explain what it is.

SL: So what would you say is the most compelling evidence for extraterrestrial life and paranormal events that you've you've found so far, other than your personal experience? Things that you've seen happen around you in the To The Stars Academy movement, for instance.

TD: The government's already admitted it, you know? The government admitted it! We've had the Congressional hearings, I've had a piece of wreckage from a crashed vehicle under a contract with the US government that the Congressional Task Force and Oak Ridge National Laboratory studied — so we've had tangible evidence. We've had all the documents that have come out.

We've had the people under oath — pilots! We’ve had the radar data, thermal capture and all the sensor data. We've had government officials speak out. We've had all the people in the program that have testified under oath in classified settings. There's not much more we can get other than, as they say, something landing on the White House lawn! Once you know more about this subject, you won't really be expecting that particular piece of ‘smoking gun’ information to appear.

SL: Let's get back to your creative process. Do you see any parallels between your work as a musician and your role now as a filmmaker and investigator? Is there continuity between those roles?

TD: There kind of is in the sense that you're trying to grab someone's attention through the beginning, middle and end, to get them to feel something. Now, in music, you're trying to get them to feel something personal to you, and it's a quick bite, and it's like a surge of adrenaline or emotion in a song.

In a movie it’s different — you're hitting them with something to make them look more inward usually. But there are a lot of similarities where you're really trying to get them to feel something.

In a film, I think you have the opportunity to get them to feel a lot more because you have their undivided attention for a long period of time. Now, you can do that in a concert.

You have 90 minutes, two hours as well, but it’s a live experience. A movie transports you to a different time and place. You lose yourself, you forget the reality you’re in, you turn the lights off, and now you're in the reality that you're given. So I think it's two different mediums, but both can, can bring up a lot of emotion.

SL: Looking back to the Blink 182 and Angels and Airwaves music videos, they were always very cinematic right — whether it’s humorous or otherworldly, there was a storytelling, narrative element to the clips. Were you ever involved in the filmmaking process for the videos?

TD: Yeah — with Blink, early on we were having a lot of fun with our videos. That was very much us, like who we were, what we thought was funny. And that's very much a big, huge part of me — like, I'm both things: I can be serious, and I can also just laugh at the stupidest shit!

With Angels and Airwaves, I directed the majority of those videos, but we had such tiny budgets, we were so limited on what we could do. But we did do an art-house sci-fi feature film take, and we did do an animated short film, and we did a bunch of other short films and stuff. We did what we could and we were experimenting a lot.

I never thought I would want to make a movie ever, until I started kind of doing it, and I said, ‘Wow, this is a kind of a breath of fresh air,’ to challenge myself with something I probably have no business doing! So I love that challenge.

SL: So if you had to choose one song you've written to be the soundtrack for an alien landing, which would it be, and why?

TD: That's a good question! That's a good question... I think, it'd be an Angels and Airwaves song called ‘The War’. I’d probably choose that one, because the more you know about this subject, it could be overwhelming in terms of what it means to us as human beings. It can make you feel pretty small and insignificant — kind of like, ‘Oh, shit. What do we do?’

Angels and Airwaves - The War (Live) - YouTube

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But I also think it's something that can be uniting and galvanising, to get us to think a lot differently about the divisions that we've made up between each other based on belief systems and skin colour and language, all that shit. What if we found out all of that was done to us on purpose to keep us divided? Because if we were to come together, we have profound abilities through consciousness we were kept in the dark on for good reason. So, you know, that might be why I choose that song. You know, it sounds a little grandiose…

SL: It would be the most grandiose moment in human history, though, right?

TD: Yeah, that's the thing.

SL: So to wrap up then Tom, is there anyone that we should be listening to right now that our readers should be tuning into?

TD: Yeah, absolutely — I would say something that I'm having a lot of fun with is a band called Home Front from Canada. They're just fucking rad. They're like a punk rock, 80s band, it’s cool!

Monsters of California is available to watch on all good digital storefronts now, from Plaion Pictures

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