The Airborne Toxic Event signing with Island Def Jam

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The Airborne Toxic Event, the quintet that burst out of L.A. clubs behind the radio single “Sometime Around Midnight,” is moving up to the big time. After releasing their debut album on independent imprint Majordomo (a division of Shout Factory) last summer, TATE is now signing a major-label deal with Island Def Jam.

The band’s self-titled debut has moved 53,000 copies – and the single has sold 109,000 digitally.

“It’s a great deal, we’re pumped up,” frontman Mikel Jollett says from Canada, where the band is in the middle of a six-week tour. “They came to us and said ‘We want to give you 100% creative control.’ Majordomo has a really good stake in this thing – they were very much a partner. It’s a good situation for everyone involved.”

Jollett says Island’s openness contrasted starkly with the band’s conversations with majors last year, before it decided to affiliate with Majordomo. “Last year when we talked to majors, they wanted to make a lot of changes, have us re-record the record, a lot of things,” he says. “Now it’s, ‘We like your record just the way it is.’

“And it’s incredible what Majordomo has done for us too; you’ve gotta take your hats off to them.”

Photo from January 2008 by Timothy Norris