The album is named after the term "air-drawn dagger", which was used in William Shakespeare's Macbeth to characterise an emotional outburst.

[4][5] In a 2013 interview with Dubspot, Sasha stated that the production of this album had relied heavily on use of the Roland JD-800 and the Waldorf WAVE synthesizers, describing them as "the sound of Airdrawndagger".

[1] Sources reviewing the album largely acknowledged this and described Airdrawndagger as his debut, with notable exceptions including The Guardian, who wrote that "he released [his debut album] in 1994, the underwhelming Qat Collection, but that has been erased, Stalin-style, from his history".

The album's single, "Wavy Gravy" was released on 19 August 2002 through BMG and Kinetic, and promoted by a remix contest held in 2003.

AllMusic reviewer Glenn Swan gave it four stars out of five, summarising his review with "Airdrawndagger has a sharp blade, and hovers with threat, but it takes almost half the album before it draws blood" although stated that "[when given his mix albums and remixes], Airdrawndagger sounds a bit anticlimactic by comparison".