WHEN YOU’RE making an album that offers a 21-gun salute to hard rock’s proud past, its history and its heart, it makes perfect sense to align with writers and producers who have played a key role in championing the music worldwide, and who continue to do so.
Highly fitting, therefore, that Airbourne‘s latest single, ‘Here She Comes’, out July 29th, should and was co-written with Bryan Adams & Mutt Lange – names responsible for hundreds of millions of sales and for creating some of rock’s most revered and timeless releases, the likes of ‘Reckless’ and ‘Waking Up The Neighbours’ (global chart-toppers for Adams, the latter No. 1 in 11 different countries), and ‘Back In Black’ and ‘Hysteria’ (seminal albums produced by Lange for AC/DC and Def Leppard respectively, game-changers for the genre as a whole).
Add in the talents of producer Brian Howes (who helmed 2013’s ‘Black Dog Barking’ for Airbourne), engineer Mike Fraser (who worked on 2010’s ‘No Guts. No Glory’ & 2016’s ‘Breakin’ Outta Hell’), mixing engineer Zakk Cervini (BMTH, Architects, Evanescence) and mastering legend Ted Jensen, and you have a track – Single 5 from the forthcoming self-titled studio album, out September4th via Spinefarm – that manages to both box and charm the ears at one and the same time…
First there was do-or-die anthem ‘Gutsy’, then ‘Christmas Bonus’ (“Ho-ho-ho – let’s go!”), then ‘Alive After Death (Last Plane Out)’, officially No. 1 at German Rock Radio, and most recently ‘Kid In A Candy Store’, a rite-of-passage rocker in the spirit of AC/DC’s ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’; and now, blowing in hard on a festival-ready chorus and enough full-blooded ‘woahs’ to lift an arena roof or part the lower clouds, there’s ‘Here She Comes’, complete with guitar solo cranked high in the mix for maximum shoulder-straddling impact.
Lyrics like, ‘Here she comes, raising a hurricane, there she goes blowing my mind’ might sound like they’re about one of vocalist / guitarist Joel O’Keeffe‘s favourite subjects, women – which, to be fair, they are – but they also nod to the tropical storm that bore down on Music Farm Studio in Byron Bay, south-eastern Australia, as Airbourne were recording, adding to a list of tribulations topped up by dangerous, potentially lethal wild-life and uncooperative vintage gear…
”It was like a hurricane came through,” recalls drummer Ryan O’Keeffe. ”I remember screaming, ‘Get away from the windows!’ Streetie [bassist Justin Street] was sleeping in an old bus outside the studio, and a tree fell right next to it and almost crushed him!”
Adds brother Joel: ”That’s how the song came about. It’s just out of this storm that blew in. Everyone was sitting there going, ‘Here she comes!’ Then we flipped it and it became a bit of a double entendre. It’s so much fun.”
WHEN AIRBOURNE – Joel and Ryan O’Keeffe, Justin Street and guitarist Brett Tyrrell – entered Music Farm Studio to track their new album, they effectively drew a line in the white Byron Bay sand. This was the moment, the time was now: to create not just the greatest body of work in the Airbourne canon, the “oracle” to use their own words, but to raise the bar as high as possible in the name of the hard rock community; to seek out new turf, to protect the ground hard won by heroes past, some sadly fallen, and to both strengthen and celebrate the special, sacred bond with rock fans everywhere.
In short, go forth and GET GUTSY!
Ryan: ”This record distils everything we stand for into one place. Everything we love. It’s the best album we could possibly have made.”
“Everything we are as a band, our heart and soul, is in this record,” confirms Joel.
‘Airbourne’ is The Album, the statement recording, that only one band could have created; for proud sons of Warrnambool, Joel and Ryan, it was all about stepping up to the mighty task, staunchly protecting their beliefs and keeping the vision alive – no compromise, no corners cut, still no ballads (or bullshit); and if that meant staring down deadly snakes and even deadlier super-sized spiders, then so be it. Bring it on, Big Boy!
‘Airbourne’. Made with passion. Made in Australia. The Great Barrier Riff.
‘Airbourne’ album track-listing:-
- Gutsy
- Alive After Death (Last Plane Out)
- Here She Comes
- Kid In A Candy Store
- Sky High
- Who Put The Rhythm In You?
- Christmas Bonus
- Last Man Standing
- Rock ‘N’ Roll Ya
- Bogotá
- Hells Got No Vacancy
- Send Me To Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven
Airbourne live dates 2026:-
July 30 – Rockstadt Extreme Fest, Romania
August 1 – Wacken Open Air, Germany
August 4 – Tipos Arena, Slovakia
August 7 – Wasserschloss Klaffenbach, Germany
August 8 – Rockowizna Festival, Poland
August 10 – Forum Karlin, Czech Republic
August 12 – Summer Breeze, Germany
August 14 – Reload Festival, Germany
August 16 – Motocultor Festival, France
August 18 – Navarra Arena, Spain
August 20 – Roig Arena, Spain
August 22 – V And B Festival, France
August 26 – Klub Studio, Poland
August 29 – Helitehas, Estonia
August 31 – Allas Sea Pool, Finland
September 3 – Tivoli Grona Lund, Sweden
September 5 – High Voltage Live, Norway
Airbourne Online
