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 today, should and was co-written with Bryan Adams and 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 and 2016’s Breakin’ Outta Hell),mixing engineer Zakk Cervini (Bring Me The Horizon, Architechs, Evanescene) and mastering legend Ted Jensen, and you have single five from Airbourne‘s forthcoming self-titled studio album, out September 4th through Spinefarm, that manages to both box and charm the ears at the same time.
First there was do-or-die anthem Gutsy (here), then Christmas Bonus (“Ho-ho-ho – let’s go!” and listen here),then Alive After Death (Last Plane Out), officially No. 1 at German rock radio (can be heard here, along with a hand written letter to Lemmy Kilmister), and most recently Kid In A Candy Store, a rite-of-passage rocker in the spirit of AC/DC‘s Whole Lotta Rosie (below); 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 (also below), 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 favorite 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 O’Keeffe (guitar, vocals), “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.”
Airbourne track listing:
1,. Gutsy (listen below)
2. Alive After Death (Last Plane Out) (listen below)
3. Here She Comes
4. Kid In A Candy Store
5. Sky High
6. Who Put The Rhythm In You?
7. Christmas Bonus
8. Last Man Standing
9. Rock ‘N’ Roll Ya
10. Bogotá
11. Hells Got No Vacancy
12. Send Me To Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven
When Airbourne — brothers Joel and Ryan O’Keeffe (vocals/guitar and drums, respectively),bassist Justin Street, and guitarist Brett Tyrrell — entered Music Farm Studio in southeastern Australia to record their new album, they effectively drew a line in the Byron Bay sand. The mission was clear: to create not only the greatest body of work in the Airbourne canon (“Real blockbuster sh*t!,” to echo their own words),but to scale the highest possible peak – shirtless, naturally, in true Airbourne style — in the name of hard rock; to break new ground, defend the territory won by the heroes who came before them, and strengthen and celebrate the sacred bond with rock fans around the world.
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.