AIRBOURNE: New Audio Interview With JOEL O'KEEFFE Available

Guitarist/vocalist Joel O'Keeffe of Australian hard rockers AIRBOURNE was recently interviewed by AFTER ALL guitarist Dries Van Damme for Belgian national radio Studio Brussel. The chat is now available for streaming using the audio player below.

AIRBOURNE's new album, "No Guts. No Glory.", is scheduled for release in Europe on March 8, in Canada on March 9 and in the U.S. on April 20 via Roadrunner Records.

AIRBOURNE traveled to the Windy City to record "No Guts. No Glory." with producer Johnny K, live and straight to analog tape. Like debut album "Runnin' Wild", "No Guts. No Glory." continues that good time vibe, but ultimately, according to drummer Ryan O'Keeffe, the record is about "standing up and going for it, and being a man. There's a tougher element to the album, so to speak." Instead of sleeping every night in a comfortable hotel room bed on the label's dime, the band actually slept in the studio, taking inspiration from Bruce Springsteen and his E STREET BAND, who were known to live in the studio until an album was completed.

"We found out that they used to do that for the first bunch of records they did," Joel explains, "so, the drums were set up in a big room with the guitars and [rhythm guitarist David Roads], he slept behind the amps; I slept behind a bunch of amps; Ryan slept behind his drum kit and [bassist Justin Street] slept behind this pool table, and we were all in the studio. It was really fun, because you'd just get up and go, 'Fuck,' and start recording. That's how your day was. You just sort of woke up, had some food, and started recording. Maybe you'd have a shower; maybe not. Just sort of walk around in your shorts all day, just rocking away."

The album's a virtual rock and roll buffet, boasting tracks like "No Way But The Hard Way" and "Blonde, Bad, and Beautiful". When the band lived together for three years on welfare in a Melbourne suburb, surviving on a steady diet of booze and barbecue, things were tough, and the band nearly burned their home to the ground — literally. "Nothing came easy, and we'd say to each other, 'Ain't no way but the hard way,'" recalls Ryan.

"No Guts. No Glory." also features a song called "Steel Town", which was inspired by the band's time on the road — including the U.K.'s Sheffield — and some of the people they had encountered. "Every time we went through a town that was a steel town, there was something about the crowd themselves," recalls Joel O'Keeffe. "They seemed to be a little bit wilder, and they'd always drink the pub dry, and we'd have to get more beer from other pubs. There was always a massive fight, always a crazy crowd. So we wanted to give them a song that gives them a chance to raise their flag and pump their fists in the air, and drink a beer to it. I guess it's like throwing gasoline on the fire."