AIRBOURNE – Gutsy (2026) *HQ*
Australian rockers AIRBOURNE have never been ones to think small. But on their self-titled, upcoming new studio album “Airbourne”, they’ve outdone themselves in the most personable manner ever: recording their latest disc in at Music Farm Studio in “the jungle” outside Byron Bay.
The complex boasts the original Neve console from Alberts Studios, on which bands like AC/DC, ROSE TATTOO and THE ANGELS recorded their landmark early albums. It’s also home to Malcolm Young’s eight-track Neve, which too was recruited for the sessions. There the four-piece battled venomous snakes, deadly spiders, near cyclonic storms and the foibles of vintage analogue equipment (the band insisted on recording to tape) in their quest to create what vocalist-guitarist Joel O’Keeffe says is “the best record we’ve ever made”.
As advance, AIRBOURNE is releasing the 5-track EP “Gutsy“. “Gutsy” is a gargantuan rocker from… the guts indeed. But the pearl is “Here She Comes” which sounds like a contender for collaboration of the year: co-written with Bryan Adams and legendary producer Mutt Lange, the track comes with the kind of names that have not exactly wandered into music history by accident. The result? Huge!
For an indication of AIRBOURNE’s painstaking attention to detail – Ryan O’Keeffe’s drums alone took three months to record – bro Joel estimates that when you add up all the time spent writing and recording the album, each minute of music equates roughly to a month’s work.
Their demos sounded so good that legendary producer Mutt Lange and multi-platinum superstar Bryan Adams thought they were the finished product when they were sent “Here She Comes” for their co-writing input. “We wanted to send our best stuff over and see what happens when AIRBOURNE kind of gets in a room with Mutt Lange and Bryan Adams,” says Joel. “The answer was big, bombastic rock.”
Lyrically, Joel is in typically lascivious form, whether singing of a woman called Candy Rose in the sleazy, raucous “Kid In A Candy Store” (one of several co-writes with former JOHNNY CRASH frontman Vick Wright) or the “lady boss” in the bawdy “Xmas Bonus” who’s so damned good she “makes Santa come twice”.
“Here She Comes”, an arena-shaking anthem you’d expect of co-writers like Mutt Lange and BRYAN ADAMS, and probably even THE ANGELS for that matter, was inspired not only by a woman with “eyes on fire” who “wants to play”, but by the giant tropical storm that rained down on Music Farm Studio during the recording, plunging it into darkness save for the spikes of lightning illuminating the sky.
Then the driving “Alive After Death” pay tribute to the band’s fallen idols. Joel wrote the lyrics to the barnstorming “Alive After Death” one night on the tour bus, reflecting on how these legends’ music makes them immortal (“When you speak my name you give me back my tongue, when you sing my songs you give me back my lungs, you give me life beyond the grave”).
One thing seems certain: there will be no double B. No ballads. No bullshit. Just a self-titled album that honors its creators by doing exactly what the name suggests: Airbourne being Airbourne. Sometimes, the name really is the warning label. Calm before the storm? Not exactly Airbourne’s speciality.
Highly Recommended
01 – GUTSY
02 – Alive After Death (Last Plane Out)
03 – Here She Comes
04 – Kid In A Candy Store
05 – Christmas Bonus
Joel O’Keeffe – vocals / lead guitar
Brett Tyrrell – guitar
Justin Street – bass
Ryan O’Keeffe – drums
BUY
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001ESVEIY/airbourne
