Airbourne are the living, breathing, screaming, spitting, fist-pumping embodiment of all that hard rock stands for. Their new album Black Dog Barking (out May 17) is full of the fun-loving, hard partying, underdog anthems the band have come to be known for and is imbibed with the reckless abandon of their legendary live shows. Drummer Joel OKeeffe gave us the quick and nasty low down on the new stuff.
On Black Dog Barking
It’s a Rock'n'Roll album, it’s relentless, it’s everything we got to give! We recorded 7 days a week for 3 months. It’s made to be played loud and we can’t wait to set it loose in May!
On The video for first single - Live It Up
Hot Cars, hot Girls and Marshall stacks! It was a great time out there in the Aussie sun with tyres squealing and Rock'n'Roll blaring!
On working with rock producer Brian Howes?
Brian’s great and so is his right hand man Jay. We struck a real common ground and became a solid unit, it’s the perfect team! Brian is cut from the cloth of the old school producer except he’s doing it today, plus he has his own style. He knows how to kick arse to get results.
On the art of the Black Dog
The cover was done by The Sharp Brothers who are amazing artists and we’ve worked with before they managed to capture the vision we had and take it over the top!
On Airbournes lesser known influences
Bruce Springsteen “The Boss"- I went to see two of his shows in Australia for the Wrecking Ball Tour! He tore the roof of the joint every night and the E street band was on fire! Max on the drums really holds that wild beast in tight.
Joel O'Keeffe, what makes you a Maniac?
I love 80s early 90s High Concept Action Films, they’re always about a simple plot, big guns, tons of destruction and usually a good soundtrack. And finally today It’s good to see films like "Expendables 1&2” bringing that genre into the 21st century. Stallone and Arnie are back to making the big gun big budget films they rule in, Van Damme is still kicking ass, Chuck Norris hasn’t aged a bit and it’s good to see Bruce Willis is never gonna lay down his guns! Plus we’ve got a small breed of young guns making the action genre their own : Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson, Joel Edgerton and Sam Worthington. It’s all good times from here on!!
Black Dog Barking is available now!
