“All right people/Welcome to the show/Are you ready to rock?/Are you ready to go?/Now we’ve got what you want/And we’ve got what you need/So get your ass down here/And let your ears bleed.” – Stand Up For Rock’N’Roll.

It is as clear a statement of intent as you’re ever likely to hear. One verse that says everything you need to know about Melbourne, AU four piece Airbourne and their debut album, Runnin’ Wild: forget your worries, get down to the front of the stage and lose your mind to some ear-bleeding, sweat-soaked rock’n’roll. Or, as the song continues, “Drink your beer/Drink your wine/Let’s have a good time.” Stand up for rock ‘n’ roll indeed.

Airbourne vocalist Joel O’Keeffe first realized rock ‘n’ roll was worth defending at the tender age of nine. Born and raised in the rural Victorian town of Warrnambool – population: 32,000 – the local pastimes revolved around playing football and falling down drunk. For young Joel, however, his only interest was devouring the albums he’d stolen from his uncle by Rose Tattoo, AC/DC, The Angels, Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs and Cold Chisel. “It’s hard to explain, but that’s always what I wanted to hear,” remarks Joel. “Straight-ahead Aussie pub rock.”

By the age of 11, Joel had picked up his first guitar and was trying to emulate the riffs of his Oz-rock idols. Paying close attention was younger brother Ryan, who’d also fallen under the spell of his brother’s “adopted” record collection. By the time he’d turned 11, and with Joel now 15, Ryan had bought his first drum kit and the brothers were spending their weekends rehearsing, much to the delight of their neighbours, who constantly sent the police over to the O’Keeffe household to plead for silence. “It got to the point where the cops would just end up saying, ‘Look, come on, guys, we’ve gotta stop coming around here ‘cos we’ve got other people to arrest,’” laughs Joel.

Early O’Keeffe brothers.

Instantly convinced that their futures lay in rock ‘n’ roll, it would take the O’Keeffe brothers several years to find like-minded musicians in their hometown. After a few false starts that saw the band perform as a three-piece with a now long-gone bass player, Joel was introduced to guitarist David Roads when the two worked at the Hotel Warrnambool. Bringing their guitars to work and, after their shifts, jamming on song ideas, Dave was soon asked to join the O’Keeffe brothers for a jam at their house. Bassist Justin Street completed the picture in 2003, when Ryan literally ran into him while stumbling home drunk from a party one night. Turns out his new mate played bass, and, yes, would be interested in jamming with a band that were looking to move to Melbourne. Finally, Airbourne were ready to fire.

Though it would be another nine months before the quartet relocated permanently, they began driving to the Victorian capital to play shows as regularly as they could, often returning to Warrnambool as the sun came up with just $25 to their name and a full day of school ahead of them. This exposure to the realities of being a working rock ‘n’ roll band in Australia would prepare them for when they finally made the move to Melbourne. The band quickly found a four-bedroom house that they could call home and started gigging relentlessly. “We absolutely attacked Melbourne,” says 20-year-old Ryan. “We painted the town with posters for every gig we were doing. If they were getting ripped down we’d go back and put them up. We had to walk, though, ‘cos we couldn’t afford a car.”

This work ethic helped create a substantial buzz. One-off shows in the Melbourne pubs became one-off gigs in enormodomes such as the Rod Laver Arena (concert stadium and home of various sporting events including the Australian Open) supporting the Rolling Stones and the recently destroyed legendary Aussie nightclub The Palace opening for Motley Crϋe, a remarkable feat given that by this stage the band had only released one EP, the appropriately-titled Ready To Rock. National tours with the likes of Dallas Crane, Jimmy Barnes, The Living End, You Am I and Magic Dirt helped further hone their rowdy live show – it is, after all, not an Airbourne gig unless Joel has jumped on the bar mid-song at least once – while a main stage slot on the 2006 Big Day Out festival confirmed Airbourne’s reputation as one of the country’s fastest rising bands.

“It comes from growing up in Warrnambool and being pissed off with people telling us that all the bands we listened to were old and we should be playing Blink-182,” explains Ryan of the band’s explosive live show. “So we always go onstage and try to prove a point about how good rock ‘n’ roll is.”

In 2006 Airbourne got their biggest break yet when, after a huge amount of interest from several international labels, they relocated to the States to begin work on Runnin’ Wild with legendary producer Bob Marlette. With Marlette’s CV one of the most impressive in the business – his credits include albums by Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and Shinedown, for starters – Airbourne embarked on a lengthy pre-production stint, whittling the 40-odd songs they’d written down to the 11 that comprise Runnin’ Wild. And just to ensure their immense live energy translated to CD, the band not only enlisted Andy Wallace (Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Linkin Park, Slipknot) to mix the album, but made sure that what was committed to tape was done so with the amps on 11. In 2007 Airbourne attracted interest from renowned A&R man Ron Burman of Roadrunner Records in New York, and by July, Airbourne had secured a worldwide record deal.

“One of my ears actually blew out ‘cos I had my headphones so loud,” laughs Ryan. “So I recorded the album with one ear!”

From the album’s fist-pumping title track to the anthemic What’s Eatin’ You and the self-explanatory rock explosions of Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast and Diamond In The Rough, Runnin’ Wild is an exercise in booze-and-sweat soaked rock ’n’ roll that isn’t looking to change the world by abolishing Free Trade, but simply provide the ultimate soundtrack to the biggest all-night rock party there is.

“You have to bleed and do anything you can to make sure the album gets out there,” says Joel. “Every day you wake up and say, ‘how are we going to do this?’ We haven’t had time off in three years. It’s every day, 24 hours.”

Airbourne continued to tour throughout 2007 and 2008, through Europe, the UK and the USA, with major festival dates and many awards being picked up along the way. Having already begun writing new material whilst on tour, in-between shows and during their sound checks, in January 2009, after their tour had finished Airbourne flew back to their old stomping ground of Warrnambool in Victoria, Australia, to begin work on the new tracks. This took place at the now closed Criterion Hotel, which provided a familiar setting for the guys being where Joel and Dave used to work and also having been the location of Airbournes first gig.

“Basically, we’ve never been about having a specific message; we don’t talk about politics or social injustices in our songs. There are other bands out there to take care of that,” says Joel, who has been playing guitar since he could walk. “With us, it’s not like that. It’s just rock and roll. We want people to have a good time, no matter what. Have a drink, play it really loud, and kick back.”

In July 2009Airbourne travelled to Chicago to record ‘No Guts. No Glory.’ with producer Johnny K, live and straight to analogue tape. Like ‘Runnin’ Wild’, ‘No Guts. No Glory’ continues that good time vibe, but ultimately, according to Ryan, 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.”

Joel also talks about life in the studio while recording ‘No Guts, No Glory’ and the lengths they will go to in order to get just the right sound.  When Joel found that the perfect spot for his amp was in another room, the boys didn’t let a three foot thick concrete wall get in the way. Joel explains “we couldn’t move the cab because that was the sweet spot so it was a half-day demolition job. Johnny wasn’t too happy about it, though…”

‘No Guts. No Glory’ was mixed by Mike Fraser at Warehouse Studios in Vancouver, Canada during November 2009 and due for release here in the UK on 8th March 2010.

The first single to come from the ‘No Guts No Glory’ album is titled ‘No Way But The Hard Way’ and will be available for digital download in the UK on the 28^th February 2010.

Metal Hammer magazine state that the album promises to be one of the highlights of 2010 and Joel is happy to reassure fans that the album is not going to deviate from their kick arse rock ’n’ roll style, it’s just going to sound bigger and really capture the feel of the band.  Joel laughs “It’s about rock ‘n’ roll, women, fighting, and drinking!”

(Sources: Roadrunner Records/Airbourne UK Fansite)