AIRBOURNE's RYAN O'KEEFFE Talks Next Album, Record Company Switch (Video)

Anna Dave Bertram of Sweden's Access: Rock conducted an interview with drummer Ryan O'Keeffe of Australian hard rockers AIRBOURNE at this year's Sweden Rock Festival, which is being held June 3-6 in Sölvesborg. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about the progress of the songwriting sessions for AIRBOURNE's follow-up to 2013's "Black Dog Barking", Ryan said: "We had a little bit of a break [from touring], worked on some songs for the next record. So we sort of had a little break, which has been good… I guess roughly we've got about, say, fifteen, sort of, good [tracks written for the CD]. Maybe ten, fifteen… Some of them work, some of them are only half done. [We will go into the studio] maybe [at the] end of the year, I think [to begin recording the album]. [That] would be [my] best guess."

Asked why AIRBOURNE split with longtime record company Roadrunner and signed with Spinefarm earlier this year, Ryan said: "The option was up, pretty much, and we just wanted to move to Universal/Spinefarm. So it's a nice home for us to go to. And there are a lot of old faces, actually, working there that we used to work with anyway."

Led into action by brothers Joel and Ryan O'Keeffe (vocalist/lead guitarist and drummer, respectively; the lineup is completed by David Roads on guitar and Justin Street on bass),AIRBOURNE has spent the past 10 years establishing itself as a true force of nature — living on the road, selling out major venues, charting albums and appearing on bills with some of rock's most legendary names, from IRON MAIDEN to THE ROLLING STONES.

With AIRBOURNE, everything is to the hilt, which means that frontman Joel O' Keeffe is as likely to be climbing the lighting rig or going "walkabout" in the venue as positioned behind the mic; it also means that their three studio albums — "Runnin' Wild" (2007),"No Guts. No Glory" (2009) and "Black Dog Barking" (2013) — are home to some of the most rousing rock anthems of the past few years, songs like "Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast", "No Way But The Hard Way", "Live it Up" and "Runnin' Wild" itself — a body of work that hasn't escaped the notice of AC/DC's Angus Young, who was recently asked in an interview what he thinks of modern rock music and he said, "I see it as healthy, because there's newer stuff coming through. I really like AIRBOURNE."