Airbourne say they deliberately stripped back the production of their new album as they wanted to capture the ferocity of their live shows.
The band’s fourth record titled Breakin’ Outta Hell will be released on September 23 via Spinefarm Records. And frontman Joel O’Keeffe credits producers Bob Marlette and Mike Fraser with helping them to achieve their goals on the follow-up to 2013’s Black Dog Barking.
He exclusively tells Metal Hammer: “Sonically, we wanted to strip it back. The last record is great and we love it, but we just wanted to take a bit of the production out and get more of the playing in.
“The live show really is the energy of this band and we really wanted to capture as much of that energy as we could, which is why we decided to work with Bob Marlette and Mike Fraser.
“Bob did 2007’s Runnin’ Wild, and we often get a lot of comments about how that album is our most raw and live- sounding thing. We listen to what people say and we decided they were right. Then we got Mike Fraser in, who we’d worked previously with on 2010’s No Guts. No Glory, and we gave him full control to engineer and mix the record. His CV is ridiculous – he’s done Aerosmith, Metallica and AC/DC.”
O’Keeffe reveals he and the band “were pretty freaked out” after they wrapped up live commitments before starting work on Breakin’ Outta Hell, but wanted to keep the momentum going when they hit the studio.
He says: “We were like, ‘Fuck. We’ve gotta get a whole bunch of killer songs together that can stand up against what we just did on the last one.’
“But we also had a big discussion about being on tour, and the fundamental reason people keep coming back to shows. It’s because they want to let loose and get out of their minds – literally break out of any sort of hell that they might be in.
“When you come to an Airbourne show it’s a license to let loose and do whatever the fuck you want to do. So when it came time to writing the record, we knew that we needed to make The Great Escape – like Steve McQueen.”
The full interview with O’Keeffe will feature in an upcoming Metal Hammer track-by-track guide to Breakin’ Outta Hell.
Last week, Airbourne released a video for their track Rivalry, and previously issued the album’s title track. They’ll head out on further tour dates next month.
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Airbourne tour dates 2016
Oct 28: Hamburg Barclaycard Arena, Germany
Oct 29: Berlin Mercedes-Benz Arena, Germany
Oct 31: Munich Olympiahall, Germany
Nov 01: Linz Tipps Arena, Austria
Nov 02: Vienna Stadhalle, Austria
Nov 04: Innsbruck Olympiahalle, Austria
Nov 05: Geneva Arena, Switzerland
Nov 07: Stuttgart Schlayerhalle, Germany
Nov 08: Zurich Hallenstadion, Switzerland
Nov 09: Cologne Lanxess, Germany
Nov 10: Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany
Nov 12: Leipzig Arena, Germany
Nov 13: Oberhausen Koenig-Pilsener Arena, Germany
Nov 14: Brussels Forest National, Belgium
Nov 15: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
Nov 17: Portsmouth Pyramids, UK
Nov 18: Norwich UEA, UK
Nov 19: Nottingham Rock CIty, UK
Nov 21: Birmingham O2 Institutde, UK
Nov 22: Leeds O2 Academy, UK
Nov 23: Newcastle O2 Academy, UK
Nov 24: Glasgow Barrowland, UK
Nov 26: Manchester O2 Ritz, UK
Nov 28: London Electric Ballroom, UK
Nov 29: London Electric Ballroom, UK
