After a few years of major touring, 2 records, countless traveling around the world and creating a show stopping routine, Airbourne is finding themselves in the “Greatness” book. Just finishing up with a tour with Bullet For My Valentine and Chiodos, the boys are finding they’re exactly where they need to be: performing music they believe in. The best part is, their fans agree with them 100%.
STILLCODA: HOW MUCH PRESSURE WAS THERE FOR LIVING UP TO “RUNNING WILD” SUCCESS?
RYAN: Well, I think with the first album, there are a lot of things that we didn’t know when recording an album. We’ve learned a lot and with the second album (“No Guts, No Glory) we knew what to expect. So we had to knuckle down and get a lot of songs together and pretty much let the songs run their own competition. Then eventually throw them down and made sure to record them live.
STILLCODA: BETWEEN BOTH ALBUMS, WHAT WAS THE WRITING PROCESS LIKE? WAS ONE “HARDER” TO PUT TOGETHER, ETC?
RYAN: I think with the first one, we had our whole life to write out whereas with the second one, we wrote it on the road. We still had a good two years of touring that we spent on the road just putting ideas down. From there, when we go home, we managed to get all the rifts together from sound checks and stuff. Once we had that, we started putting them into songs.
STILLCODA: THE BAND HAS SPENT A LOT OF TIME ON THE ROAD. HOW MUCH TIME OFF DID YOU HAVE IN BETWEEN ALBUMS?
RYAN: Yea, we basically toured non stop for two whole years. It gave us a lot of opportunities to headline shows where we’d have a lot of sound checks so we were able to play around with a lot of rifts.
STILLCODA: HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO MAINTAIN AIRBOURNES SIGNATURE SOUND WHILE EVOLVING MUSICALLY ON “NO GUTS, NO GLORY?”
RYAN: Well I guess we’ve always been happy with the way we sound and it’s something that will always be an Airbourne thing. We always try to spice it up a bit but we keep the drums and vocals straight forward.
STILLCODA: WHAT ARE YOU GUYS EXPECTING TO COME OUT OF THE UPCOMING “ROCKSTAR UPROAR” FESTIVAL COMING UP WITH AVENGED SEVENFOLD, DISTURBED, HALESTORM, ETC?
RYAN: Yea, it looks like it’s going to be a great festival. The last time we did something like that was 2 years ago at Mayhem and it was just a blast. There were a lot of car parked BBQ’s and everyone was just fun. We’re just looking forward to getting on the whole festival thing again and be on stage.
STILLCODA: AWESOME! WE’RE EXCITED TO SEE YOU ON THAT BILL, THAT’S FOR SURE. STILLCODA: WHAT ARE SOME TRACKS ON THE NEWEST RECORD THAT HIT CLOSEST TO YOU?
RYAN: “Born to Kill” is a good one. The reason is cause its very fast for me so it hits me more. It’s something I have to make sure I keep up the pace with.
STILLCODA: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR “RITUALS” BEFORE A SHOW THAT ALLOW YOU TO GET READY FOR SONGS LIKE THAT?
RYAN: We just sort of have a couple of beers, but we pretty much just want to get up there and have fun.
STILLCODA: WHAT’S THE GREATEST “GIFT” YOU’VE GOTTEN SO FAR?
RYAN: Uh, Moonshine! We got some in a mason jar. It was the gift that did a lot to my head the other day and the day after….(both laugh).
STILLCODA: ARE THERE ANY TRICKS OF THE TRADE THAT HAVE HELPED SAVE MOMENTS WHILE PLAYING?
RYAN: Pretty much when anything goes wrong, we just have a laugh. Just laughing at it helps. There are some things that you can’t fix right away so you have to laugh about it and move on.
STILLCODA: ANY SPECIFIC TRADITIONS THAT THE BAND HAS HAD SINCE THE BEGINNING?
RYAN: That’s a good question (sits there thinking for a bit). Listening to certain tapes which can be weird if you knew who they were (laughs).
STILLCODA: WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED WITH FANS COMING UP TO YOU?
RYAN: We have a lot of people come up to us and say it’s a “breath of fresh air” to hear us play. That they’ve been waiting for a band like that so yeah, it’s awesome hearing that.
STILLCODA: WHAT’S THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE TOURING THE US VS AUSTRALIA?
RYAN: The biggest thing is size I think. The US has cities all over whereas Australia has only 5 big parts to it. You have to fly to get to the big cities. Here, you spend all your time in a tour bus with a lot of driving. It’s great because every state’s different than the next so you can explore. It’s culturally different as well and is always a lot of fun.
STILLCODA: TOURING WITH BFMV RIGHT NOW, WHAT’S BEEN THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS TOUR?
RYAN: Playing early and drinking later (both laugh). Just being back again, it’s been awhile. And we are very much looking forward to the Uproar tour coming up.
STILLCODA: WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE TOURING WITH BULLET?
RYAN: it’s been great! The crowds have been fantastic especially with younger crowds. It’s been a nice comfortable tour to be on.
STILLCODA: THAT’S AWESOME! WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU BACK THIS WAY SOON! WE’LL EVEN MAKE SURE TO HAVE SOME BEERS WAITING FOR YOU.
RYAN: That’s great! We’ll definitely take you up on that!
STILLCODA: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TALKING WITH US AND WE’LL SEE YOU SOON!
RYAN: Thank you!
To check out photos from the show, go to: www.stillcodaphotography.com
Make sure you check out more of AIRBOURNE at:
www.airbournerock.com
www.myspace.com/airbourne
http://twitter.com/airbourne
http://www.facebook.com/airbournerock
http://www.youtube.com/airbournerock
STILLCODA: HOW MUCH PRESSURE WAS THERE FOR LIVING UP TO “RUNNING WILD” SUCCESS?
RYAN: Well, I think with the first album, there are a lot of things that we didn’t know when recording an album. We’ve learned a lot and with the second album (“No Guts, No Glory) we knew what to expect. So we had to knuckle down and get a lot of songs together and pretty much let the songs run their own competition. Then eventually throw them down and made sure to record them live.
STILLCODA: BETWEEN BOTH ALBUMS, WHAT WAS THE WRITING PROCESS LIKE? WAS ONE “HARDER” TO PUT TOGETHER, ETC?
RYAN: I think with the first one, we had our whole life to write out whereas with the second one, we wrote it on the road. We still had a good two years of touring that we spent on the road just putting ideas down. From there, when we go home, we managed to get all the rifts together from sound checks and stuff. Once we had that, we started putting them into songs.
STILLCODA: THE BAND HAS SPENT A LOT OF TIME ON THE ROAD. HOW MUCH TIME OFF DID YOU HAVE IN BETWEEN ALBUMS?
RYAN: Yea, we basically toured non stop for two whole years. It gave us a lot of opportunities to headline shows where we’d have a lot of sound checks so we were able to play around with a lot of rifts.
STILLCODA: HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO MAINTAIN AIRBOURNES SIGNATURE SOUND WHILE EVOLVING MUSICALLY ON “NO GUTS, NO GLORY?”
RYAN: Well I guess we’ve always been happy with the way we sound and it’s something that will always be an Airbourne thing. We always try to spice it up a bit but we keep the drums and vocals straight forward.
STILLCODA: WHAT ARE YOU GUYS EXPECTING TO COME OUT OF THE UPCOMING “ROCKSTAR UPROAR” FESTIVAL COMING UP WITH AVENGED SEVENFOLD, DISTURBED, HALESTORM, ETC?
RYAN: Yea, it looks like it’s going to be a great festival. The last time we did something like that was 2 years ago at Mayhem and it was just a blast. There were a lot of car parked BBQ’s and everyone was just fun. We’re just looking forward to getting on the whole festival thing again and be on stage.
STILLCODA: AWESOME! WE’RE EXCITED TO SEE YOU ON THAT BILL, THAT’S FOR SURE. STILLCODA: WHAT ARE SOME TRACKS ON THE NEWEST RECORD THAT HIT CLOSEST TO YOU?
RYAN: “Born to Kill” is a good one. The reason is cause its very fast for me so it hits me more. It’s something I have to make sure I keep up the pace with.
STILLCODA: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR “RITUALS” BEFORE A SHOW THAT ALLOW YOU TO GET READY FOR SONGS LIKE THAT?
RYAN: We just sort of have a couple of beers, but we pretty much just want to get up there and have fun.
STILLCODA: WHAT’S THE GREATEST “GIFT” YOU’VE GOTTEN SO FAR?
RYAN: Uh, Moonshine! We got some in a mason jar. It was the gift that did a lot to my head the other day and the day after….(both laugh).
STILLCODA: ARE THERE ANY TRICKS OF THE TRADE THAT HAVE HELPED SAVE MOMENTS WHILE PLAYING?
RYAN: Pretty much when anything goes wrong, we just have a laugh. Just laughing at it helps. There are some things that you can’t fix right away so you have to laugh about it and move on.
STILLCODA: ANY SPECIFIC TRADITIONS THAT THE BAND HAS HAD SINCE THE BEGINNING?
RYAN: That’s a good question (sits there thinking for a bit). Listening to certain tapes which can be weird if you knew who they were (laughs).
STILLCODA: WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED WITH FANS COMING UP TO YOU?
RYAN: We have a lot of people come up to us and say it’s a “breath of fresh air” to hear us play. That they’ve been waiting for a band like that so yeah, it’s awesome hearing that.
STILLCODA: WHAT’S THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE TOURING THE US VS AUSTRALIA?
RYAN: The biggest thing is size I think. The US has cities all over whereas Australia has only 5 big parts to it. You have to fly to get to the big cities. Here, you spend all your time in a tour bus with a lot of driving. It’s great because every state’s different than the next so you can explore. It’s culturally different as well and is always a lot of fun.
STILLCODA: TOURING WITH BFMV RIGHT NOW, WHAT’S BEEN THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS TOUR?
RYAN: Playing early and drinking later (both laugh). Just being back again, it’s been awhile. And we are very much looking forward to the Uproar tour coming up.
STILLCODA: WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE TOURING WITH BULLET?
RYAN: it’s been great! The crowds have been fantastic especially with younger crowds. It’s been a nice comfortable tour to be on.
STILLCODA: THAT’S AWESOME! WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU BACK THIS WAY SOON! WE’LL EVEN MAKE SURE TO HAVE SOME BEERS WAITING FOR YOU.
RYAN: That’s great! We’ll definitely take you up on that!
STILLCODA: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TALKING WITH US AND WE’LL SEE YOU SOON!
RYAN: Thank you!
To check out photos from the show, go to: www.stillcodaphotography.com
Make sure you check out more of AIRBOURNE at:
www.airbournerock.com
www.myspace.com/airbourne
http://twitter.com/airbourne
http://www.facebook.com/airbournerock
http://www.youtube.com/airbournerock
