MUEN: HELLO, I WAS JUST AT YOUR SHOW IN HOLLYWOOD A FEW WEEKS AGO AT THE ROXY... I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU THAT I THOUGHT YOU GUYS WERE TOTALLY AMAZING - I LEFT THERE AS A HUGE HUGE FAN OF YOURS!

JOEL: Well thank you!

MUEN: AIRBOURNE RELEASED "RUNNIN' WILD", IN THE U.S., ON JANUARY 29TH.. SO HOW HAVE THINGS BEEN GOING?

JOEL: It's been going great! We've been hitting places around the country, meeting alot of people, and playing in America for the first time is great!

MUEN: WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH THE LEGENDARY BOB MARLETTE, ON THE ALBUM?

JOEL: Bob is a great producer to work with, he's one of those type producers who lets you do what you want to do, and doesn't try to impose things on you in any way, he just has the attitude like "let's make this rock and roll!!" Bob just makes it happen!

MUEN: WHAT SONG IS YOUR FAVORITE TO PLAY LIVE?

JOEL: Any one of them is a good one to play live! Probably one of our favorites though, is "Hellfire."

MUEN: IN 2004 YOU RELEASED A 8 SONG EP "READY TO ROCK" IN 2004 WITH SONGS LIKE "RUNNIN' HOT," "HOTTER THAN HELL," "WOMEN ON TOP," AND "DIRTY ANGEL" .. SEEMS LIKE EVERY SONG IS ABOUT HOT WOMEN...

JOEL: Yeah! haha!


MUEN: SO HOW SO HOW DID THAT EP DO, IN COMPARISON TO THE NEW RELEASE?

JOEL: Well that EP was never really released, .. I mean it was basically just sold at shows and that sort of thing. It was actually just something we did ourselves.

MUEN: WELL ALOT OF YOUR LATEST SONGS ARE IN LIKE 9 OF THE MOST POPULAR VIDEO GAMES ON THE PLANET, INCLUDING Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, Need for Speed: ProStreet, Skate, Grand Theft Auto IV, NFL Tour, Burnout Paradise and NASCAR 08. The song "Runnin' Wild" was also featured in a commercial for the console game Army of Two... DO YOU PLAY THESE GAMES AT ALL?

JOEL: Oh yeah... well if we could get our PlayStation to work! lol..

MUEN: ALSO YOU PERFORMED THE COVER OF MR. KENNEDY'S ENTRANCE THEME "TURN UP THE TROUBLE" FOR (WWE The Music, Vol. 8) .. AND YOUR SONG "STAND UP FOR ROCK AND ROLL" WAS THE OFFICIAL THEME SONG FOR WWE'S ROYAL RUMBLE 2008... HOW DID THAT OPPORTUNITY COME ABOUT?

JOEL: Hmm I don't know, they must had just heard the song and figured it would be good for that - We were fans of that Anthem since we were kids.. we used to use it for wrestling..

MUEN: SO WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT NEW JERSEY? IT MUST BE ALOT DIFFERENT, COMING FROM AUSTRALIA?

JOEL: Yeah we have a house there, but still haven't set foot in it yet.. it's been over 3 months now, haha! We've been on the road all this time.

MUEN: SO WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE NEW JERSEY THOUGH?

JOEL: Oh, well it's just the best place geographically for us to be, since we are touring the UK, U.S. Europe, and Japan... So if a show comes up, and we get a call that says "hey we need you in such and such a place now!" .. well then it's easier to get to those places, .. with the gear especially, the gear is always the hard thing to travel with because there is so much of it. So it's good to be close to the action.

MUEN: YOU ARE AMAZING MUSICIANS, ESPECIALLY FOR YOUR AGE.. YOU ARE BETWEEN THE AGES OF 19 AND 23 RIGHT?

JOEL: Well between 20 and 24...

MUEN: WHEN DID YOU FIRST START PLAYING GUITAR?

JOEL: I started when I was about 10 or 11.. Yeah we all started pretty young.. we weren't any good at school, so we figured we better start playing rock and roll early.. lol.. we were inspired by all those early videos such as Poison's "un-Skinny Bop" and such.. Guns N' Roses etc.. it just felt right.

MUEN: YOU MUST HAVE HAD A LOT OF MUSICAL INFLUENCES IN THE HOUSE GROWING UP, WITH YOU AND YOUR BROTHER BOTH MUSICIANS...

JOEL: Yes that, and our uncle.. he had a huge record collection.. we really got into that. We just sort of bypassed the whole 80's and 90's music because we were way more into what he had in his collection. You know ZZ Top, .. The Who.. AC/DC .. Thin Lizzy.. stuff like that. .. Creedance .. you know.. He just had all these great bands in his collection. It was really cool to grow up on that.

MUEN: I'VE BEEN LOOKING THRU YOUR LIVE PICS AND HAVEN'T FOUND ONE WHERE YOU ARE WEARING A SHIRT.. DO YOU EVER WEAR A SHIRT ON STAGE?

JOEL: No (laughs) it's just too hot! Well after like the first song, you just have to throw it off, and we keep losing them actually.. and then we end up out on the road and I have no t-shirts.. hard to stay warm with no shirts..

MUEN: I'VE HEARD THAT "IT ISN'T A GIG UNLESS YOU'VE JUMPED OFF INTO THE CROWD FROM THE BAR AT LEAST ONCE.." HAVE YOU EVER HURT YOURSELF?

JOEL: Yeah I've injured my knee once, it took six months to heal.

MUEN: IS IT TRUE YOUR BROTHER RYAN DESTROYED HIS EARDRUM FROM HAVING HIS HEADPHONES ON TOO LOUD?

JOEL: Yeah! When we were recording the album, he turned one of his cans up on "really loud" accidentally, and then so turned the other one up just "loud" to try and balance it out...:/

Interview by Shauna O' Donnell