Air Supply still making music after 40 years

Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell defined soft rock in the 1980s as the Australian group Air Supply. The pair spent 40 years making music and touring the world with their collection of amorously titled radio hits —“Lost In Love,” “All out of Love,” “Making Love Out Of Nothing At All.”

They have nothing left to prove.

“From the beginning, we would be honest with ourselves and the kind of music we wanted to produce,” says Hitchcock, in advance of Air Supply’s performance Tuesday, May 26, at Table Mountain Casino. That hasn’t changed.

Last year, Air Supply made a surprise foray into the world of electronic dance music with “Desert/Sea/Sky,” a club-infused dance track from the U.K. production team Wideboys. The songs landed in the top 50 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and earned the band a new following in the club scene. A followup, “I Want You,” was released in March as a remix from DJ producer Tom Stephan. Stephan has done work with Beyonce, Pet Shop Boys, Boy George and Kylie Minogue.

It’s a new direction for Air Supply, but one the pair wasn’t afraid to take, given its group dynamic.

“It is whatever is in Graham’s mind and his head and his heart,” Hitchcock says. “If he came to me tomorrow and said ‘I want to record the phone book,’ I’d do it.”

That trust in each others’ abilities is the secret to the pair’s longevity — and performers and friends.

They don’t step on each others’ toes.

Hitchcock doesn’t write songs. On the Air Supply website you’ll find his bio under “The Singer” tab. Russell doesn’t want to be the lead singer, Hitchcock says. His bio is listed under “The Song.”

Whether these current songs will turn into a full album is yet to be seen, though the days of sitting in the studio for two months working on a new album are gone, Hitchcock says. Air Supply will likely continue to release their work as one-off singles.

For sure, it will continue to tour and perform for fans. It is what they’ve done for the last 40 years.

“We’re really road people,” Hitchcock says. “We still absolutely treasure what we do on the road.”

They will perform more than 150 dates this year.

This story was originally published May 23, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Air Supply still making music after 40 years."