Air Supply and the validity of sweet and romantic pop: the secrets of its success

The years pass and… Air supply He never stops his march. Since their debut in the 70s and the successes of the 80s, the English duo Graham Russell and the Australian Russell Hitchcock he did not interrupt his formidable annual tour in closed theaters and stadiums around the world.

Today, with an average age of 73, they continue to perform around 130 recitals every twelve months, with songs that are a magnet for two or three generations of fansbut above all people aged 50 and over who have fallen in love with hits like All for love AND Lost in love.

They are a true classic who enjoys the place they occupy, and their followers celebrate that they are still active. Now, two years after their last visit, they will be on April 9th ​​at the Quality Arena in the city of Córdoba and the April 11th at the Gran Rex Theater.

Going on tour at 70

Gone are the early days of Graham and Russell playing pizza parlors, candy shops and nightclubs with just one guitar, with two voices. It’s been a long time since then They have a powerful rock band behind themalthough their vocal harmonies remain intact and are their hallmark.

And although they were rejected by several record labels at first, they were the first Western group to tour China and Taiwan, now they join more than 20 million copies sold. Among his most famous fans were, for example, Prince Charles and Lady Di.

Over the past decade they celebrated several milestone anniversaries in their career and marked a new milestone when they broke up record attendance in Cuba before 175 thousand people. Now they are on a world tour for their 50th anniversary.

In a Zoom chat during an unusual day off with no show, Graham Russell says he’ll only be there for two days. “I just arrived and we will leave immediately for the United States”, he explains.

-Do you like to travel the world non-stop or are you looking forward to going on holiday and having time for yourself?

-Now we’re starting to take some time off, and I think we’ll have more time off this year than ever before. Let’s start doing it now because we are getting older and traveling is becoming more and more tiring.

So we’re still doing a lot of shows, but we’re taking more time to relax. We do about 130 shows a year and that hasn’t changed over the years, so we’re hoping to change that this year and slow down a bit, even though it’s very difficult to do that.

-I guess they forcibly stopped during the pandemic.

-Yes. The pandemic stopped us for much of 2020 and 2021. We had started again in March 2021, but then we stopped again and didn’t play again until January 2022. But touring is what we do; We’ve always considered ourselves a touring band, even though we record new stuff and release it on our site, or through our Spotify.

-For the first time in history there are rock artists turning 70 or 80, such as the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and Elton John. Everyone tries to slow down the intensity of the shows a little.

-No one in rock and roll had been this old before. No one has reached this age. Elvis died when he was 42 and many artists don’t live to be 70 or 80, but those who do are truly role models for everyone. He’s setting a new standard for people who get to that age and still perform live.

If you look at the Stones or McCartney, they sound amazing and still do. I think it’s fantastic. So we still have a long way to go to be like them. We don’t know how to do anything but keep playing, and we’re still very good at what we do! So I don’t see any reason to stop.

-Who do you have as an example or model to follow, maybe Paolo?

-Certainly the Stones and McCartney. They are definitely role models for us. And I think we are a role model for young people who are emerging. And how old is Willy Nelson? I think he’s 90, so everyone is constantly pushing the limits, because people have never aged like that before. Rock and roll is not that old or even an earlier example.

The secret of romantic pop

-How do you explain Air Supply’s continued success? Generations change and people still like love songs.

-We create our own sound and want to perform ballads, so the big epic songs came naturally because that’s who we are. And we’ve never changed, so our band is unique. Fortunately, our kind of music will always be popular, because people love beautiful and emotional songs and I don’t hear many things like that in today’s music.

Nobody sounds like us, which is really good. So when we go to Asia or South America, people respond immediately. Furthermore, our message is also very positive, as it unites people and reminds them where they were when they heard Lost in love or any of the songs. We carry the message, but we share it with the public. It’s a wonderful and beautiful way to spend your life.

-What singers or composers do you like in the style of love songs and ballads? Maybe Burt Bacharach or Elton John?

-They are definitely two of my favorite composers. I also love Barry Gibb’s songs. Luckily, I grew up with them too, so I love their music. There aren’t many new composers who write that way anymore.

I have always been very inspired by film music, like Ennio Morricone, the Italian film composer. I love writing songs, so it’s not a difficult task for me. My work is my passion.

-Tell me the story behind one of your biggest hits, “A Whole Lot of Love.” Did you think it would be a hit when you first played it in rehearsal?

-I remember writing that song very quickly, in half an hour. It’s very special to me because it was the first song I wrote on the piano. I’m not a good pianist, but I play and I get by. So I was very excited when I finished it. And when I sat down and listened to it, I thought, “This will be a great song if it gets attention.”

It is very simple and just a guide or hope for a broken heart. The song is a ray of hope that maybe we will be together again. That song in particular treated us very well. He’s 45 now, but he’s always in the movies and keeps us relevant wherever we go. There is a large part of the audience that is getting older, just like us, but we also see that there is an influx of younger people again, teenagers who have been exposed to our music through their parents.

-And what do you do with such tremendous success when you have to put together your repertoire: do you leave it for last?

-We always end with All for love, for decades. It’s so big that you can’t touch anything afterwards. Live it’s so epic it has to be the end of the show.

-What do you remember about Argentina? You have come many times and on your first visit you performed with Alejandro Lerner.

– I have known Alejandro for more than 30 years. I have been to his house many times. I met his family, he was here at my house and we wrote songs together. He is a wonderful human being and we talk often and FaceTime.

Argentina has very fond memories for me. It is a city full of people who love music and can hear and see many artists from all over the world. And they still make time to see us, which is a great honor. I’m very excited to be there again.