Continuing to make musical history with every sold out performance around the world, legendary pop duo Air Supply is riding the wave of an eventful banner year in 2026, with concerts across North America, Australia, South America, Europe and Asia, a biopic in the works, an impending Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and – brace yourselves, devoted Airheads – A Matter of Time, their first studio album in 15 years.
Graham Russell’s heartfelt and soul-piercing songwriting talents, along with his and Russell Hitchcock’s dynamic trademark vocals, are on emphatic display throughout the multi-faceted 11-track collection, due to drop digitally December 3, with the same release date for an exclusive special edition 80’s style vinyl version.
Released to coincide with Air Supply’s incredible 50th anniversary as a duo, A Matter of Time caps an historic career that compares to the Beatlesque feat of five consecutive Top Five Singles (“Lost in Love,” “All Out of Love,” “Every Woman in the World,” “The One That You Love,” “Here I Am”). During their early 80’s run, they sold a collective total of 20 million copies of their first three albums (Lost in Love, The One That You Love, Now & Forever) and the 1983 Greatest Hits collection and achieved multi-million radio plays for five of their hits, including “Sweet Dreams” and the Jim Steinman-penned “Making Love Out of Nothing At All.” In 2010, the year Air Supply released their last studio album Mumbo Jumbo, Graham was honored with a BMI Million-Air Certificate recognizing three million performances of “All Out of Love.”
“When it comes to our longevity, it’s sometimes hard to think about it, but Russell and I do often, usually while we’re traveling between cities,” says Graham. “You can never imagine being in a band or being an artist for that long, so it’s not easy to wrap your thoughts around it. When we started having some success, we thought we’d be around for a few years. Then as the years roll by, all of a sudden we’re at a half century since we met and people still enjoy hearing our songs and seeing us perform them.
“If I could pinpoint the reason,” he adds, “it’s because our music has never really been in style but it also never goes out of style. We’ve never followed any trends or been fashionable, but heartfelt love songs always seem to endure. And beyond simply making great records, we love hearing from fans around the world, particularly after our shows, saying things like, ‘God you have no idea what this song means to me or how it saved me from this or that.’ Having been a songwriter for over 64 years now, it’s particularly gratifying to hear that those songs I’ve written still resonate like that.”
The release of the album comes seven months after Graham and Russell celebrated a half century since meeting as chorus members of the Australian touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar in a most extraordinary way – headlining a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall on their actual 50th anniversary date.
The delirious fans in NYC lucky enough to attend their remarkable 5,560th show at Carnegie Hall might not have been aware of just how rare a feat it was, considering how resistant the powers that be often are to having pop-rockers play in a venue dominated by classical performances. With this concert, Air Supply rightfully joined a rarefied list of rock greats to have played the hallowed Hall, including The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Chicago, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Graham and Russell’s chief influences, The Beatles. This was a dream come true for the duo who both saw The Beatles perform in 1964 at different venues.
While most of the duo’s albums have been produced by Graham, the singer/songwriter was delighted to work this time with Grammy-nominated Canadian producer Brian Howes, a two time Juno Award, Dove Award and multiple BMI Award winner whose star-studded career includes recordings by the rock bands Skillet, Puddle of Mudd, Nickelback, Hedley and Simple Plan and tracks by American Idol greats Daughtry and David Cook.
A Matter of Time took a full two years to come together from inception to completed production for several reasons – Air Supply’s relentless ongoing 130 date U.S. and international annual tour schedule and Howes’ insistence, even in this digital age, that all of Graham and Russell’s vocals be recorded at his studio in Courtenay, Canada, an island off the coast of British Columbia, requiring several trips.
The duo also appreciated the opportunity to record the tracks old school, live in the studio with their band (drummer Pavel Valdman, lead guitarist Aaron McLain, keyboardist Mirko Tessandori and bassist Doug Gild), much the way Graham and Russell did in the early days, when he and Russell recorded their first albums in Australia, starting with their self-titled Top 20 Australian debut. In line with the possibility that A Matter of Time may be Air Supply’s final studio album (stay tuned!), Graham and Russell wanted the artwork to be special and sought out the talents of legendary Australian sculptor and painter Brett-Livingstone Strong to create the eye-popping, psychedelic time traveling artwork for the album, which includes an image of Air Supply circa 1981 amidst aliens, faeries, butterflies dinosaurs and cat-driven spaceships, among other colorful “easter eggs.”
“Brian is a great producer to work with, and we loved that he was always open to suggestions,” Russell Hitchcock says. “This creative partnership between myself, Graham and Brian led to a very mature album with great songs. Graham brings a different perspective on life to these tunes. When I sing, I think of different colors and there are so many that inspire me on A Matter of Time. Stylistically, I love the fact that there’s a great variance from track to track. I think the songs aren’t just ‘I love you and you love me’ and a chorus but lyrically very deep and thought provoking. I’m glad we’re releasing the album on vinyl so that fans can have a deeper appreciation for Graham’s storytelling as they listen.”
Graham adds, “Most artists recording tracks and albums now record one element at a time, then replace everything until it sounds good. “We appreciated the opportunity to create A Matter of Time live. There’s a certain spirit you get when that happens, and over the course of running through a dozen songs, if you’re patient, incredible sweet spots come that you couldn’t capture using a computer recording each musician separately. Our way is more fun and interactive, leading to trying out different notes, chords and overall approaches and ironing out the wrinkles. We ended up here with magic and when you’ve got that, you end up smiling!”
Air Supply audiences have already been smiling widely as the band performs the album’s symphonic, high spirited lead single “Wrap My Arms Around You” amidst their cavalcade of hits. Graham wrote the song during the pandemic, reflecting on the importance of physical human connection and a time when people would once again be able to hug their friends and loved ones without fear. Another of the duo’s favorites on the album is the soulful, haunting power ballad “If Only,” which features a mellotron element that pays subtle homage to the Fab Four’s “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Other standouts include the raunchy, freewheeling Stones-influenced rocker “I Want Your Love,” the anthemic, hard-driving “Son of the Father” (from A Wall Apart, Graham’s stage musical about the Berlin Wall) and the passionate ballad “I Say A Prayer,” featuring Kennadi Dodds, a 22 year old, Utah-based singer/songwriter, who also contributed lyrics to the song.
“If someone had told us back in 1976 when we recorded our first album we would still be around, performing and recording stronger than ever, we would have told them they were insane,” Russell says. “These wonderful recent developments – playing the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall, the biopic, the Hollywood Walk of Fame – feel like a great stamp of approval from the media. But more importantly, they affirm the validity and continued relevance of our music.
“Love songs like ours will never go out of style because, when you think about it, at some point in everyone’s life, they’re falling in love, getting married, falling out of love or missing their love,” he adds. “Love is that constant that makes the world go round, and we’ve been sharing our songs about all those things with four generations now. I’ve said it a million times, the reason we keep playing is because of the songs. If you don’t have a song, you have
