interview: Angus Young
POWER PLAY
Regardless of what fate throws at ’em, you just can’t keep a great band down. Here, AC/DC six-string legend Angus Young discusses life after Malcolm and the band’s positively charged latest album, Power Up
Words Richard Bienstock Photography Josh Cheuse
Like all of us, Angus Young has been spending a lot of time at home lately. “It’s a bit different,” the 66-year-old guitarist admits about life in the time of quarantining and social distancing. Although in some ways, he adds, not so much. “I guess I’m used to being tucked away somewhere in a room and just putting together ideas and songs,” he says with a laugh.
As it turns out, Young has indeed spent a fair amount of time these past few years “tucked away putting together ideas and songs”. Which is how we wound up, rather unexpectedly but certainly quite happily, with Power Up, AC/DC’s 16th (or, if we’re counting in Australian, 17th) full-length effort.
As for what makes it unexpected? For starters, the band recorded it under a complete media blackout; aside from a few rumours things had been radio silent in the AC/DC camp for several years. More significant, of course, is the fact that since the end of the Rock Or Bust world tour in 2016, there has been the looming question of just who, or even what, AC/DC is any more, with only two members – Angus and his nephew Stevie Young – remaining from the line-up that had recorded the album. The following year, of course, the band would suffer the loss of their co-founder, stalwart rhythm guitar player Malcolm Young, who died at the age of 64.
So, what did Angus do? What Angus always does: he wrote. And while he didn’t have his brother next to him physically during this time, he did still have his riffs. According to Angus, the majority of the material on Power Up was constructed from songs and ideas he and Malcolm had logged over the years. “They were things that we knew were good and so we put them aside and said, ‘We should get them down on record at some point,’” Angus says. “And I thought, well, maybe now’s the time to go through and pick out all those ideas.”