AC/DC may be recognised as international rock icons and heaped with countless records, most recently the Australians’ seminal rock classic Back In Black being placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame, but the pub rock veterans aren’t the most prolific band in the world.
Their recording output was pretty regular until about 1990 where there new material slowed to a trickle, having released only three studio albums in the last 23 years, leaving fans clamouring for a new record since the release and subsequent world tour for 2008’s Black Ice.
Thankfully, bassist Cliff Williams has confirmed in an interview with Backstage Axxess that AC/DC have begun work on a new studio album.
In the video interview, Williams confirms that while there was “nothing in the works right now” regarding booking studio time, and adding that the band were “still getting over the last tour,” he did reveal that guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young have begun work on a potential new album, saying: “the guys are writing material and when they’ve got some stuff together, they’ll give us a holler.”
The bassist added that: “They [Malcolm and Angus Young] get a bunch of ideas together. Some are more together than others — and then we’ll all hit the studio or a little rehearsal room and we’ll kick it around with a producer. And then we get in a studio and record, and that’s kind of how it runs.”“The guys [Angus and Malcolm Young] are writing material and when they’ve got some stuff together, they’ll give us a holler.” – Cliff Williams, AC/DC
“The guys, I’m sure, are putting their time in — Malcolm and Angus — but they’re not ready for [the rest of the band to get involved] yet,” he says.
It’s the most concrete news that AC/DC fans have been able to look forward to since vocalist Brian Johnson made noises early last year that the band were working on a new album that was even potentially due before 2012’s end.
He was soon be followed by comments from Malcom Young explaining that the singer may have jumped the gun on the original plan to release an LP in 2012.
“You know what Brian’s like,” said Young Snr at the time, “he just says things and then walks away. It’ll be a little while – a year or two anyway.”
“I’ve been doing some jamming on some song ideas but I do that all the time, as do the rest of the band,” he said. “We are still working. But we had a long rest between Stiff Upper Lip and Black Ice, so I think we need a couple of years to recuperate and work on it a bit more.”
Black Ice, AC/DC’s last studio LP, debuted at #1 in over 29 countries including America’s Billboard 200 albums chart – the first time they’d achieved such a feat since 1981’s For Those About to Rock We Salute You. It also led to their world tour of the same name that saw the band play to over 5 million fans in 108 cities over 28 countries across the globe.
It also spawned AC/DC’s first live album in 20 years, Live At River Plate, its release coinciding with the band allowing their entire discography – beginning with 1975’s High Voltage – being made available on Apple’s iTunes for the first time ever last November; including an iTunes exclusive set that included all 16 studio albums, including four live albums and three compilations
Speaking of their 40 years in resisting letting their body of work go digital, the band said that letting fans ‘cherry-pick’ individual tracks compromised the integrity of the album format. “It’s like an artist who does a painting,” guitarist Angus Young said in 2008. “If he thinks it’s a great piece of work, he protects it.” So what inspired the change of heart? Well, as AC/DC’s own song goes, ‘Money Talks’.
