After what feels like a lifetime of the rumour mill churning, AC/DC finally confirmed their long-awaited comeback last week. It has now been revealed that late guitarist Malcolm Young will feature on the record.
The band unleashed a short video clip teasing their forthcoming new single ‘Shot In The Dark’ — set for release Wednesday, October 7th — confirming that Brian Johnson, Angus Young, Stevie Young, Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams were back at it.
In a new interview with AC/DCFans.Net — the band’s sound engineer Mike Fraser discussed the recording process of the band, and the influence that late guitarist Malcolm Young has had on the record.
“I think Angus kind of came into this with a lot of ideas and riffs and not too many completed songs,” Fraser mused. “But that was similar on Rock Or Bust, ‘cos him and Malcolm had written tons of songs before Mal got sick and eventually passed away.”
He continued, “So he’s got a whole treasure trove of ideas and riffs and all that. He’s probably spent a few years before we came in to do this record pooling ideas together and all that, and then when he came into the studio here, he just sat down with a whole suitcase full of little demo things he had done.
“And him and Brendan O’Brien, who produced the record, would sift through all the ideas and say, ‘Hey, that’s great. That’s a really good song. Let’s put that riff here.’”
Fraser went on to detail that the album is chock-a-block with “all these great riffs and ideas Ang had”.
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“He had — I don’t remember exactly — maybe three or four songs sort of completed that they maybe adjusted, added a chorus here or something like that. But yeah, it was just basically from a stockpile of all these riffs and stuff that Angus and Mal had put together over the years,” he revealed.
“So they had to sort of piece the songs together before we’d record them. They’d probably spend a day or so doing that, and we’d come in, blast off the song. And these guys work, it’s pretty much live in the studio: what you hear is what they did, what you get. They fire up pretty quick.
“They all work really good together, ’cause they’ve worked together for so long; they’re a unit. They try and get as much energy into the song as they can live in the studio, ’cause that’s what they are — they are just so great live.
AC/DC announced what (we assume to be) their first new album, since 2014’s Rock or Bust last week — PWR UP. Definitive details about the album are yet to be revealed.
Back in July, friend of AC/DC and Twisted Sister rocker Dee Snider delved into the forthcoming Acca Dacca record. Snider revealed that the new record was essentially complete, but coronavirus delayed its release.
“What will be achieved, the reuniting of the band that we know for one more album, is gonna to be uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time,” Snider told ABC at the time. “Because nothing goes on forever. But this is the ultimate ‘one more time’”.
