ANGUS YOUNG On AC/DC’s Unchanging Sound: ‘This Is What We Do Best — We Make Rock And Roll’

AC/DC 2020

During a recent appearance on “The Project,” AC/DC guitarist Angus Young addressed the fact that the band never changed its style, focusing instead on fine-tuning its distinct sound over the years.

Angus explained (see video below): “With us, it’s to be expected. As my brother [late AC/DC rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young] used to say, when somebody said, ‘Every album you’ve ever made sounds the same,’ he said, ‘Yeah. It’s the same band.’ When we started, we weren’t reinventing the wheel. This is what we do best — we make rock and roll.”

Angus once again said that AC/DC‘s long-awaited comeback album, Power Up, is a tribute to Malcolm, who died in 2017 from effects of dementia at age 64.

He said: “With Malcolm, he would just always get rolling. That was him. A lot of these songs we’d done on this album, a lot of them are tracks he always said, ‘Well, we’ve gotta get these done.’ He always wanted them out there on an album.”

In a recent interview with Rolling StoneAngus YoungBrian Johnson and Cliff Williams discussed how Power Up came together.

 “This record is pretty much a dedication to Malcolm [Young, late AC/DC rhythm guitarist, my brother,” Angus says. “It’s a tribute for him like Back in Black was a tribute to Bon Scott.”

“Even when I sit at home and pick up my guitar and start playing, the first thing that enters my head is, ‘I think Mal will like this riff I’m playing’. That’s how I judge lot of stuff.”

Brian added: “Malcolm was always there. As Angus would say, the band was his idea. Everything in it ran through him. He was always there in your minds or just your thoughts. I still see him in my own way. I still think about him. And then in the studio when we’re doing it, you have to be careful when you look around because he seems to be there.”

Williams says: “AC/DC without Mal isn’t AC/DC. He’s just there somehow. He’s always here.”

He also said that once drummer Phil Rudd and Johnson were back in the band, it didn’t take much to convince him to return as well. “It was like the old band back together,” Williams said. “It was not like starting over again, but as close to the band that’s been together for 40-plus years as we can possibly make it. I didn’t want to miss that.”