STACK #194 Dec 2020

MUSIC FEATURE

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We have to go out and perform this live, and we want it to stand up live

he becomes perfectly demonic – “‘TNT!’ The growly stuff. That’s my specialty. Then [producer]

hear them live and go, ‘That’s nothing like it.’” There are plenty of

continued

moments across PWR/UP which display the curiosity still present in the band’s playing, like the creeping little

Brendan O’Brien… will work out a few notes for Cliff and me, for us to try and sing, and make it a little bit sweeter. I don’t call them ‘harmonies’, I call it ‘sweetness.’” Solos occur mainly on the fly, and Young is averse to getting too finicky. “You can chop up something [digitally] – I’ve seen them try to chop stuff up – but after a while it starts to sound… well, you can tell. And we don’t like to overdo it. You can kill something with too much production. We have to go out and perform this live, and we want it to stand up live. If you get too clever and say ‘I’ll bring in the New York Philharmonic,’ just know that you’re going to have to rent the Philharmonic. And that’s too many on an aeroplane,” he laughs. “There’s nothing worse than when you hear a band on record, and you get this overdone polished sound, and then you

morgue, before Adams bought it in 1989. “Nice atmosphere – it has a good vibe,” Young says. Adams has occasionally popped in if he’s in the area, but Young suspects the AC/DC culinary habits might have kept him at bay. “He’s a bit of a vegan and we’re kind of the opposite,” he grins. “We fry bacon and eggs and stuff – we’re not exactly health nuts.” You wouldn’t know it from the palpable energy of this record, which bursts with classic-sounding licks while still feeling fresh as a fish. It’s also the ‘group’ or ‘gang’ vocals – always a joy across AC/DC’s output – which shine, particularly on stand-out Through The Mists of Time and uproarious single Shot in the Dark . Young says it’s all done in-house. “We use what’s there in the band,” he explains. “I’m good for the grunts and groans, if you need a bit of a gremlin about it. I do things like,” – and here

guitar line in the album closer Code Red – an idea which came from demos around the Black Ice (2008) period. Young says he’s always looking for ways to push himself. “Yeah, of course – I still experiment,” he says. “I’m not trying yoga or standing on my head – doing a balancing act on my pinky or something. ‘Look at that guy, he can do that thing like the little hand in The Addams Family !’ If I could do that I’d be asking for a bonus. I’m underpaid.”

PWR/UP

by AC/DC is out now via Sony

TO CAP IT OFF Young is still getting his muscly pins out in his famous schoolboy-uniform costume, which was originally dreamt up by his late sister Margaret (who also proffered ‘AC/DC’ as a possible bandname, having seen the abbreviation printed on her electric sewing machine). The cherry on top of this outfit – the soft-peaked hat – is a staple, which Young says he buys “in batches” from actual school suppliers (mainly out of England). He has “a whole collection of different colours to match different suits,” but steers away from any obvious branding: “I get them plain… I don’t think they want me to impersonate someone from Eton, y’know?!”

16 DECEMBER 2020

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