They are really under power again: "I feel great with the new album," says AC/DC guitarist and band leader Angus Young about "Power Up", a late work of the Australian rock legend hardly thought possible in this brilliance by most. "We all really enjoyed recording it immensely. From the beginning, our goal with this band was to make music that exuded a lot of energy and passion. As always, we went out of our way to capture that very special AC/DC feel." You only have to listen to the first single "Shot In The Dark", a crunchy catchy rocker, to know what Angus means: "The number really sparks, in a classic AC/DC way."
The interview with a good-humored Angus takes place over the phone. The musician has been staying at his estate near Sydney for months - Corona doesn't stop even electrified rock icons, after all. At one point earlier this year, he says, the whole band got together in the Netherlands to shoot the video for the single "Shot In The Dark." (Young's wife Ellen van Lochem is Dutch, and the two spend some time each year at their villa in Aalten, near the German border) But they haven't met for a while now, he says, since then. Singer Brian Johnson lives in the USA anyway, and Angus, with 65 years of age presumably the oldest school uniform wearer in the world, enjoys his evenings in the garden at home: "The frogs have mating season right now", he reports from his everyday life, "they make a hell of a racket, I can tell you that." Admittedly, "They're not quite as loud as us, of course."
Four years ago, only the most imperturbable optimists would have thought that AC/DC could get themselves together again to record another album - "Power Up" is now the seventeenth in the band's career, which began in 1973: Drummer Phil Rudd wasn't even on the tour for 2014's "Rock Or Bust" album due to his drug escapades as well as issues of a criminal nature. (In addition to drug possession, he was accused of attempting to commission a murder, among other charges, which could not be substantiated; he was ultimately sentenced to eight months of house arrest at his residence in New Zealand) Singer Brian Johnson, at 73 the oldest of the bunch, began to have increasingly serious problems with his hearing and had to be replaced by Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses for the last concerts of the tour; bassist Cliff Williams decided to retire after the tour. By the end of 2016, AC/DC thus consisted only of Angus and his nephew Stevie Young, who had already succeeded his uncle Malcolm on rhythm guitar in 2014. Malcolm Young, Angus' two years older brother, had to leave the band due to his dementia and lived in a nursing home until his death in November 2017.
