ANGUS YOUNG Explains AC/DC Sound

January 1, 2015

Spain's Rock FM recently conducted an interview with AC/DC guitarist Angus Young and singer Brian Johnson. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about the AC/DC sound, Young said: "We never try to make the… We always try to get new songs. That's what AC/DC has always been about. You can listen to what we do and you can go, 'Well, it's AC/DC, but it's a new song.' So that's what we've always tried to achieve. So we've always got that style. That's how we sound: with the two guitars and the bass and the drums and Brian. It's that format. And we aim for that. When you get that basic [sound] right, especially even when we record, that's the sound we're after; we want that big sound."

AC/DC's 16th studio album, "Rock Or Bust", sold around 172,000 copies in its first week of release to debut at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 album chart. This marks a huge drop from the opening number of 2008's "Black Ice", which topped sales charts in 29 countries, including the U.S. for the first time ever. It sold an incredible 784,288 copies in its first week in this country alone.

"Black Ice" was sold exclusively through Walmart, Sam's Club and ACDC.com in the U.S., hitting over one million copies by its second week. The band and its record label, Columbia, did not have the same exclusive deal this time.

"Rock Or Bust" was released on December 2 and is AC/DC's first album without guitarist Malcolm Young, who is suffering from dementia. He has been replaced by nephew Stevie Young.

Angus Young told The Pulse Of Radio that AC/DC's distinctive guitar sound has been a trademark of the band since its early days. "My older brother George, he produced a lot of what we had done in the beginning, and he always said, 'You're just a guitar band. The guitars are so dominant in what you do,'" he said. "And he always thought it was a big plus factor, 'cause the guitars were just so strong."

AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd, who does play on the disc, put his own future with the band in doubt by showing up late for the recording sessions, missing a video and photo shoot entirely, and finally being arrested on charges of murder-for-hire, threatening to kill and drug possession.

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