Angus Young on AC/DC’s unchanging sound: “This is what we do best”

"When we started, we weren't reinventing the wheel"

AC/DC‘s Angus Young has opened up on why the band have never changed their sound.

The hard rock titans have stuck to their distinctive guitar-driven style throughout a career spanning almost 50 years, which has prompted frequent criticism from their detractors.

But in a new interview with Australian TV host Waleed Aly, guitarist Young explained that the group made an early decision to stick to what they “do best”.

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“With us, it’s to be expected,” he said.

“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.”

He added: “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 NME, Angus also declared that ‘Power Up’ is an album “for Malcolm”, adding: “His death was a huge blow to us, but I still think he’s there when I’m playing.

“It sounds funny, but I can still feel him communicating to me when I’m playing guitar.”

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Bassist Cliff Williams, meanwhile, spoke of his hope that Malcolm Young is “looking down” and liking the band’s latest album.

Reviewing ‘Power Up’NME wrote: “As with all good AC/DC albums, the band’s commitment to unrelenting silliness on this record cannot be ignored either – even if you sense that they are in on the increasingly surreal images they present.”

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