AC/DC have a ‘mountain’ of unreleased material in their vaults, says Angus Young

(Image credit: Columbia Records)

The return of AC/DC, who release their seventeenth studio album Power Up on November 13, has been greeted with much goodwill, not least because it features the return of vocalist Brian Johnson, bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd, but also because guitarist Angus Young has openly stated that the album is a tribute to his late brother Malcolm, who passed away in 2017. But it may be premature to imagine that this is Acca Dacca’s swan song, for Angus Young has revealed the presence of a “mountain” of unreleased AC/DC music in the vaults.

As reported by Blabbermouth, when asked in a new interview with Radio.com if the band have a “mountain” of unreleased AC/DC song ideas, Angus Young admitted, “Oh yeah. If I went through [all the boxes], there’s a lot of ideas that were [recorded] through our career. The hard part is just keeping up with the technology of that time.

Malcolm Young receives a writing co-credit on all 12 tracks on the new album, which Angus Young describes as “a good toe-tapper”.

“A lot of the songs, Malcolm and myself, we had worked on,” Angus tells Radio.com. “These were songs that we had been working through the years. And it was a case of getting these songs out. And I wanted to make sure that I had a lot of good tracks that Mal really liked.”

“Any time we ever went to do an album, we went for the most current songs that we had,” he explains. “They [were] the most current, and that’s what we usually released. But in this case, because I had a bit of time, I’d go through and go back and get together all of these tracks and go through them. I’ve got a great collection of tracks that especially Malcolm really liked, and I thought this is the ideal chance to get those tracks down and get them out there to the public.”

“I know Mal’s not with us anymore, but he’s there with us in spirit,” Angus Young stated earlier in the year. “This band was his baby, his life. He was always one [to say], ‘You keep going.’ His big line always, every now and again, he’d go, ‘If you’re a musician, it’s a bit like being on the Titanic. The band goes down with the ship.’ That’s how he viewed it.”

Brian Johnson says that he hopes that Power Up will provide a temporary escape from the horrors of 2020.

“Without getting too deep or philosophical about it, the fact is, it’s been a shitty year…for everyone,” he tells Radio.com. “Sony got it right, they knew there was no chance of us supporting the album with a tour or anything, but 10 out of 10 to them, for just saying, ‘You know what, let’s just do something to cheer people up… that’s going make the world forget their troubles for a couple of hours listening to this album.’ I hope it works… I think it is already working.”

The full interview with Johnson and Young is now online.

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.