While AC/DC fans are still awaiting the official announcement about the band’s new album, the group’s longtime recording engineer, Mike Fraser, offered some new details about the upcoming project that confirms song contributions from the late Malcolm Young.
Fraser told the AC/DCFans.Net podcast:
Angus kinda came into this with a lot of ideas and riffs and not too many completed songs. But that was similar on [2014’s] Rock Or Bust. Because him and Malcolm [Young] had written tons of songs before Mal got sick and eventually passed away. So he’s got a whole treasure trove of ideas and riffs and all that. So he’s probably spent a few years before we came in to do this record pooling ideas together and all that, and then when he came into the studio here, he just sat down with a whole suitcase full of little demo things he had done. And him and Brendan O’Brien, who produced the record, would sift through all the ideas and say, ‘Hey, that’s great. That’s a really good song. Let’s put that riff here’.
He had — I don’t remember exactly — maybe three or four songs sort of completed that they maybe adjusted, added a chorus here or something like that. But yeah, it was just basically from a stockpile of all these riffs and stuff that Angus and Mal had put together over the years. So they had to sort piece the songs together before we’d record them. They’d probably spend a day or so doing that, and we’d come in, blast off the song. And like these guys work, it’s pretty much live in the studio. What you hear is what they did, what you get. They fire up pretty quick. They all work really good together, ’cause they’ve worked together for so long; they’re a unit.
Fraser also revealed that he was completely unaware of Brian Johnson, Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams return to the band until he actually got the studio.
“When I got there, none of the band had arrived yet, but a lot of their techs were there… and one of the guys said, ‘Hey, you know what’s going on?’ And I said, ‘I have no idea. I just know we’re here and we’re setting up,’” he said. “And he goes, he says, ‘Well, the whole band’s here: Brian, Cliff, Phil and Stevie, and they’re here and we’re ready to rock another record.’ So, man, it was such a shocking, awesome surprise.”
The new developments come after the band announced AC/DC’s reunion with Johnson, Rudd and Williams as well as the teaser drop for “Shot in the Dark.” The full track and video will release on Wednesday (Oct. 7) at midnight eastern time.
If you can’t wait until then, the song was also featured in a Talladega Nights-inspired Dodge commercial, which you can see below.
Listen to the full interview below.
