Guitar Tricks Insider November / December Issue | Page 30

COVER STORY
made them, I may have thought, ‘Is this really a
great track?’ But when I hear them now, I say,
‘That is a good song!’ I’m talking about songs
like [1978’s] ‘Sin City,’ [1979’s] ‘Shot Down in
Flames,’ and [1979’s] ‘Highway to Hell.’ Those
songs all have a classic-ness to them. They’re
songs you can hear 20 years from now, and still
like.”
We always work head to head. We have ideas
that are our own, but we always take them and
butcher them around until we’re sick of hearing
them.”
The secret to their success may very well be
that AC/DC music emerges from an honest
place. “When you’re in the studio, you have
to have those songs coming from the heart,”
Young says. “And you need to capture that feel,
and that atmosphere. The overall song needs to
sound the way you want it to, and be arranged
the way you want it.” Most of that honing and shaping occurs
while AC/DC is on tour. “When you’re on the
road, you’re all toget her, and it’s easier to
communicate that way,” Young believes. “Ideas
come from the road. Living around the hotel
room, you’ve got a bit of time to deal with. You
can always pick up a guitar and bash away for
a good idea. A lot of it’s that, and also from
talking to kids. They’ve always got new phrases
and sayings. Some kid will turn around and
say, ‘This f---in’ world is hell sometimes.’ Those
things stick in your head.”
To get those songs up to that level, Young and
his bandmates work closely together to find
the perfect groove. “The first thing you’ve got
to have is a bit of inspiration,” he reveals. “We
will blow [i.e., jam] and thrash ideas around,
just to see if we can get the best out of them. Young’s favorite guitar to play and compose
with has been the aforementioned Gibson SG,
literally since Day 1. “As a kid, I went to this
shop, and it was always on the wall. It looked
pretty. From the moment I picked it up, I said,
‘I want this guitar,’” Young recalls. “So I went
“Highway to Hell” by AC/DC
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NOVEMBER / DECEMBER