AC/DC relied on label’s advice on when to release new record

AC/DC’s Angus Young has detailed the somewhat arduous journey to releasing their forthcoming album, POWER UP, in a new interview with Apple Music presenter Zane Lowe.

When discussing the decision to release the album this Friday (November 13), Young said they relied on the advice of their label, Columbia, to make the call.

“They were the ones giving the advice and they said, ‘We can do it now’,” Young said.

“At this point, we were depending on them. And that’s when I said, ‘Well, if you believe you can do it, we’ll do our best to help you promote it.'”

The record was actually ready to be released earlier, Young told Lowe.

“We had done all promo, video stuff for it, and as he said, we were even planning maybe if we do some shows, if it worked.”

Of course, all touring plans quickly came to a halt as the pandemic worsened. However, the band’s frontman Brian Johnson said there’s a poetic timing to the new album’s arrival.

“I think we waited until the world hit a misery level, a limit of misery with this thing, and just said, ‘Right, time to cheer it up.'”

POWER UP is the band’s first studio album in six years, following on from 2014’s Rock or Bust. It also marks their first record since the death of bandmember Malcolm Young in 2017.

AC/DC have released two singles in the lead-up to the album, ‘Shot In The Dark’ and ‘Realize’.