AC/DC Frontman: 'The Easiest Riffs In The World Are The Hardest Ones To Write'

The New Zealand Herald recently conducted an interview with Anglo-Australian hard rock legends AC/DC and their producer, Brendan O'Brien, whose previous credits include BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, PEARL JAM and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On working with O'Brien, who thought the band's last two CDs were more blues-based:

Angus Young (guitar): "So he was trying to recapture more of that rock sound, like the 'Highway to Hell' — he said he even liked the 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' time.

"It has to sound like AC/DC. You want them [fans] to hear that and go, 'That's AC/DC.' ... But you also want them to hear it and go, 'But it's AC/DC playing something new.' That for us is always the challenge. You hope that your songwriting, the way that you're doing it is getting better."

Brendan O' Brien: "They do something very unique in (that) they have a way in presenting very aggressive music but almost in a kind of catchy, hokey way, and I just felt like my favourite music that they've done has been that kind of music. My thinking was, 'If I can just help people when they hear it remember how great this band is, then that's a service to them."'

On never receiving much critical acclaim:

Brian Johnson (vocals): "The critics have always been a little flippant with AC/DC about Angus and the school suit, and it's always easy to have a quick little joke or a dig at the expense of it, the easy riffs, and such and such, and they're all dead wrong. The easiest riffs in the world are the hardest ones to write, because they are very few.

"'Highway to Hell' is easy, but you ask a guitarist, it's not that easy. Nobody can write them because easy things are very difficult to write ... and to put them together in different computations and to come up with something fresh and different. It's genius, but the critics never figure that out."