AC/DC: highway to here

AC/DC guitarist Angus Young shows he's still a schoolboy at heart. Photo / AP

When Brian Johnson got the news that AC/DC's new album had debuted at No. 1 in America last year - and in more than two dozen countries - he didn't pop any Champagne.

Instead, the lead singer of one of the world's biggest rock groups celebrated alone, in a modest hotel, with a plastic cup of wine and a cheese sandwich. He was preparing for a world tour.

"It is kind of ironic, isn't it?" laughs Johnson. "I wasn't promenading down the street ... none of that. I was sitting in a little room."

"I think it typifies AC/DC basically, it's just what we're like," he says of the low-key celebration. "I guess I like it that way. We always keep our head below the radar, always have been. Now, there's nowhere to hide!"

Not that Johnson is seriously interested in taking cover after the huge success of Black Ice, the group's first studio album in eight years.

While AC/DC is not unaccustomed to topping the charts - they've sold 70 million records in the United States alone over their decades-long run, placing them 10th on the all-time list of best-selling acts - they are enjoying their greatest success, and exposure, in years.

Part of the credit goes to acclaimed producer Brendan O'Brien, whose credits include Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine. Once brothers Angus and Malcolm Young crafted the songs for the album, O'Brien geared the sound toward more of the rambunctious, carefree rock sound that made songs like You Shook Me All Night Long such enduring classics.

Sitting in the offices of the band's label, Sony Music, the slight Angus, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, talks about O'Brien's impact on the record. The producer thought the band's last two CDs were more blues-based.

"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," says Angus, referring to two of the group's seminal discs.

"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."

"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," O'Brien says. "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."'