AC/DC's 2020 chart-topping return to form, Power Up, is one of the few bright spots in a year that ranks among the lowest in modern times. While chatting with Australia's Triple M radio, co-founding guitarist Angus Young shed light on how he came to name the new album: “I went through everything — like titles in songs. In the song 'Realize,' there’s the line, 'I’ve got the power to mesmerize.' The word 'power,' it goes back to the name AC/DC. We always looked at ourselves as that of power, electric power. So I just wanted another, if you could say, okay, what could you call AC/DC, and you say they’re power. And I just thought something positive: power up. When we get on a stage, we plug in the guitars and everything powers up when we’re out there.”
Power Up was culled from all the music Angus Young and his late-brother Malcolm had demoed over the years. We asked him if the seeds of AC/DC's next album are already in place: “Pretty much, yeah. I know it might sound strange, but it's just going back through the years, y'know, there's a lot of ideas and stuff that I've still got, y'know, in different shapes. I mean, some ideas when Malcolm and me worked together, it was a case of sometimes he'd have just the two guitars and Mal would go out and put a quick drum beat down. And then we'd drop on a couple of guitars and a bass. He'd bang down a quick drum beat while I started playing along the riffs.”