Mark Evans is the bass player from the original and classic AC/DC line up (which featured Bon Scott). Evans, whose distinctive bass playing can be heard on some twenty million AC/DC albums across the globe was also nominated for induction to the American "Rock‘n’Roll Hall of Fame" in 2002. This "classic" period of the band yielded the landmark albums High Voltage, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, TNT, and Let There Be Rock, including the massive and instantly recognizable worldwide hits "Jailbreak" and "It's A Long Way To The Top".
After the band moved to the UK in 1976,
Mark and the rest of
AC/DC based themselves in London where they continued recording and touring extensively before
Evans exited the band in 1977. In this month’s installment of Ultimate-Guitar’s continuing classic album series,
Joe Matera speaks to
Mark Evans to look back over the making of
AC/DC’s
High Voltage, which became
AC/DC’s first official international release on Atlantic Records.
UG: The international version of High Voltage album was actually a hybrid of two AC/DC albums?
Mark Evans: That’s correct. The High Voltage album that was released overseas in 1976 was part of the previously released [in 1975] Australian version of High Voltage (the band’s debut release), which I didn’t play on, along with six tracks from the T.N.T album (1975, and band’s second album), which I did play on. So they [record label] mixed those two albums up to make a compilation of the two for the group’s first international release.
Out of the album’s track listing, what songs did you specifically play bass on?
I played bass on, "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)”, "Rock 'n' Roll Singer", "The Jack", "Live Wire", "T.N.T.” and "Can I Sit Next to You Girl”. I didn’t play bass on "Little Lover", "She's Got Balls" or "High Voltage”. The track “High Voltage” was recorded very early in 1975 just prior to my joining the band so George Young played bass on that track.
How did the band usually approach their recording sessions?
When we were recording an album, we’d generally have the songs already written before we walked into a studio. We would go and do a whole bunch of demo recordings initially and then take some time with them before going in to start recording them proper. But with the band particularly at that stage, we didn’t have a lot of time up our sleeves. We were constantly working live, so for the sessions for the album we took a couple weeks off. But because of our constant touring, when it came time for these sessions, none of the songs were worked out beforehand. The songs ended up being all written in the studio and then recorded there. I mean, Malcolm and Angus would have worked on some of the guitar bits here and there like riffs and stuff beforehand, but the actual songs pretty much came together in the studio. And George Young also was very much so involved with the songwriting too. Angus, Malcolm and George were pretty much the songwriters. The genesis of songs would come from Malcolm having an idea and he’d knock it around. Then George would come in and sometimes he would play piano to work it out with Malcolm. Sometimes he would even play guitar with Malcolm and sometimes the bass.
So how much input did you have when it came to your bass playing parts?
They were pretty much left up to me, but I have to say George Young really mentored me with my bass playing. On some of the tracks on that album, George is actually playing bass not me. But George took me under his wing and we worked together. At other times, he would play the bass and I would be watching and he’d give me a few tips cause George is just a killer bass player, he’s just fantastic. So I would either ape what he did or we would work on something together.
How long did this album take to make, recording wise?
The was recorded at Albert Studios in Sydney and the actual backing tracks were done in about a week, then it took another week to put down the vocals, the backing vocals and the guitar solos. And then George and Harry Vanda mixed it after that. So it was all done in about two weeks.
Were there extra tracks recorded at those sessions?
No, there were no leftover tracks done whatsoever.
"If I was the right guy for the band, I would still be there today."
It actually came out of a thing Malcolm was playing around with and the song itself came very quickly in the studio. It was basically a jam we were having one night and it all came out of that and it was all edited down into that song format. It was a long jam that went on for quite some time in the studio so they had to do a lot of splicing parts together. You will notice this by listening to the guitars at the start of the song and how they’re completely different to how the same guitars sound like at the end of the song, in the way that they’re playing totally different figures.
And what about the track, “T.N.T”?
That song was written by Angus, George and Malcolm as they were sitting around a piano belting it out. I mean the song was written by Bon, Angus and Malcolm, but it was George that really pulled that song into line. The recorded version is a lot more, simpler than the original version. A big reason for that is that George was big on making things as simple as possible.
The version of “Can I Sit Next to You Girl” that appears on High Voltage is a re-recorded version of an earlier one that featured original AC/DC vocalist Dave Evans.
Yes and it’s a fairly poppy song as right back at that stage they had a good idea of pop music since Malcolm, in his younger days, was a big fan of Mark Bolan. And that song shows his fingerprints all over it. The original recording with Dave is a million miles away from the re-recorded one we did with Bon on vocals.
Turning to the topic of gear, what did you use?
I used a couple of Gibson Ripper basses, and an old 300 watt Marshall valve amp with a whole bunch of cabs that had 4 X 15”s in them. The other guys used their Marshall stacks with the JMP heads while for guitars Malcolm used his Gretsch and Angus, his Gibson SG.
The album very much showcases the band’s live energy. Was that hard to capture in the studio?
The album was recorded live, as a band. We were in a couple rooms together, with Phil (Rudd, drummer) in a separate room which was actually the old kitchen of the studio. Angus and Malcolm were off in another room together with all their amps pointed towards the wall and each one miked up. All the tracks on the album, as well as the other studio albums I did with the band - Dirty Deeds, Let There Be Rock - the band is just playing live in the studio. All the basic tracks were done this way. Angus’ favorite part of the recording process was coming back into the studio to overdub all the guitar solos. He would be dancing around and ripping out the solos just like he does live.
So the energy and vibe was vital to the musicianship?
Absolutely, in the studio we were obviously aware of wanting to get a good take but getting a good take meant that it had to have a lot of fire and swing and that certain magic. So usually it was the first or second take that would be the keepers. We would normally do no more than three takes of a song and then move to the next one. But when we came back to them, we usually found that the first couple takes were the best.
How did they go about achieving their guitar tones in the studio?
There weren’t too many room mikes going on, but the quad boxes were all close miked and like I said, pointed towards the wall. The reasoning behind this was to cut down on the spill. It was a very primal way of recording. What was coming out of the speakers was exactly what the band sounded like and what was captured on the recording. The whole recording philosophy of the band was to capture the band exactly as it sounded live. And not to create something that the band had to reproduce in a live situation.
Your time with the band came to end in 1977 and it’s been documented that the reason for your firing was that you and Angus didn’t get along?
I’ve read that so many times it’s incredible. And not true. I can understand how that story got out because Angus’s commitment to the band and his music was and is, 1000%. If he feels that other people aren’t putting in the same amount of commitment, he’ll be pissed off. And that is what happened with me. But it also happened with everyone else in the band and the crew. He would run it at such a rate that Angus would be very easy to set off. So my problems with Angus wouldn’t have been any greater or less than anyone else in the band. This is one of the reasons why I’m currently writing a book about my time with the band as I want to set the record straight. My problem with the band was me. If I was the right guy for the band, I would still be there today. I had begun questioning my commitment in the band and if I wasn’t committed to the band 1000% then I was going to be out on my ass, which is, what really happened. I had reached a stage where I wasn’t as committed to the band as the other guys were.
"The whole recording philosophy of the band was to capture the band exactly as it sounded live."
It was really fast and it happened really, really quickly. The good thing about it and which was very helpful to the band in the long run was the fact that we had made a big impression first in Australia after touring and building up a profile over about a 12 month period. Then we went over to Europe to live in London in early 1976. We were always going to areas where we were unknown, like we had done in Australia, where we worked hard and got known and recognition. And then, all of a sudden, we went to England and we started at the bottom of the pile again and worked up. Then once we had made some ground in England, we went over to the rest of Europe and did the same thing. It was this constant thing of going into areas where we weren’t known but it kept the band pretty hungry and working very hard. I think that was a very good thing to happen to the band as there was always new ground to break.
In Australia we were doing anything like 6 - 7 gigs a week constantly. In my whole time with the band, I can only remember having us take a week off and that was the only real break we ever had, and the two weeks off to make the High Voltage record. Other than that there was the three week break we had off from the road, which happened at the last minute while we were flying over to England to hook up on a tour with Backstreet Crawler. But because their guitarist Paul Kossoff suddenly died, it put us back three weeks. I was in the band for only two and half years which was very short time in the band’s lifespan, but at a very integral part of the band’s history.
You never got a chance to tour with the band in the States though?
I never got to tour the States with the band, as I had left by then. At the time of what we believed was going to be the release of the next album Dirty Deeds, we were scheduled to tour the US for the time but there was a holdup which gave us some time off. It was because Atlantic Records had knocked back the Dirty Deeds album as they didn’t want to release it because they didn’t like the vocals. I certainly remember the mood at the time was that that they didn’t like the sound of the vocals and there was some pressure on the band at that stage to replace Bon Scott.
In recent times, you have switched from playing bass to acoustic guitar and now play with Sydney [Australia] based outfit, Tice and Evans?
Yes that is correct. . Its basically two acoustic guitars and Dave [Tice] sings mainly. The style of our music is kind of real roots-y but still rock but more so in an aggressive bluesy way. And we’ve finished recording another album. The last one we did, we put it out in Europe and it did really well over there. [NB: Check out Mark’s outfit at davetice.com]
Interview by Joe Matera
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