Green Days front man didnt plan to make aDookieandAmerican Idiottrifecta.
Then he started writing their new album.
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This article was originally published on January 11, 2023.
We are recirculating it now that Green DaysSaviorsis out.
Billie Joe Armstrong is, in his own way, still fighting the punk fight.
Its tempting to call it the bands best work sinceAmerican Idiot, but perhaps focused is more accurate.
RegardingSaviors, he says, I really believe we made one of our best records.
The PR angle onSaviorsis that its part of a trifecta withDookieandAmerican Idiot.
And then you go, Well, what about post-punk?
I confused myself so much.
I was just trying to write the best songs that I could that came naturally.
In the title track, you sing, We are the last of the rockers making a commotion.
Do you really believe that?I dont know.
Tre has been in the band since he was 17.
Its this organic way that we came up together.
Other bands have fallen apart, done their reunions, and all that stuff.
We found RAK Studios in St. Johns Wood.
We loved it immediately.
Just a breath of fresh air.
Its just a change of atmosphere that I thought was important to us.
One ofAmerican Idiots strengths was its ability to capture and satirize Bush-era politics.
Our politics are so divided and polarized right now.
We had an insurrection.
We have homeless people in the street.
We have so many issues, and they come onto your algorithm feed at such a pace.
It just stresses you out, the anxiety of being an American and how it becomes so overwhelming.
I think it was easier to satirize George Bush because we didnt have social media.
It was before all the tech bros came in.
Thats one of the reasons we left to go record somewhere else.
America is such a monkey on your back.
We always thought ofAmerican Idiotas being a big international record.
Thats part of what that record is about.
Whats that Maya Angelou quote?When people tell you who they are, believe them.
Its this exaggeration that became what can actually happen.
Its based on a cult of personality.
Getting good jobs, getting good health care, protecting people from corporations taking advantage of them.
I feel like we are completely lost on that, the real American ideal.
I listen to Dead Kennedys records today and Jello Biafra was a brilliant songwriter back then.
California Uber Alles,its now more like America Uber Alles.
Its real and its at our doorstep and we better do something about it.
Jesus of Suburbia is about someone leaving home, so I think that character would be more anti-social-media.
Im also fascinated by whatTim Yohannanwould have been like on social media.Oh my God.
I think Tim was focused on the scene and the purity of rock and roll.
I do thinkMaximumrocknrollwould be stronger than it is now if he were still alive.
I think they would be more in print.
Tim was all about the zine and people writing and doing their scene reports and record reviews.
He was all about an underground railroad, and being on Twitter would be the antithesis of that.
It feels so much harder to sustain such a pure local scene like Gilman.
Everything is going and staying online anyway.
I think theyre fun to watch, and I watch their shows on Instagram.
It does bring people together.
Its like looking for a unicorn.
All you do is just sit there and scroll.
I think the most difficult part of being in a young band is being on tour.
The gas prices alone to get from show to show are crazy.
When we were touring in vans, gas was cheaper.
Its much harder now.
Ive seen bands break up over that just because its not sustainable.
They want us to put our lives into this, but its just too hard.
The song Dilemma onSaviorsis about addiction and relapse.
It was all fun and games.
What got me back into drinking was that sort of fear of missing out.
I felt like I was alone.
AA was difficult for me because, especially in the Bay Area, theres the one word,anonymous.
It was hard for me to maintain my anonymity.
That was the struggle for the five years I was sober.
And then I was like, Fuck this, I feel messy right now.
I have a great set of sober friends that I didnt have before when I was sober.
They make going out and doing things a lot more fun.
We support each other.
Well drink Heineken 0.0 and smoke a little bit.
Not weed but cigarettes.
Im older, Im wiser.
I have different things that make me happy.
I dont need to be out all night getting fucked up.
Dilemma is sort of connected to that.
Theyre the most honest lyrics Ive ever written in my life.
Straight up, the chorus is I was sober, now Im drunk again.
I think that song captures it.
I think those records were so meaningful to people and meaningful to us.
Its this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase them.
2 on the charts.
WithDookie, that record is about being a young person and being very honest.
It goes through what a lot of young people and even adults go through.
We play the singles a lot.
But when we do this tour, were going to be going into more of the deep cuts.
I love the demos that came from theDookiereissue boxed set a few months ago.
I remember going out to Tres parents place in the country.
We just hung out in the Redwoods and rehearsed.
I brought my four-track and we demoed all the songs out there.
There are more four-track demos lying around.
We havent found them yet, but theyre around my house.
We knew what our vocals were going to be.
We knew exactly everything we wanted to dobeforewe went into Fantasy Studios to record it with Rob Cavallo.
We still wanted to pay the rent.
Nimrodalso got a big anniversary reissue recently.
The Black Eyeliner demo, which eventually morphed into Church on Sunday, is particularly great.
We wanted to do something that was expanding on Green Day without abandoning the whole sound.
Walking Alone has got the harmonica in it.
Last Ride In is this surf instrumental.
And then obviously Time of Your Life.
Trying to combine something like horns and strings on the record.
It gave way to the future.
I never wanted to be a band that was ever, like, Blame the record company.
Fuck that.Iwant to be the responsible one.
For us, lets just make a deal.
Production-wise, we could have gone one or two ways.
The other way was to do everything completely live and make it messy.
We sort of compromised by playing with cleaner guitars.
It got stiff sounding.
It willhappen at some point.
This is a little random, but how do you feel about My Chemical RomancesThe Black Parade?
Its an interesting thing about emo.
That is the quickest nostalgia Ive ever seen in history.
Its funny how quickly people jumped on the nostalgia for that.
Later, it became something completely different and very emotional.
I thought emo was something different.
I think thats where a lot of it ended up.
A lot of emo bands today would kill to write a song like She.Yeah.
That song was written for a girlfriend.
She went to Cal Berkeley, and she was this feminist I learned a lot from.
She was bringing her education home, and I was just trying to be a good listener.
Listening to someone who had their frustrations in the world.
Be a good man and listen to what this woman has to say.
Dont interrupt, dont mansplain.
You mentioned pop punk.
It does pass me by.
When I hear it, I think it sounds good.
I think it would be fun to work with her sometime.
Im kind of an encyclopedia.
To do something with someone like Olivia Rodrigo would be fun.
But honestly, most stuff I keep my ear to the ground on is the stuff that isnt heard.
Oh God, who else?The Directions.
The stuff you have to go on Discogs to buy.
Thats what I love doing.
Finding these EPs of a lot of power-pop stuff that you cant stream.
Some of them are fucking expensive.
Gosh, theres this new band from the U.K. calledSharp Class.
Another band calledBad Nervesfrom the U.K. who I think are the best band in England right now.
Im always on that constant search for the punk-rock beat.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
