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 Eight albums and 20 years into their career, '90s breakthrough punks GREEN DAY remain as determined to push forwards as ever, creating latest opus 21st Century Breakdown with the full intention of bettering the five million-plus selling American Idiot. Here MARC RILEY speaks to the inseparable trio of BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG, TRE COOL and MIKE DIRNT.
Billie Joe Armstrong is thinking back. Way back. Sitting on a couch in Green Day’s Studio 880 in Oakland, California, he’s been given a maths equation that has rattled his brain. No, it’s not that it’s been four and a bit long years since Green Day took over the world (thankfully they were benevolent dictators … well, unless your name was George W. Bush) with American Idiot. Take that time-frame and multiply it by about five – yes, it’s 20 years since these three kids, all righteous and snotty and born of the Bay Area’s Gilman Street punk hangout, released their first EP.
"Good lord," says Green Day’s drummer, Tre Cool.
"Oh yeah,’’ says singer/guitarist Armstrong, coming to grips with the figures. "Yup, 20 years, I think right about this time right now."
20 years doesn’t sound too horrific, says Cool. "We’re proud of it, it’s good."
"No, not at all," agrees Armstrong. "I’ve always wanted to be in a band, in this band, for 20 years. But after this year I think we’re done."
Cool breaks into laughter at his frontman’s declaration of pending retirement.
"Well no..." Armstrong pulls it back. "I think we’ll wait ’til the band’s 21 years old, and then we can get to the drinking age."
"Our band can now drink!" Cool says with delight.
Forget Green Day’s 21st birthday celebrations – the party for their fans starts now with 21st Century Breakdown, the American Idiot follow-up it took the band the best part of three years to record, so determined were they to top that game-changing rock opera with something even bigger, more ambitious, and with even more to say about the state of the world.
Most of the album was created and recorded here at Studio 880, in a part of Oakland called known as Jingletown. Studio 880 has played host to the likes of Chris Isaak and Iggy Pop, but it’s Green Day’s compound, with crates of their gear stored among the classic cars in the parking lot. Its high walls and barbed wire fencing keep the good stuff in, and the bad stuff (suffice to say, Jingletown is not the Bay Area’s nicest neighbourhood) out. Bassist Mike Dirnt reckons he was close to getting RSI, so many times did he walk through the doors here during the making of 21st Century Breakdown.
But he, Cool and Armstrong wanted to push the band further – in doing so, they’ve reached their musical pinnacle. Now they’ve just got to climb that mountain night after night on stage for the next year or so. And, as that 20 year anniversary suggests, Green Day aren’t getting any younger (even if they look no older).
"It’s pretty funny, we probably write our most physical record at the age of 36," says Dirnt, to the chuckles of his bandmates. "We’ve built these bodies to do specifically this, so we’ll see how they hang in there."
The band’s 21st Century Breakdown live show (expected to reach Australia in December) won’t be the same stadium-sized spectacle as the American Idiot tour. But don’t take smaller to mean less impact.
"I wouldn’t wanna say," Armstrong lowers his voice, "we step on that stage and we become different, this otherworldly thing takes over. It’s just, I love playing, I love playing in front of people, I love hamming it up, I like engaging with the crowd and being part of the crowd ... I think it’s our finest moments."
21st Century Breakdown covers some extraordinary territory – from Irish lullabies to a whirling Gypsy dervish to the scuzziest of scuzzy punk. The latter can be found in the track Christian’s Inferno, which is a reminder that, though Green Day are total pros, they can still sound as raw, desperate and fevered as any rock band out there.
"It’s a different mood, and you’re doing what the song calls for," Armstrong explains. "Christian’s Inferno, we tried to capture the sound of someone losing their mind. Or you go into a song like Before The Lobotomy where it’s this pretty moment. Or 21st Century Breakdown, the song, where it goes into something that’s sorta epic. You know, I would never, ever try to say like ‘I’m trying to tone it down’ or anything like that, because every song we’re going for it as hard as we can."
That approach extends to the new album’s big, floating-into-space ballad Last Night on Earth, equal parts Beatles, Bowie and Elton John. Musically, it’s the kind of song you imagine the band would never have seen themselves making – or capable of making – back when they were naming their albums after poop (Dookie, in case you’d forgotten). But they just see it as just a product of their softer side, which they reckon they’ve always let out.
Armstrong nods towards Dirnt – "I sang a song at Mike’s wedding called When it’s Time, it’s never been released or anything."
"Time Of Your Life, you had that for a long time before we released that," says Cool.
"Yeah," Armstrong agrees. "A song called Words I Might Have Ate that was on Kerplunk ... We’ve always had songs that have been more tender-hearted or whatever. I learned how to play the piano badly, or just fair enough to get by, and it changed up my writing a little bit."
Armstrong never much cared for being too cool to show his tender heart.
"Being cool is easy; it’s when you’re vulnerable that the real person comes out, ’cos you’re digging deeper and touching on different reflections that sometimes you don’t even wanna look at or know about yourself," he says. "But that’s when you know you’re getting to the good stuff."
"That’s really tough, you know, when you throw your arms out and go ‘All right, hit me with your best shot, this is the real me’," Dirnt agrees.
That hasn’t stopped Dirnt and Cool, in the past at least, from ribbing their mate when he unveils these tender songs.
"We’re in a pretty good place," says Dirnt. "But yeah, there have definitely been times. I mean, he’s bearing his soul every time he brings a song. We see that, we respect it. When we were younger we might have been smart asses here and there: ‘Oh that’s great, that sounds like such and such…’."
Armstrong lets out a monster groan – "Uggggggggh!" – seemingly his stupid-noise equivalent of Homer Simpson’s "D’oh!"
"…But we’ve grown up as people, I think, a little bit," Dirnt concludes with a smile. "Matured a little bit."
Ahh yes, change comes to the best of them. 21st Century Breakdown was not immune to the change that swept America at the last election, with producer Butch Vig revealing that Armstrong delayed recording many of his vocals until after Barack Obama won the Presidency, just in case he might have to alter some of his lyrics to fit. But win Obama did, and while Green Day are on board with the feeling of hope the new President has ushered in, they are by no means complacent.
Listen to 21st Century Breakdown’s first single, Know Your Enemy – read a certain way, it says hey, there’s a new guy in the White House, but that doesn’t mean our work is done. Now is not the time to relax.
"The song is a rallying cry," Armstrong says. "Anything from you being your own worst enemy to the things that are affecting you subliminally around you. It’s questioning everything about authority. That’s what the song represents. And all put to a really good groove," he laughs.
Though America now seems a bit less uptight than the bad old days when the Dixie Chicks were black-banned from radio for daring to voice their dislike for Dubya, Green Day could still cop some stick for being "anti-American" on 21st Century Breakdown. If they’re worried that there’s something they might get lynched for, they’re not showing it.
"It’s not about getting lynched," says Armstrong, who reckons he’s more likely to censor his writing to prevent his family from "getting the wrong idea" than worrying about anyone else’s feelings.
"It’s not about being anti-American. It’s about asking questions all the time. It’s about questioning hypocrisy, more than anything else."
21st CENTURY BREAKDOWN is available now through Warner. www.greenday.com
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