Green Day interview from last month's InRock

[oritsu_luv]

To me, Punk Rock symbolizes life. (Billie)

Green Day is enjoying their second shining glory in the huge success of ‘American Idiot’. But it’s not only that the record has performed well, the band has produced a masterpiece which has changed the way people view the band. Even the albums anti-Bush, anti-patriotic stance has received warm approval by those who previously took the band lightly.
As a result, the album has been nominated for seven Grammy awards including Best Rock Album, and Best Album. (It won Best Rock Album). It’s an accomplishment that brings home once again how these upstarts from California managed to invade the major music scene and gain the love of millions. Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool are currently on tour in Europe. (Note: This interview took place before the Grammys)

How’s the tour going?
Mike: Really great! We hadn’t played big venues like this in a long time, so I’m having a lot of fun. And we’re really psyched. It’s just that we’ve been going non-stop for 15 days without a break, so we’re a little tired.

Tre: But that’s the best kind of tour. Just doing as much as we can, that has the most impact. We can’t just sit around and chill.

Has anything weird happened?
Tre: When we went to New Zealand, one of the guards at the airport even checked in between my fuckin’ toes! He was like, ‘Courtney Love shoots up between her toes.’ I told him ‘I don’t do drugs, so lay off me!’.

Billie: Yeah, I remember when we landed at the airport in Auckland they searched us from head to toe. It’s ridiculous, I mean they produce the highest quality marijuana in the world, why would we bring marijuana there?

Did anything interesting happen on tour?
Mike: Yeah, we were staying in this old hunting lodge in the middle of nowhere. It was like that hotel in ‘The Shining’, really old and big, but not fancy or anything. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw something white standing in my room.

Billie: That lodge was really freaky.

Tre: I was chased through the woods by a woman in red. But that’s a whole different story. (he laughs)

Since your album ‘American Idiot’ was such a hit, is there anything different than usual about this tour?
Tre: Yeah, there sure is. We saw crazy ghosts!

Mike: It was a hit pretty much everywhere….England, America, Europe, Australia… They just told us it’s number one in Sweden. And yesterday they told us it was number one in Zimbabwe. And before that it was Turkey! We’ve never experienced anything like that before, so we’re really thankful. We never expected this kind of success, it’s just incredible. And people seem to really be listening to the songs and understanding them, so that’s also a big thing. As long as people come to our shows and go crazy, then I’m happy.

‘Jesus of Suberbia’ is a kind of song Green Day has never down before, what was your inspiration for an eight minute long song like that?
Billie: Mike wrote a 30 second song when he was alone in the studio. He played all the instruments himself. I wrote a song, and Tre wrote one, and then we joined them together. It was really fun. We wrote each part just as we were inspired to, we were full of the zest to create. The hard thing was to keep some of the old Green Day sound, but still move forward. So we couldn’t just make something passable, if you do that there’s the danger of falling into self-complacency. And we really wanted to make something that would grab people’s attention. It’s split into smaller parts, music for people who can’t concentrate! (he laughs)

How do you feel about being nominated for a Grammy?
Billie: To tell truth, I’m really honored. It’s nice to have our achievements recognized in some form. And I mean, it’s like…Usher, Ray Charles, Alicia Keys, Nelly…and Green Day? That gap makes me really happy. It’s a development no one could have forseen.

Mike: The thing that makes me laugh is we’re the only ones who actually played the instruments on our album. We didn’t collaborate with anyone, and we wrote the songs ourselves, and we’re the only ones who had real songs. We made an album that we could be proud of. We’re the only band like that. So even just from that, our nomination was special. It’s really nice. And it’s nice that the Grammy’s recognized that.

Tre: The thing that makes me the most proud about the Grammy nomination is that this album is just a good album, it’s pure, intellectual music without gimmicks, and the Grammy’s recognized that. I think it proved that people are tired of albums that insult their intelligence, that they were waiting for a different kind of album.

Do you think that it’s ironic that you’ve been accepted into the major scene, as a punk rock band?
Billie: No. Because we’ve made it this far not by kissing ass but just by playing only good music. I guess we’re the biggest alternative band in the world now, but we’ve always done things our way. This is the second time we’ve been called ‘big’, since ‘Dookie’, but we’ve always been of the opinion that we didn’t care what people said about us. Especially with this album, we’ve brought that attitude of ‘It doesn’t matter!’ to the front, not to be just be against something, but to do something about it. I think that everyone got that, whether it be ‘Dookie’ or ‘American Idiot’, and that’s why we’ve been so accepted. And we’re satisfied with that. Rather than trying to make an album that will be a hit, I think it means more to release a really good album like this.

Mike: We’re a thorn in the pop market. We’re fun, but also dangerous. I think that both of those things are really important in rock and roll. Recently someone said to me, ‘It must feel good to finally be invited to parties?’ and I answered, ‘The parties finally caught up with us!’

What do your core fans think of the success of ‘American Idiot’?
Mike: I think they’re happy for us. Because I think core fans like this album too. The fans that have supported us since the beginning are now turning to their friends and say, ‘See? I told you Green Day was an awesome band!’, don’t you think? The party’s finally caught up with them, they must be smirking now. But if they hadn’t come to shows and supported us, we couldn’t have been going ten years later like this, and I don’t think we could have made this album. Thinking of it like that, we owe them a lot.

What’s your opinion on Punk now?
Billie: For us, Punk Rock is our roots, but I think that we’ve also twisted it the way we wanted as well. Living with Punk Rock, I think that to me, Punk Rock symbolizes life. To live as an individual, and do what you want, and break your own rules, and to think beyond the stereotypes.

Do you think that the Punk spirit is still alive and well?
Billie: Yeah, of course. As Green Day, we’ve always tried to be defiant, and inspired ourselves to take our music to the next level, and as we made this album we kept telling ourselves, ‘Try everything, doubt everything.’ The one attitude I can’t take about Punk is that there’s this part of punk that’s defeatist, that there’s not much attempt to try to grow or change.
Mike: There was one thing that I really noticed when we were making this album. All bands make albums now, right? And then the record company chooses the single, and they make the video, and go on tour, and if they’re lucky, they become big. That’s the order that things go, and everyone has to do it that way. With this album, we said, ‘We’ve done that before. This time let’s make our own rules.’, and realized that we just had to erase those other rules. But I think that we were really lucky to be in the position that we were able to do that. Only a band that’s achieved a certain amount of success, and has had a career like that can take some much time to make a record, and concentrate on just that.

So ‘American Idiot’ is an album where you escape the fetters of existing methods?
Billie: Right. But more than that, I think that ‘American Idiot’ defined what we’ve done until now, that it follows our footsteps until this point. From ‘Insomniac’ to ‘Nimrod’ to ‘Warning’, I think we’ve followed a natural progession. Of course we’ve also been criticized, but I think that in the end, we’ve been shaving off bits and pieces as we searched for something…and that finally, ‘American Idiot’ was born.

This album is anti-Bush and anti-patriotic. Are you ashamed to be an American?
Billie: No, I’m not. We have this idea that America has to be the number one country, we’re all saying, ‘America in the best country in the world’, but to tell the truth, there’s no such thing. There’s no such thing as the best country in the world. People who’ve traveled the world, even just a little, understand that. But we’re not disparaging America in this album, we’re criticizing a certain part of it. ‘American Idiot’ is about seeing stupid lies for what they are, and trying to find yourself as an individual. It’s asking people to rethink what it means to be an America, to realize that we’re not inconsiderate tourists, or stupid rednecks. That there’s a lot of people in America who use their heads, and are thinking!

But you didn’t vote for Bush, right?
Billie: Of course not. This album is meant to be a knife in his chest, or should I say, a wad of hot shit thrown at his face. He’s a complete idiot, and the things he says doesn’t represent at least half of the American public. I mean he started this war on false pretenses, and it took him about two weeks to notice the tsunami in South Asia. It took about two weeks before he cut his vacation short and went to see how things were. He’s always on vacation!

Are you guys patriotic?
Mike: No. I know that your supposed to be proud of your own culture, but I think that patriotism is a strange thing. I mean, you don’t choose what country to be born in. You’re just lucky if you’re born in a good place. I think that the one part of American culture to be proud of is rock and roll. And we’re living that!

Tre: I think that everyone in the world, no matter where they live, has a certain amount of love for the place they live in. Because after all in said and done, that’s their home. America has a lot of wonderful things, and wonderful places in it. But there are also a whole lot of shitty things. If you go to America, how you’re treated makes your whole experience, but that’s the same everywhere.

What do you think about people saying that ‘American Idiot’ is Greenday’s ‘Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’?
Billie: It’s so cool to be compared to the best band in the world, and it would be even if it was a criticism. I mean, this is the Beatles… There’s just no way.

Your debut album ‘Dookie’ was also a big success, but is this second success special?
Billie: It is special. Even just because of our history, this success is more meaningful, and very emotional. I won’t say that we feel younger now, but we’re definitely full of life. We’ve got so much confidence in the album, which gives us a lot of energy on tour, and seeing the response of the audience when we play ‘Jesus~’ every night, it makes me realize that I was born onto this earth just for that moment.

Do you think that this album is your masterpiece?
Billie: Yeah, because it’s an album that we were able to integrate a lot of different things on. We were able to use everything we’ve learned in these 10 years. And we haven’t lost any of our energy. So right now this is the high point of our career.

If this is your masterpiece, what will happen with your next album?
Billie: I don’t even know. I think the only thing to do is think about it rationally, and just keep going and see what happens. After the tour is over, and we go into song writing mode, we just write all our ideas down, and it somehow comes together, and we say, ‘Ok, this is the direction to go in.’ We just need to keep talking about what we want to do, and keep write songs.

Tre: We’ve been together as a band for so long, and we’ve make a lot of albums, and been satisfied with what we’ve done, so we know when we’ve made a good album. But all we can do is hope that people will like it once it’s released. Of course I want it to be a hit and I want a lot of people to listen to it, but if you think about that way, it’s a real shock when it doesn’t meet your expectations. So all we can do is do our best up until the album’s release.

Mike: I want to keep on moving forward and building our career. I want us to be a career band. The people we really respect are people like the Stones, or David Bowie or U2, who’ve had great success and amazing careers, so we’d like to end up that kind of band.