Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day

Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day is an outspoken rebel who wants his voice to be heard through music. Green Day began in 1987, before they hit it big with the release of the album Dookie. This interview follows up the release of the band’s newest album, 21st Century Breakdown. Green Day is a pop punk band out of Oakland, California, that for most of their careers had followed the same songwriting structure; three verses, a chorus and a bridge. However since their album American Idiot, released in 2004, Billie Joe Armstrong has tried to break his typical songwriting habits. The band’s two recent albums told a story all the way through, chronicling the lives of characters such as Jesus of Suburbia, St. Jimmy, Christian, Gloria, and Whatsername. When asked about this, he replied, “I love the two and a half minute single, and we’ve written plenty of songs in the past that have been in that ‘verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus’ format. But right now, for me, It’s more about trying to mess with arrangements and make them unpredictable.” Armstrong started to break this habit in American Idiot, when “Jesus of Suburbia,” a story of a troubled teen in a post George Bush era, was released on the album. He created this 9 minute masterpiece of a song by writing many small songs (five to be exact) and fusing them into one. The energetic and sometimes immature 38 year old tells the interviewer that what he writes can sometimes bring him closer to the truth of a topic throughout the process of actually writing the song. He says that you might not understand the true meaning of a song when starting to write it, but by the end of the process the idea will come on like a light bulb in the writer’s head. Guitar World asked Billie what he thought was the magic behind his songs. He replied, “Well, I don’t sit around and do the math like [Weezer frontman] Rivers Cuomo or someone like that. It’s just one of those things where it raises the hair on your arms.” He also answers the big question; melody or lyrics first? As many musicians say, Armstrong states, “I just love melody-that kind of melody, those guitar sounds and those song structures.” He says that he’ll think of a melody in his head, but that it may take a long time for lyrics to hit him; and that he may leave songs behind that aren’t ready and come back to them later. Melodies to the frontman, “just hit you over the head.” As a band, Billie will write all of the songs, and then take them to Mike Dirnt (Bassist) and Tre Cool (Drummer). From then, Mike and Tre will put a little bit of their own spin on the songs.

I thought this was an excellent source to fully understand the mind of a successful songwriter such as Billie Joe Armstrong. Guitar World has been around for some time now, and provides excellent interviews with some of the top musicians in the world. I really drew some good information from some of the deep and detailed questions the interviewer asked Armstrong. It gave a more down to earth feeling than the music I had heard while listening to the music.

Di Perna, Alan. "Rebel Yell." Guitar World Magazine 01 Aug 2009: 53-66. Print.