Idiot savant

Whoever said music and politics don’t mix obviously wasn’t in possession of all the facts or indeed, all the tracks.

They’ve obviously never bent their ears towards The Clash’s Combat Rock, Steve Earle’s Jerusalem or some of REM or U2’s finest moments (‘Orange Crush, ‘The Flowers Of Guatemala’, ‘Bullet The Blue Sky’, ‘Mothers Of The Disappeared’). But who would have bet on US arch-punk popsters Green Day joining such illustrious company? Surely the band who gave the world tracks like ‘Basket Case’ or ‘When I Come Around’ have nothing to add to the political debate? Wrong. Their brand new concept album, American Idiot could justifiably be described as Green Day’s state of the nation address.
“The state of America is really fucked up right now,” argues Mike Dirnt, Green Day’s blonde pole-spiked bassist. “We live in a divided country: there is an ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation going on. We are completely bombarded with the television era, where information is spoon-fed and handed to you the way they want it to be served.
“On the other side of that, there is a war going on, and within this, we’re being led around by a Texan who is like a bad American tourist who we didn’t elect: he kinda cheated his way into office. Right now, we’re in a bad state and of course that’s going to come through in the music. I think a lot of people are afraid to let that come through in their music due to lack of information or else they’re afraid of being looked at as non-patriotic. But I think speaking your voice is the most patriotic thing you can do.”
Another American icon, Steve Earle, has been doing the same thing, both with his Jerusalem album and his latest opus, The Revolution Starts…Now, while REM and Bruce Springsteen are setting about re-awakening America’s political voice through rock music. But they are the exceptions rather than the rule in a climate where it’s rare to find people willing to stand up and be the dissenting voice.
“We get censored media in the United States,” Mike stresses. “But the information is out there if you want to read it. Thank God for people like Michael Moore and Fat Mike from NoFX, who has really stood behind Punkvoter.com and has organised the Rock Against Bush CDs. It’s a travesty the way things are headed in the United States. The President does not represent my band or the way we think. At this point, we’re just gonna vote to get that guy out of office and whoever takes over is just going to have to clean up his mess.”
Are the band not worried that they’re going to seriously piss some people off?
“I think rock’n’roll should be rebellious and it should be dangerous,” Dirnt answers. “One of the things I like to ask other people in bands – it’s a question I pose to my friends’ bands – is that while I see a lot of people that get up on stage and do everything that every other band does, ‘What is it that makes you dangerous? What is it that makes your band dangerous, other than your haircut?’ I always ask myself the same question.”
And what is his answer to that question?
“I would say that we don’t have any rules,” he replies. “We’re not afraid to ask ourselves the hard questions and we’re not afraid to be vulnerable. There’s a lot of power in that too. Have no rules and no limitations and when you find your direction, follow it through with your heart.”
While this all sounds very Saturday-evening-TV-show in its earnestness, Dirnt and his compatriots in Green Day, Billy Joe Armstrong and Tre Cool, have followed their hearts with American Idiot, which boldly goes where no punk band has gone since The Clash or The Dead Kennedys. This is a big step forward.
“American Idiot for us is going to be the album that stands on its own,” Dirnt notes proudly. “Everything up to this point has been a progression, and this album is out on its own. When we look at a lot of our heroes, the bands we grew up really loving, they always had these monumental records. We just really wanted to raise the bar for ourselves and we’ve accomplished something at least to please ourselves.
“‘American Idiot’ sets the political tone,” he adds. “Then comes ‘Jesus Of Suburbia’: the first line of that song is ‘I am the son of raging love’. The album cover is a hand holding a heart-shaped grenade and really that is the theme of the whole album: whether to fall into self-destruction and rage or into love, and they can both be very powerful. It is so difficult to describe this album without being long-winded, but I think you can jump in anywhere on this record and not be lost.”
Let’s get down to specifics though. How on earth did Green Day, a band renowned for their classic three-minute punk pop songs, end up with two nine-minute epics ( the “mini-opera” that is ‘Jesus Of Suburbia’ and the penultimate ‘Homecoming’) on the new album?
“Well it all started one day in the studio when our drum-tech looked over at me and said, ‘We’ll be back in 40 minutes. Write a 30-second song.’ So I went in and wrote this Vaudeville piece and I tried to make it as grandiose as I could. It was really good fun and it sounded kinda rock opera-esque – it sounded like a piece of something else. When everyone came back, they listened to it and it just sounded like so much fun. So Billy did another one, connected it to my piece, and Tre did the same. This went on for about a week and we had a 10-minute song, the majority of which ended up as ‘Homecoming’. Towards the end of that week, we realised we were having fun, that it had the same energy we had when we made Dookie. We weren’t forcing it, it was really working and this was what we should have been doing, as scary as it might have been to look at.”
Are they not worried that the kids who grew up listening to Dookie, to whom songs like ‘Longview’ or ‘Minority’ mean the world, might be alienated by this latest direction, thinking that their heroes are turning into Pink Floyd?
“Not at all, because it ‘s not like they’re droney jams,” he laughs. “We’ve got two nine-minute songs on there but these things shift gears like Mario Andretti. There are peaks and valleys. It’s like short attention span theatre: it’s really good like that. Also, I think music listeners are a lot sharper than people give them credit for.”
When I put it to him that even massive Green Day fans will be surprised by the new album, Dirnt gets mock-offended: “But it’s catchy as hell.”
“I really just want people to get the record and hear it, and to read the lyrics, because it’s almost like a mini-novel or a short book,” he enthuses.
Indeed, American Idiot took as much work as the average novel, considering it’s been four years since their last album proper. In the wake of 2000’s Warning, the band embarked on a mammoth US tour with Blink 182. When that was finished, they “wanted to get back into the process of living our lives, writing songs and becoming a band again. For a while it seemed that we had become a group of guys who travelled around the world, more like nomads instead of an actual band.”
Well, American Idiot is very much the sound of a band of like-minded souls. Mike’s fluid bass, Tre’s drumming and Billy Joe’s vocals have never sounded as complementary, particularly on the album’s more chameleonic, shape-shiftingly epic moments. To these ears, it’s their most mature work yet, and I mean that as a compliment as opposed to a boring old fart way.
“I think when people hear the word mature in relation to music, they immediately think you’ve got lots of strings and violins on it,” considers Mike. “There are no strings or violins or anything like that on this record. There is some piano but it is a rock‘n’roll record. I think the song-writing has matured. I think that is something you only get through playing well over a thousand shows, through playing for 15 years with the same guys, and through having a strong work ethic in writing. Whatever it is that you do, you don’t get better by not doing it.”
So, with the record’s release on September 17th, the reviews should be extremely positive but are Green Day expecting any criticism or backlash from America’s extreme right?
“Bring it on,” he answers immediately. “Right now I feel like the right wing in the United States is way out of control and I think the most patriotic thing you can do is voice your opinion and start a discussion. We’re not pointing fingers at anyone. We’re not saying anyone’s wrong. We’re saying that we feel disenfranchised. We feel that we’re in a state where we’re confused, scared and losing our individuality. This is how we feel. We’re Green Day; we’re a band; and it’s OK for you to feel that way too and voice your opinion.”