Billie Joe's Guide To Power Pop

• 8th Dec 2008

Billie Joe Armstrong has been talking about how to make “power-pop”, prompting speculation that Green Day's new album could have a whole new sound.

He told Altpress.com: “I really like fucking with arrangements. I always try to look at the possibilities of how you write power-pop music. How do you take something – and it could be anything from The Creation and The Who to The Beatles to Cheap Trick to The Jam – and try to expand on the idea of what is supposed to be three-chord mayhem? How do you do it in a way where the arrangements are just unpredictable? So I'm pushing myself to be progressive in songwriting and being a songwriter”.

He also discussed working with producer Butch Vig on his band's forthcoming new LP. “He doesn't take for granted what we have here [in the studio], but he uses everything to the best of his knowledge and the best of his ability. I mean, he gets psyched on a fucking microphone! That's inspiring. That's amazing. He's not a cheerleader type of producer; he's just a very hard-working, straightforward guy. He's very Midwestern, too. For example, he'll turn around when you're working on something and just go, 'That's badass.' And you're like, 'What do you mean, 'badass?' Is that more bad, or is it, like, ass?'”