Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong on Millwall F.C. and British culture
Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong has opened up about his love for the Millwall Football Club and experiencing British culture.
The legendary pop-punk band – consisting of Armstrong, bassist Mike Durnt and drummer Tré Cool– spoke to The Guardian in a new interview about their forthcoming album ‘Saviors’.
The bulk of Green Day’s album was written in RAK Studios in London alongside longtime producer Rob Cavallo. After being asked about their favourite thing about London, Armstrong dove into his attendance at football games.
“I went to a lot of football games: Arsenal, Leyton Orient, Fulham. I went to The Den to see Millwall. That was amazing. Man, if you really want to experience British culture that’s what you should do,” he said.
He continued: “Football is like a fucking religion. It’s like being at a big rock concert. You practically need earplugs! I’ve always wanted to check out all the different divisions, not just the world-class teams like Arsenal and Man City. I wanted to go to some of the lower-league games – especially Millwall, which has that gritty, pissed off, underdog, “no one likes us and we don’t care” vibe. It reminds me of being an Oakland Raiders fan.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Armstrong went on to voice his thoughts on the current emo revival.
Given that they debuted the album’s first singles, ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me’ and ‘Look Ma, No Brains!’, earlier this year at When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas, they were asked what they thought about the current revival in recent years of rock music from the ’90s and ’00s.
“Emo was dead – then just five years later we’re having emo club nights. Like, aren’t you supposed to wait another five years for this? My Chemical Romance just broke up!” Armstrong said.
“I think streaming and the way things go viral now [is fuelling it]. There’s this band, the Walters, that broke up four years ago and suddenly they have this song that’s everywhere. Same thing with Deftones – all of a sudden their music is showing up on all these TikTok videos. There’s this new algorithmic way of discovering new stuff. It’s really prevalent in rock music and it shows how people are paying less attention to the radio [and other traditional platforms].”
‘Saviors’ will be released via Warner/Reprise on January 19.
In other news, earlier this month, Green Day shared a behind-the-scenes look at the making of their recent single ‘Dilemma’.
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Anagricel Duran
NME
