Green Day’s “most honest” album, according to Billie Joe Armstrong

In the midst of several identity crises, Billie Joe Armstrong found himself caught between a rock and a hard place after the resounding success of Dookie (1994), third album by green Day. Away from their punk rock roots, it was in this scenario that the band produced their “most honest” album, according to the vocalist.

Fueled by amphetamines and coffee, the band sought to create a darker, more aggressive sound for its sequel. In 2018, billie joe talked to Kerrang about the process of producing Insomniac (1995) [resgatado pela Far Out Magazine].

I guess I was just lost. I couldn’t find the strength to convince myself that what I was doing was good. […] It seemed like it was making a lot of people angry.”

The vocalist of green Day confesses that, at the time, he felt ‘a real urge’ to nip the negative comments about the band in the bud and just ‘keep making music’, making sure the public knew they weren’t a passing success.

Insomniac was released in 1995, featuring an unexpected sonic shift from the melodic pop punk of Dookie for something heavier and darker. With production of Rob Cavallo and the band itself, the album sold 9 million copies worldwide (4 million in the United States alone), with hits like “Geek Stink Breath”, “Brainstew” It is “Walking Contradiction”.

Despite this, it marked the beginning of the identity crisis in which the band would spend the entire second half of the 90’s, and its sales dwindled. That is until they reinvent themselves and return to the top with American Idiot (2004), with the hit hit “Wake Me Up When September Ends”.