Billie Joe Armstrong immersed himself in British culture while recording Green Day’s new album in London.
The rockers laid down most of the tracks for their new record ‘Saviors’ at RAK Studios in the UK capital and Billie Joe made the most of his time in the city by heading to watch football teams including Arsenal, Fulham and Millwall to get a glimpse into how Brits spend their weekends.
He told the Guardian newspaper: “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.
“Football is like a … 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, [angry], underdog, ‘no one likes us and we don’t care’ vibe. It reminds me of being an Oakland Raiders fan.”
Billie Joe went on to talk about the new album and its theme criticising American society. He added to the publication: “When we released our last album … everybody was a pundit. Everybody had an opinion and everybody hated [Donald] Trump.
“It was such an obvious, easy thing to jump on that bandwagon, but at the same time completely ineffective. So just allowing time to pass by and seeing how the world has changed, and how America has changed – especially through social media and conspiracy theories and then COVID hitting – allowed me to collect my thoughts about everything going on in the last five years and how things have become so divisive.”
‘Saviors’ is due for release on January 12 and will be followed by a huge stadium tour across Europe and North America.