When did GreenDay.net start, and what inspired you to start it?
That's an interesting story that I actually only know bits and pieces of. According to archive.org, the site goes back almost 11 years to 1997. (Godaddy.com shows that the site was originally registered in February of 1997.) I actually didn't takeover the site until around 1999-2000, right about the time I was starting college. During GreenDay.net's first few years, it was owned by a kid named Jason Miller. What ended up happening -- and some of this has become kind of legend -- is that he sold the domain to a company called MacroMusic for $10,000. From there MacroMusic had a handful of webmasters that ran the site until I joined in 1999. Since then, they have let me run the site uninterrupted.
How has the site changed over the years?
The site has definitely had several makeovers since its start 11 years ago. Sometimes when I'm feeling nostalgic, I go over to archive.org and look at all the past designs, layouts and graphics for GreenDay.net. It has definitely come a long way. The site has also become more interactive with the band itself. In the past it was just a place for a fan -- myself -- to report any and all Green Day news from the Internet, TV and magazines. Now it's more of a portal for the band to connect to their fans directly. I just do the physical posting on the website. Billie Joe and Adrienne recently sent photos and a daily journal to me via e-mail from their trip to New Orleans where they rebuilt houses with Habitat for Humanity. That was probably the coolest thing so far. Or an antiwar petition Billie Joe started on GreenDay.net, in which we had countless people sign and then forwarded it on to President Bush. We never did hear back. Mike sent in a really cool note when Joey Ramone passed away. Just a few days ago, they asked if I would post a note regarding the plane crash Travis Barker and DJ AM were involved in.
At what point did GreenDay.net become the "official" fan site?
That was something I heard was given to the site before I actually took over in 1999, but the title wasn't being used much. After I got the site to a point that I was happy with -- [where] the band was contacting me and saying they were getting news from the site that they didn't know about -- I then contacted the band's management. I said, "Hey, can we still use the title of 'Official Fan Site?'" Once they OK'd it, I made sure it was at the top of the page from then on. It's better to be official than unofficial, right?
All these years later, what keeps you excited and passionate about running the site?
I'm 28 right now. I first heard Green Day when Dookie came out in 1994, and I was a freshman in high school. I remember I was sitting in my English class, and a kid named Ivan was playing Dookie. I was hooked. I went to a record store and got their first two LPs and loved them. That's how my love for the band started, which I couldn't do the site without. It's been almost 10 years of updating, creating graphics, searching, writing, editing, sometimes travelling -- something I definitely couldn't have done for so long with a band that I wasn't as passionate about. There is a cycle that keeps it exciting too. Right now we are in the anticipation phase: waiting for the new album. Eventually there will be a lot of magazine stuff, TV stuff, tour stuff -- this is the most exciting time. It's usually Green Day mania right before a new album comes out.
You have a really unusual relationship with Green Day in that they seem to trust you with news and information more than they do their own record label. Where does that bond come from?
In 1999, I had just started college here in Southern California, but most of my friends went to UC Berkeley up north. On one of my roadtrips up there to visit them in the dorms, I went to 924 Gilman Street for the first time. Just coincidentally, Mike Dirnt was playing his first show there with his new side-project band, The Frustrators. I had just bought one of those new Sony Mavica digital cameras that saved pictures and video straight to floppy disks -- remember those? So I had a backpack full of disks, and I was just going hog wild. I talked to Mike after, and I think he was so excited about all the footage that I got that we swapped email addresses, and I had so many pictures and video clips that I started Frustrators.com. It was very cool, because there was so little information on the internet about his new band that it really filled a niche. I worked closely with Mike and the band's lead singer, Jason Chandler, and we had a lot of fun. The site is still up, and hopefully one day will be updated again, but obviously Mike is busy with Green Day stuff.
Shortly after that, Billie Joe and Adrienne Armstrong's Adeline Records website needed a little bit more manpower, and the Frustrators recommended me to Adrienne. I think they were like, "Hey, check out this kid Brian." The next thing I knew, I got an email from Adrienne, and she was like, "Hey, any interest in working on the Adeline Records site?" I said, "Hell yeah!" So I was getting Frustrators news from The Frustrators, Adeline News from Adeline, [and] eventually I got recruited to GreenDay.net because they thought, "Hey, this kid knows the band; we can get the real scoop." So I think that bond started from just being a huge fan in the first place. I wasn't some hired web designer who made $100 an hour to do graphics or cut and paste news. I was doing it because I wanted to.
You've obviously gotten to know the band and their family (literal and extended) through the years - how do you think Green Day, the guys you know, differs from GREEN DAY, STADIUM-PACKING, GRAMMY-WINNING, MULTIPLATINUM LEGACY ACT the rest of the world sees up there onstage?
I think the only way in which they differ is [that] when you see them on TV or onstage it always revolves around the music. You never see them just existing as people. That's one way in which I've been fortunate: I've hung around them when it had nothing to do with music. Mike was in town a few months ago, and he stopped by on his bike and was hanging in my kitchen with me, my mom and brother. Music and the new album were never mentioned. Last summer I went surfing with Billie Joe, and Tre was cooking up homeade tacos with Anaheim chiles. They are regular guys with kids and other interests.
What are you personally expecting from the follow-up to American Idiot?
I am probably the worst person to ask that question. I don't have a favorite song or album; I love them all. I always tell people they could record a 90-minute CD of Billie Joe reading from the phonebook and Mike and Tre banging out elevator music in the background and I would be there. When every album comes out there is always speculation: Is it going to be straight-up rock 'n' roll like a Dookie part 2? Is it going to be more hardcore, fast-paced, like Insomniac part 2? Is it going to be another rock opera, where all the songs are tied together -- American Idiot 2? The only two things I would bet on: It's going to be different from all of the previous albums, and Green Day fans are going to love it. It won't be a sequel to anything.
What do you think Green Day has to prove to the rest of the world with a follow-up to American Idiot?
I think the fact they've waited four-plus years to put out a follow-up proves that they don't have anything to prove. After the album and tour, they took some time off, waited until it was right to get back into the studio. I think if they had released an album 6-12 months after American Idiot, that would have been trying to prove something. But there was no rush; it wasn't going anywhere.
I've been surprised at how few places have reported on any work Green Day's been doing -- I had to go to overseas outlets like NME and Kerrang!, and even there they only had the same info: 30 to 45 songs, all written on piano, possibly enough material for three different albums but more likely not, no idea of a release date, etc. Even the rumors about Joe McGrath and Butch Vig officially producing (at least until I'm able to confirm something in California next week) seem to be just that, rumors. Have you heard anything more than that?
Yes, no, maybe so. I'll never tell. =o)
The first thing that struck me about the Foxboro Hot Tubs record is "Wow, get these songs into a big studio, and this is basically a continuation of what they were going for with Warning." I guess I've got two questions here: 1) Did you feel similarly when you first heard FBHT, and 2) Do you think the world is more ready for a record like Warning now than it was in 2000?
I absolutely loved the Foxboro Hot Tubs album. When I first heard it, I was convinced it would have been a successful follow-up to American Idiot [if] released under the name Green Day. It was definitely a departure, but I think that is part of what makes Green Day, "Green Day." Dookie was their first massive breakout album. Then, [as] everyone said, Insomniac was a depature because the songs were harder, faster, shorter. And then Nimrod came out and had a ballad and horns. And then, just like you said, Warning was very different. Then the Network album comes out, and then a rock opera, then the Foxoboro Hot Tubs. Like Forrest Gump said, Green Day is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're going to get. The only thing that is constant is that it's always different and it's always good. Like sex and pizza.
When you consider all the rumors that sprang up about the Network album being the tracks Green Day either threw out or lost for American Idiot, do you think it's fair to make a similar conclusion about Foxboro Hot Tubs and whatever the new Green Day studio album might be?
I think they released a statement a few months ago regarding the Foxboro Hot Tubs being a product of drinking a lot of wine late into the night at the studio and just having fun. I don't think the sound or the way it was released will have any bearing on the next Green Day album. But that's just me.
In a lot of ways, American Idiot made and re-made Green Day. If this next record doesn't do well, will it break them?
I think of them as a band like The Rolling Stones or The Beatles. They've been together right around that 20-year mark, and I think they will be making records at least 20 more. If you have a music career that long, you are bound to have records that sell more than others. American Idiot sold more copies than Insomniac. Dookie sold more than Nimrod. And the same goes with how the critics respond. So, to answer the question, whether or not the new album is a critical success or goes triple platinum, I think they are in this for the long haul.
If you could personally ask the band anything about the new record, what would it be?
If they got my new address, to send me the first copy. 🙂
Thanks, Brian!
Originally posted by The Grey Fox
Angus Young even said himself that's what they do.
Originally posted by AC/DC'S_LVRi got a total guitar mag and they interview ac/dc dancing
as a joke awehuhd
I'm sick to death of people saying we've made 11 albums that sounds exactly the same, Infact, we've made 12 albums that sound exactly the same. -Angus Young [AC/DC lead guitarist]
[well now its like 19 plus the rare tracks i think]
Originally posted by Sol Valentinecool aw00t
YouTube video