What's the basic concept of the album?
There are two characters. The main one is Gloria--she's a person who's trying to hold onto her beliefs, while still trying to have vitality in life and hold the torch. The other side of it is Christian, who is becoming a victim of his own demons. And instead of carrying the torch, he's trying to burn everything down. I sing through those two characters, from my own experiences. That's the personal side of it.
Would you say that it's Green Day's most ambitious album so far?
Yeah, it's the most ambitious and the most vulnerable at the same time. I taught myself how to play piano, so I broadened my songwriting abilities a little more. We just set the bar really high and tried to have as much patience as we could to get the ideas down, because these songs start to come in and you don't know what's going to fit and what';s not going to fit. I was sitting around reading the lyrics to everybody, and that's when the idea for "21st Century Breakdown" really started to glue together.
Lyrically, what were you drawing from for the material?
A lot. The song "21st Century Breakdown" is sort of about growing up in a working-class family, and what that represents in a financial crisis and how everyone feels paralyzed and frightened right now. A song like "Know Your Enemy," that's probably the boldest call to arms I've ever written. Then it gets into "Christian's Inferno," which is when I was in the most diabolic state in my head, and vomited out this song. And there's "East Jesus Nowhere" which is calling out the hypocrisy in religion and how it sort of drives our society. It's hard to sit and pinpoint everything, because it's a lot of shit.
Which songs exemplify Green Day's growth from previous albums?
I would say "Restless Heart Syndrome," "Before the Lobotomy," "Peacemaker" and "See the Light." But I can't really think of a song where we haven't grown, because in some sort of way we're always trying to tweak with arrangements and bring things on more of a grand scale, while maintaining the street music where we come from. I'd say the entire album has been a big step for us.
Does its success intimidate you at all, going into this new record?
There's pressure, but it's happened to us before, so we knew we wanted to take our time and get distance from the last record. But at the same time we didn't want to burn it down or anything. We wanted to outdo and make a better record than we've ever made before. But it was just a matter of getting distance from the last album, being patient, and waiting for those moments where you feel like being a good songwriter. The pressure is there, but that's part of the challenge. It's enticing. We're game for it.
Has there ever been a time in your career where things were a little shaky and you just thought about hanging it up?
The only time I ever really felt like that was some time around "Warning." It was a time where we had to evaluate our situation and our relationship as a band, and truly get into making the records of our dreams. But quitting? Nah. Nobody leaves this band unless it's in a coffin.