American Idiot - Background and Recording

Background and Recording

In 2000, Green Day released the folk-influenced album Warning. The record was considered to be a commercial disappointment, and the band decided to take a break from music after co-headlining the Pop Disaster Tour with Blink-182. Hoping to clear his head and develop new ideas for songs, vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong traveled to New York City alone for a few weeks, renting a small apartment in the East Village of Manhattan. He spent much of this time taking long walks and participating in jam sessions in the basement of Hi-Fi, a bar in Manhattan.

In mid-2003, Green Day convened at Studio 880 in Oakland, California, and recorded about 20 songs for an album titled Cigarettes and Valentines. However, the master tracks were stolen. The band consulted producer Rob Cavallo about what to do next. Cavallo told the members to ask themselves if the missing tracks represented the group's best work. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said that the band members "couldn't honestly look at ourselves and say, 'That was the best thing we've ever done.' So we decided to move on and do something completely new." The band members agreed to spend the next three months writing new material.

One day, bassist Mike Dirnt was in the studio recording a 30-second song by himself. Armstrong decided he wanted to do the same, and drummer Tré Cool followed suit. Armstrong recalled, "It started getting more serious as we tried to outdo one another. We kept connecting these little half-minute bits until we had something." This musical suite became "Homecoming", and the group subsequently wrote another suite, "Jesus of Suburbia". The band followed concept records by The Who, as well as musicals such as West Side Story and Jesus Christ Superstar. During the group's sessions at Studio 880, the members of Green Day spent their days writing material and would stay up late, drinking and discussing music. The band set up a pirate radio station from which it would broadcast jam sessions, along with occasional prank calls.

With demos completed, Green Day relocated to Los Angeles to continue work on the album. The group first recorded at Ocean Way Recording, then moved to Capitol Studios to complete the album. Armstrong said, "As a songwriter, I get so deep into what I'm writing about, it's almost like I have to stir up shit to write about it." The band admitted to partying during the L.A. sessions; Armstrong had to schedule vocal recording sessions around his hangovers. Armstrong described the environment, "For the first time, we separated from our pasts, from how we were supposed to behave as Green Day. For the first time, we fully accepted the fact that we're rock stars."