Green Day’s 14th studio album, Saviors, is on the way, and its lead single, “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” has indicated that it’s set to be their most political work in years. Now, in a new interview, Billie Joe Armstrong has confirmed that the band finally feels ready to return to political music, explaining that it “takes those special, inspired moments” to write songs in that vein.
Speaking with 102.1 the Edge, Armstrong explained that “The American Dream Is Killing Me” is actually the oldest song on Saviors, as it was written several years ago when the band was working on their previous album, Father of All Motherfuckers. At the time, though, the band didn’t feel that the atmosphere was right to release political music, and elected to hold the song until they could include it in a project that felt more appropriate.
“For Father of All, we didn’t want to go political because it was so obvious, and it was such low-hanging fruit, because we had such terrible politics and terrible division in the United States,” Armstrong said, before reflecting on the band’s work following their seminal 2004 album, American Idiot. “We got away from the politics for a while… we just didn’t want to be, you know, another pundit on CNN finger-pointing.”
To that end, Armstrong explained that in order for political music to work right, it should be coming from the right place. “[With] political songs, it takes a lot of heart to do that, and I think if you keep doing it for the sake of doing it just because you’re angry, then you take the heart out of it,” he said. “Then it just becomes part of what everyone is complaining about.”
Now, though, Armstrong says that the band feels the conditions are right. “This time, we brought it out, and we felt like it was the perfect time for it,” he said. “It takes those special, inspired moments to have a moment like ‘The American Dream Is Killing Me.’”
Watch the full interview with Green Day below.
Saviors is due on January 19th, 2024, with pre-orders ongoing. Next year, Green Day is slated to hit the road for the “Saviors Tour,” with support from The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, and The Linda Lindas. Check out the full list of their upcoming dates, and grab your tickets here.