Billie Joe Armstrong on Writing New Music While Quarantined, What He’s Binging
Billie Joe Armstrong is using his time wisely while sheltering in place during the coronavirus pandemic, but like many of us, he’s also streaming some comfort content, too.
In an interview with Kerrang!, Armstrong said, “I’ve been writing a lot of music, and I had all these melodies in my head, so I wrote, like, six songs since all of this has been going on. I don’t know when I can get together with Mike [Dirnt] and Tré [Cool], but I told them to make sure that they’re quarantined for now, and then I hope down the road we can get back in the studio with [producer] Butch Walker.”
Besides writing new music, Armstrong has been hitting up the streaming services saying, “I’ve just been indoors like everyone else on the planet right now, waiting around to see what happens next! I’ve been going through ‘The Office’ a lot, going through all of my punk and rock’n’roll documentaries, trying to read a little bit here and there, and hanging out with my dogs.”
Armstrong recently launched “No Fun Mondays” where he releases a newly recorded cover song every Monday. In a brief statement on the series, Armstrong said, “Going to release a cover song every week until we’re let back out into the world,” so who knows how long the series will last.
This past Friday (April 3), Green Day released a surprise EP titled Otis Big Guitar Mix.The three-track EP consists of new mixes of songs featured on the band’s 2012 albums¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré! Each song features broader, more prominent guitar tracks, which explains the EP’s title.