In 2022, for the first time in their career, Green Day chose to record in England, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong selecting RAK Studios in Marylebone for the tracking of 'Saviors', the trio's forthcoming 14th studio collection after an online search revealed that it was the facility in which Liam Gallagher recorded his third, and most recent, solo album, C'Mon You Know.
"I think that we were getting in touch with our British influences," Armstrong tells the new print edition of Kerrang! magazine. "Anything from English punk to British Invasion to Britpop. We wanted to get something out of the air that was happening."
Relocating from California with their families, the group were given the freedom to indulge in some new adventures, such as Armstrong, drummer Tre Cool, Cool's wife Sara Rose and the drummer's son Frankito dressing up as the Ramones to go trick-or-treating at Halloween. Another less family-orientated outing for the band saw them dip into some of London's racier late night entertainment options.
"One night we went to this crazy burlesque show down in Brixton," Armstrong recalls to writer Emily Carter. "By the end of the night, the dancers were giving us their nipple tassels. We took off our shirts, and put these nipple tassels on, and we were shaking like this - [here Armstrong starts jiggling his body by way of a demonstration] - to try to get them to do these windmills. And I've got the photos to prove it!"
Drummer Tre Cool has his own 'fashion'-related anecdote related to the recording of the album, sharing the fact that he wore the exact same clothes every day in the studio while recording.
"I'd walk to the studio," he says, "and I genuinely would dress smart and wear a suit, because it's London. But then I'd hang my stuff up, and get changed, and put on my lucky socks, my lucky pants, and the same shirt... it was quite smelly at the end."
'Saviors' is set for release on January 19 via Reprise/Warner.
