2020-03-01 Total Guitar

TOTAL GUITAR MARCH 2020

ademoandit wouldbe undertwo

minutes,andthenwewouldgetinto

athinglike,‘Howdo wemakethis

longer?’Andtheansweris, ‘Wedon’t

makeit longer.If it feelsright,thenjust

keepit thewayit is.’Andso that’sjust

thewayweendeduprecordingthem.

It’sjustgettingintothatsortof

back‑to‑basics,Ramones,low‑

attention‑spankindof rockandroll.

Thistimeround,youworked

withButchWalker,whohasalso

producedFallOutBoyandWeezer,

nottomentionTaylorSwift,Katy

PerryandPink,amongothers.Why?

I wasreallyopento someonenew

comingin andhavinga fresh

perspective,because,ultimately,in

thepastI’veproducedprettymuch

everything.Evensomeonelike[Dookie

producer]RobCavallowasmorelike

acoach.ButwithButch,he became

almostlikea memberof theband.

Andwegotonwellrightfromthe

get‑go.Hehas such a crazy and

amazing rock ’n’ roll energy.

I think one of the great productions

that he did on the record is on the song

Graffitia, which at first was just this song

that was, like, three chords and my

vocal. But I did a demo and sent it to

him, and I said, ‘Go ahead and mess

with it.’ And he added that intro where

it kindof soundslikeTommyJamesand

theShondells.AndI waslike,‘Dude,

thisis amazing!’BecauseI lovethat

kindof ’60sbubblegumpop.It waskind

of thesamethingwithMeetMe On The

Roof— he screwedaroundwiththe

introandjustcameupwitha lotof

reallygreatideas.

Whatgearareyouusing

ontherecord?

A lotof whatI usedwasjustwhatever

waslayingaround,whichis totally

differentforme.Andforthemostpart,

thatwasmyold

LesPaulJunioranda Dividedby 13 amp

setonthedirtierchannel.Forpedals,

Ihada Klon,andthenmysonhas

aWhammyPedalthatgivesyouthe

weirdoctavethingsandmakes

everythingsoundcrazy.Heusesit in

hisband,so I waslike,‘Hey,Jakob,can

Iborrowyourpedal?’Andhe said,

‘Yeah,go ahead.’I usedit forthesolo

onTake The MoneyAnd Crawl, whichis

justall kindsof noisy,out‑of‑phase

stuff. In general, the solos this time are

not really melodic things but more

about me making noise. Like the solo

inFatherOf All...— I justfeellikeno

one’sgotthetimeto listento a guitar

soloanymore.So I wantedto getback

towhereGreenDaywaswithDookie

andInsomniac, whereit wasalmost

liketheanti‑solo.

Musically,thesesongsarefairly

brightandupbeat.Butthelyrics

tendtoskewdarker:thekidswith

bulletproofbackpacksinOhYeah!,

thebedsofbloodandmoneyin

FatherOfAll...You’readdressing

culturalandsocietalillsbut

withoutbeingovertlypolitical.

Well,doinga Trumpsong— it’sjusttoo

obvious.Andcomparedto songslike

AmericanIdiotorHoliday, backthenwe

were going into a war for fictitious

reasons and those were sort of a rallying

cry. But now our culture is so toxic that

it’s like, to sing about Trump would just

make it more toxic. So I think that,

instead, the lyrics are about trying to

shine a light. A song like Graffitia, for

instance, is a song about young black

kids getting shot in inner cities. And

then there’s this other side about

factories in the Rust Belt that are closing

welcome to

paradise

This is what happens

whena majorlabel

givesa punkband

anadvancefor

theirnext album...

52

INTERVIEW

“It drives me crazy when people say rock and roll is dead”