May Interview With Mike in the Spanish Mag "Rockzone"

[Bohemian+Scandal]

I've searched and I can't find any posts relating to this interview.

Mike gave an interview in May to a Spanish magazine called "Rockzone" and I really want to know what is says, but alas I don't read Spanish. It seems like a good interview. Can any Spanish speakers be awesome and translate it? Or provide a link to an English translation somewhere on the net?

Download Link: Rockzone Scans

[BJ4E]

I've got this magazine!!

[Welshy]

Could you translate it please? or is it too long to do like?

[Bohemian+Scandal]

Yes, it would be awesome if you could translate it into English when you have some time, BJ4E.

[BJ4E]

Yes, it would be awesome if you could translate it into English when you have some time, BJ4E.

ok I'll try it but my english sucks anyway xD

[Anja]

I agree. I would love to know what he said

[Krusties]

it looks interesting.

i guess i'll read it.

being mexican finally paid off.

[SOMERTEN]

Can anyone scan it? it's not downloading when I try. A translation would be great, thanks.

[thenextsexpistol_mak]

I've searched and I can't find any posts relating to this interview.

Mike gave an interview in May to a Spanish magazine called "Rockzone" and I really want to know what is says, but alas I don't read Spanish. It seems like a good interview. Can any Spanish speakers be awesome and translate it? Or provide a link to an English translation somewhere on the net?

Download Link: Rockzone Scans

i will

I LOVE METALLICA AND I THINK THEY WERE VERY BRAVE DOING THAT DOCUMENTAL BUT WERE ANOTHER KIND OF MONSTER (LAUGHS) IF WE HAVE A PROBLEM WE TALK THROUGHT IT.

(thats the first quote)

ITS BEEN ALMOST FIVE YEARS SINCE AI CAME OUT ¿DOES IT FEEL LIKE A LONG WHILE?

well, the tour was pretty long, we finished it at the end of 05 and got into the studio right in 06

this three years ever since have been an eternity (laughs) one of the hardest things is not to lose your patience,we would have loved to have a green day record right away, but we took the decition not to rush and to dare ourselves.

(ill continue tomorrow, its late , sorry )

[frankiessister]

I can download the scans but they're impossible to read. :/

Would it be possible somehow to make them readable???

[sara_gd]

I'll try to translate it this weekend

[minorityxdisturbed]

Green Day's history is remarkable in a lot of ways, but specially becouse they are exceptional- at least I can not think of another comparable example in recent history- the group repeated a massive success with a decade of difference. Let's take a quick refresher

Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass) and Tré Cool (drums) were the responsibles to bring the melodic punk sound to the masses fifteen years ago with Dookie, a true masterpiece, with its catchy melodies and lyrics about masturbation, that helped a whole generation to overcome Kurt Cobain's traumatic dissapearance. Their joviality and irreverent attitude takes a little joy to the serious situation prevailing in one dominated by grunge. Almost overnight, the trio of kids from families who had edited a couple of excellent albums in Lookout Records and had the touch of bare ass in the 924 Gilamn Street's great room from Berkeley (California), they become stars and they went further than no one in their area could ever imagine. Their more than 10 million Dookie's copies in United States, benefited not only the perpetrators, but that caused an explosion that also bands like The Offspring, Rancid or NoFx have it, and to inspire a little bit later a second wave of pop punk with Blink-182 at the head.

Although since then is not that the group will go through hardships, nether Insomniac and Nimrod managed to match the success of Dookie, and when published semi acustico Warning, Green Day looked like a group not to lift head. But then, something extraordinary happened. After going through an internal crisis that led them to throw in the trash an entire disc titled Cigarettes and Valentines (though they claimed they had stolen the master of the study) was reunited with Green Day producer Rob Cavallo and began to shape the most ambitious album of his career, American Idiot, published in September 2004, presented itself as a punk-rock opera, in which the group, while maintaining identity, they embracing a more broad influences ranging from David Bowie to U2 and also political positions against Bush's America with some songs of six minutes.

I'll try to keep tranlating later

[minorityxdisturbed]

Propelled by the single of the same name, American Idiot was their first album to arrive on the Billboard #1, finally won the Grammy for best rock album and sold nearly as many copies as Dookie with the added merit of gacerlo at a time when nobody except Nickelback and Linkin Park, just selling albums. The subsequent tour also took them to play larger venues than ever acted on his land at the legendary Giants Stadium in England and two nights filled with the Milton Keynes 65,000 people. But numbers aside, Green Day proved that even in an era where, despite the emergence of a mass aparatejo as the iPod and change of habits of listeners, it was possible álbuimes keep doing the same aspirations as artists had inspired. Coincidence or not, in recent years have also seen bands like My Chemical Romance Nine Inch Nails or throwing discs or ideologically similar aesthetic.

Any musician will come undone after vertigo luggage after the last concert of a tour around the world and think about how superarlo.Eso explain because since then, except for a charity single recorded half with U2 (another sign of his new status) and a añbúm garajero recorded under the name Foxboro Hot Tubs, we were unable to hear new music from Green Day. But the waiting has ended and the next will be published May 19 Breakdown 21st Century (Reprise / Warner), another concept album, this time produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Against Me!) Which, for better or for worse us again with the banda where the left. Perhaps some yearn for the days when Green Day less than three minutes needed to make a good topic, but listening to his new album, I doubt that anyone can face should help in not having tried to make an album according to what they wanted. But no one better than the group to tell us

It has been almost five years since he left American Idiot. They have been long?

Well, American Idiot's tour was so long. We finished it at the end of 2005 and in January 2006 we got in the studio. And the truth is that, these three years that have passed since then, in where we have been writing, to me have eternal (laughs). One of the hardest things of making this album was no losing patience. We would have liked to get a Green Day album as soon as the rest of the world, but we wanted to do it best possible. We took a conscious decision to challenge ourselves and do not rush

Was the Foxboro Hot Tubs' record and tour a way to not lose patience?

Yeah (laughs) It was a way of not becoming crazy and a way to return playing live. The thing that happened was that a night we drunk a lot of wine, we had an eight-track analog recorder and said: Let's record some songs! We had no intention of recording a disc or starting a group, we just wanted to play something like garage 60's, but we end up with ten or eleven songs that night and ended up them in the two following weeks. It was a nice bracket that frees us to think of Green Day and then we did a ten-date tour that allowed us to reconnect with the fans and return to play in small clubs .It's something we have to re-do from time to time to remind you of you are in a group, because most bands do not give a concert or three years because they have been separated.

In 21st Century Breakdown there are some power pop moments that could be from Foxboro Hot Tubs...

Well, there's something of that. Theres a lot of from The Who too. I think that the album's influences aren't too direct, there are groups that we heard all our lives, and I also think that more of our own influence than any other. There are references to all our records that we have taken to do something new

The fact that you can compose an album in one night and then you late three years to make another, does it mean that a Green Day's album has become so important that you can no longer trust your first instinct?

We take Green Day very seriously, but we also want to have fun. What we want is to seize the opportunity that has given us all the people who bought the latest album and take everything one step further. What we had to lose? If you aspire to the top and do not get at least you will be in a good height (laughs)

This album has sound me more powerful and vivid than Americian Idiot, does it have anything related with Butch Vig?

I think that yes. Butch Vig worked a lot so there could be more dynamic in the sound. And encouraged us to put some songs we had written it three years and Horseshoes and Hangrenades. His opinion counted a lot

When you had your first big success with Dookie, you reacted editing Insomniac, which was a very raw disk. However, this time have reacted to the success of American Idiot in a way quite different. 21st Century Breakdown takes the same concept but try to further

Yes. Actually, Insomniac was a reaction of everything that happened. But this time, instead of reacting instinctively, we sat and think about what we wanted and we saw 21st Century Breakdown as an opportunity

Can you explain the difference between how did you live the success of American Idiot between the Dookie's one?

I think we enjoy much more in American Idiot. When Dookie blew, we were so young and everything happened so fast ... we got married, had children, everything was new. We didn't know what was happening. We didn't stop meeting new people, playing in large sites ... When you live so many things for the first time, you are unable to assimilate fully. I'll put an example. One of the last things we did before, One of the last things we did before that Dookie exploited was that we rode in a van in Spain, and also did some concerts opening for Die Toten Hosen and maybe 200 persorns knew who we were. So going from that to what happened next was too big a leap and do not enjoy at all. In some ways it is like making love. You know the first time is usually not the best (laughs)

This are two pages, there are another two, tomorrow I hope that I'll tranlate the rest sorry if there are some mistakes!

[Teenage Kicks!]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.

[Katarina.]

Nice, thanks for the translation

[Bohemian+Scandal]

Thank you SO much, Minority!

I can't wait for the rest. You rock! ^_^

[gd86arg]

no se español asi que no puedo traducirlo

[Princess Consuela]

Thanks for translation

Always a pleasure to hear more from Mike

[SOMERTEN]

Thanks a lot for this. Look forward to the next part!

[minorityxdisturbed]

When did the record begin to take shape definitely? Did you begin composing with the purpose of making another rock opera?

No (laughs) There wasn't a plan, or anything like that. We went to the studio, we looked at big white paper y and we said: ok, we have to start composing. We wrote a lot of kind of themes, there as a lot of punk things, other more ephics, other very strange, other very 60's, but in the middle of everything, we were finding some magic moments. When we composed Know Your Enemy was like finding a gap. It was a very strong declaration and seemed to have some characters that could inspire a record, as we had done with American Idiot. So in January or February 2008 we had about 70 songs and began to go over to Butch Vig for months. Then, after summer, we went to a town in the south of California, Costa Mesa, we cought a small studio, we kept playing and reviewing with Billie all the lyrics that he wrote and we started to make differents connections between them. In fact, Billie had already written a couple of songs using the characters of Christian and Gloria, and with the song 21st Century Breakdown, suddenly we saw that we had something that reflected the times that we were living and at the same time, reflect our past. We saw that these twocharacters could be the protagonists of the story we wanted to tell.

How is related Christian and Gloria with St.Jimmy and Jesus of Suburbia, the two characters of your last album?

There are similaritie, they are like two sides of a coin. Gloria is the character who carries the torch, representing all the good things that there are in life, that are dangerous and exciting, but they are beautiful. While Christian also carries the torch, but he wants to burn the city (laughs), and fighting his demons. They are emotionally connected, but they are the background of what is happening in United States right now. Every week we have a crisis, we are in two wars, we are facing a depression, the hurricane ... each week has a disaster

It is ironic that you have the best possible president in the worst possible time

There is also a correlation with that on the album, something that did not even plan. The last song See the Light, we wrote it at the beggining of the album whe we haven't got no idea that Obama was going to be president. But this song talks about the light at the end of the tunnel. The whole album has a halo of hope to follow your dreams. There is a big fix of that. In every revolution the spirit is lifted, but it takes time to change things

See the Light is one of the song that I like most. It really lifts the mood

It's incredible becouse this week we have played four small concerts in the Bay Area, three in clubs and one in a theatre, and this song connected instantly. You could saw people smiling when we played it. We did eight tests with the group and decided that we had to go out and play these songs to people. Being encapsulated was killing us (laughs). There were some concerts so memorable.

The fact that now you have more musicians playing live, gives you more freedom when it comes to record the album, meaning that you do not have to worry about the restrictions to be a trio?

Not really, because each of us are playing and singing more than ever before. It is as if we would have multiplied. It is much more work, but it's a fun job. Allowing us to have more musicians to add more items... theater, for calling them somehow. Billie has learned to play the piano for this record, something that I think it shows in their own way of singing, it has used falsetto first. And live, Jason Freese can play an intro and when the topic comes, operates much more. And to use additional musicians on the tour earlier because these two discs are a challenge to play live. And our idea is to play the entire album on this tour. Followed music by 70 minutes (laughs)

You show the confidence you have on the album. Most major groups play only three or four new tracks and the rest are old hits

Mora than cofidence, I would sais that it's passion. The truth is that we are as nervous and scary as another would be. I think that one of Green Day's merits is overcome our fears. If we are not afraid of something, we go for it. And indeed, when we face something that frightens us, we feel that we are going in the right direction. Making an album as ambitious as 21st Century Breakdown was scary, but when we made Good Riddance (Time of your life) in Nimrod everybody said "You can't do an acoustic ballad" but if you say that we can't do something, it motivates us even more to do it.

Of course you have a taste for ballads. There are a handful of it in this album

I think that is what the album requests. It's a long album, it is 70 minutes, doulber than Dookie (laughs), and the ballads helps to be like a roller coaster, with ups and downs in each section

In fact, every section could be an album

Yes, totally. We are going to make a triple vinyl edition, and each section is a vinyl. We love vinyl

Thanks for all the people who said thank you, I'll keep translating later, I need a rest haham sorry for the mistakes!

[minorityxdisturbed]

You have done two albums so epic, do you feel that from now all your disks will be like that or you'll return back?

As I see it, is that we will never have the challenge of showing us that we could do a continuation of the American Idiot album. And we have proved it... Well, I don't know what people think, but we are very happy and we are the hardest critics of Green Day. If someone doesn't like something, it won't be because we have not given ten times before, it's because you don't like Green Day (laughs). But I think it is going back. Many times we talked about going to China and record a punk album in a small studio. Or do a record but very intimate with the Green Day tune. The songs come out as a post. I thnk that one of the merits of American Idiot is that we did it our way. It was a provocative and we lograted the success being Green Day. People can criticize us, but we have never ceased to be Billie, Mike and Tré. We have very solid foundations as people and as musicians

Have you never done group therapy?

NO, no. There's nothing similar like Some Kind of Monster. I love Metallica, they are people so nice and I think they were very brave doing that documental like that, but we're another kind of monster (laughs) If we have a problem, we talk about it. I think that before recording American Idiot we learnt to speak like men, we made a list of where we wanted to go like musicians, what albums we wanted to do like adults. It wasn't something so serious, we said many jets, but we set some goals and we decided to go for them. I think if you don't have goals, you risk stumbling around without direction

At the end of American Idiot's tour, you play at the Giant Stadium of New Jersey for 70.000 persorns. Did you feel nice in a huge place like that?

It's funny to mention that concert. It was the first time we played in a stadium of United States and that afternoon I was terrible. Five minutes before going on stage, I was throwing up and when we go out to play, I have vomited, and I jumped over I shitted (laughs). I had an intestinal flu and had to shit in a bucket next to the stage seven times. So I didn't feel very comfortable (laughs). You are the first journalist to hear the story, here is your exclusive (laughs). Nobody knew that I was ill, but finally I could enjoy it. The groups that say that they don't like playing in stadiums is because they don't play on stadiums (laughs). I do not care what they say, it's great playing in a stadium. At the same time as you had, just playing in clubs for 400 people and it was fucking funny. We played three hours almost every night. I do not know if they endure a tour, but two hours to secure the resist (laughs)

About the tour, there are many rumors that you'll do a tour with Blink-182. Is there any truth?

We haven't speak aobut it from our part. We like this dudes, but our idea is to do a Green Day's tour

Now you have the opportunity to show groups that you like. Who would you like to support you?

There are some groups that we have talked with who are Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs. They are good groups. Others who could support us could be A.F.I. who are good boys and the do great music. I dont' know, there are a lot of good groups that I'm seeing touring. We have a lot of to choose, but I think that there will be a lot of groups who will knock (laughs). Soon we have to choose.

During the recording, you have some reference albums like London Calling by The Clash, Quadrophena by The Who and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen, do you think that you have finally made an album which it is at their height?

It's very strange to judge something like that by yourself. I think you need to spend some time to see it and see what impact has been. When we looked back and saw what we had done with American Idiot, we still could go further and make a bigger album and that tell a story even better. Time will tell, but I think we have achieved the goal we set. I really think so.

This is the whole interview, there's a oppinion of the writer about the songs, but I don't think that it's really interestic becouse it tells you how the songs lookes like. Ok I have finished, once again sorry for my English mistakes. HOpe you like it!

[Pati.]

Thank you soo much minorityxdisturbed!!!!

[Bohemian+Scandal]

Minority, you seriously rock my world! Thank you for translating all that, it must've been tough!

That was a great interview. I love hearing from Mike.

Ha, he told that sick story on that CBS interview. That must've sucked so bad.

[Foxboro Hot Tubs]

thanks so much for translating it. that's really not self evident.

you did a great job!! thanks

[Guest]

thank you, you lovely person =]