Butch Walker Discusses Producing The New Green Day Album, Father Of All…

We're just weeks away from the release of Green Day's new album, Father Of All…, and if you couldn't already tell from the record's singles (the title-track, Fire, Ready, Aim and Oh Yeah!), this is one of the most different-sounding LPs of their 30-year career.

In part, that is down to producer Butch Walker, who had never worked with Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool before (generally they've favoured Rob Cavallo in the past, though the band have worked with the odd producer here and there, while handling production duties on 2016's Revolution Radio themselves). And not only was it a bucket list job for Butch – who has previously produced material by Fall Out Boy, Weezer and Panic! At The Disco – it also seemingly gave Green Day the fresh approach they were looking for.

"We got in touch because they started being managed by my manager at Crush," Butch says in a new interview filmed at this weekend's NAMM. "It was good timing, because I think Billie was ready to start relinquishing power and letting someone else come in who maybe has some new ideas and get a breath of fresh air. He'd been producing their records for about 10 years, and he wanted to learn some new stuff and put some new sounds together.

"I was a huge fan – I always have been – and a bucket list for me was, 'I'd like to produce a Green Day record one day.' And when my manager started working with them, I called him up and said, 'I'd like to produce a Green Day record one day!' And so he said, 'Okay, well let's talk to Billie and see what he thinks.' So he got on the phone with me and Billie, and we talked, and we realised that my record collection and his record collection were the same. We love the same stuff, and he had a lot of great song ideas and just wanted some direction, and it was cool.

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"It was a very collaborative effort from beginning to end, of putting songs together and finishing songs together. Either way, he came armed with some great songwriting and some great songs. Between me and Mike and Tré and him, we just all got in a room and started making a record – and here we are!"

Check out the interview below – it begins at around four hours and nine minutes in:

Father Of All… (full name: Father Of All Motherfuckers) is set for release on February 7 via Reprise/Warner.

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Catch Green Day live this summer with Fall Out Boy, Weezer and The Interrupters (U.S. only) on the Hella Mega Tour. Tickets are on sale now.

June

13 Paris, France, La Defense Arena,
14 Groningen, Netherlands, Stadspark
17 Antwerp, Belgium, Sportspaleis
21 Vienna, Austria, Ernst Happel Stadium
24 Glasgow, UK, Glasgow Green
26 London, UK, London Stadium
27 Huddersfield, UK, The John Smith’s Stadium
29 Dublin, Ireland, RDS Arena

July

17 Seattle, WA, T-Mobile Park
21 San Francisco, CA, Oracle Park
24 San Diego, CA, Petco Park
25 Los Angeles, CA, Dodger Stadium
28 Commerce City, CO, DICK’s Sporting Goods Park
31 Arlington, TX, Globe Life Field

August

1 Houston, TX Minute Maid Park
5 Miami, FL Hard Rock Stadium
6 Jacksonville, FL TIAA Bank Field
8 Atlanta, GA SunTrust Park
11 Minneapolis, MN Target Field
13 Chicago, IL Wrigley Field
15 Pittsburgh, PA PNC Park
16 Hershey, PA Hersheypark Stadium
19 Detroit, MI Comerica Park
21 Washington, DC Nationals Park
22 New York, NY Citi Field
24 Toronto, ON Rogers Centre
27 Boston, MA Fenway Park
29 Philadelphia, PA Citizens Bank Park

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