Pinhead Gunpowder: “I was looking at everyone like, ‘Holy f*ck, I think we just made our best record!’”

He may have been making music since he was just five years old, but if there’s one thing you can say for sure about Billie Joe Armstrong, it’s that he absolutely loves it. More specifically, he’s still utterly obsessed with the East Bay punk scene from which he came. And he’s ready to show Green Day’s ever-growing fanbase one of his biggest influences via the brilliant new Pinhead Gunpowder album, Unt.

“When I started getting into punk, I wanted to know more,” the frontman begins, sandwiched on a sofa in Toronto between his Pinhead bandmates – guitarist Jason White, bassist Bill Schneider and drummer Aaron Cometbus – in the midst of the colossal Saviors Tour. “I looked backwards and went deep into people’s catalogues and where they were at, like, ‘Who influenced Operation Ivy?’ and I would look at Social Unrest and The Clash and The Specials, and you keep on doing that.

“If people like Green Day and they wanna know more about what I do, then I would say go into East Bay punk, and Lookout! Records, and then Pinhead Gunpowder would show up in there…”

Despite forming back in 1991, Unt is, handily, a pretty good place to start for those ready to dive in (or if you’re just looking to get lovingly reacquainted). For one, it shows that there’s still plenty of gas left in the tank after all these years. For another, this long-running and most beloved of side-projects all agree it’s their best record yet.

“We’re an East Bay punk band, and we can do the East Bay punk records still,” Aaron nods. “This sound, or this message, can still be electric, and still be exciting. All four of us, our lives are very different now, and it’s cool just to be able to prove that four different people, with different temperaments and from different backgrounds, can stick together through 34 years, and do something that still has energy.”

“I think it’s just that we get together and that’s what we do and what we sound like,” agrees Bill. “I don’t think we tried to make it sound like anything – I think it sounds like Pinhead Gunpowder, but it also sounds like nothing we’ve ever done before (laughs). Because that’s who we are now. I think Aaron’s playing and the way he accents on his hi-hat, and the way Billie’s wrist sounds playing power chords on a guitar, and the way me and Jason fill in the rest of it, it all comes together in a very interesting way – and it just sounds like us!”

Not that there had been any grand master plan for things to turn out like this. With Billie, Jason and Bill all wrapped up with Massive Green Day Business these past couple of years, and Aaron out on a whole other coast, the guys would meet up sporadically for Pinhead rehearsals and jam sessions, bringing ideas to the table as and when they were inspired to do so. During the pandemic there was some remote work involved, but crucially it was all about being together and making the most out of their unique musical connection.

“Once we decided we were going to try to put some songs together, Aaron sent us everything digitally, and then he and I would be on the phone trying to hash out songs,” Jason recalls. “We tried Zoom and we didn’t like it! So there was a little bit of prep involved, but most of the creative stuff happened while we were all together.”

“We were surprised that we had so many songs to record, and we were like, ‘Well, let’s just make a whole album,’” continues Billie. “It’s the first thing that we’ve done since, I think, 2008 or 2009. It’s been a while, and we were definitely inspired to get together with songs. Aaron had lyrics and songs, and I had a few, and Jason and Bill had a couple. It worked out great.”

“Yeah, we all got in a room together this time, and I don’t think we ever had the plans to make a full record,” Bill agrees. “We thought, ‘Well, let’s record a couple of songs and see what happens…’ and then over the course of a couple of days, we ended up with, like, 16 songs. I think we were all pleasantly surprised, and we just went with it (laughs). I don’t know if there were ‘goals’, but I think we were happy and we got more excited the more we worked on it. As it came together, I think it became all of our favourite things we’ve done in a long time – or ever. That spirit kept it moving forward, and kept us energised to make things better, and make sure it was the way we wanted.”

“One of my favourite records that we did was [1994 EP] Carry The Banner – that record was just us on fire for some reason,” adds Billie. “I was so blown away by that record, but now as we’re playing, I’m kinda looking at these guys going, ‘Holy fuck, I think we just made our best record!’ And everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, I think we did!’”

It’s fair to say Unt came together in an effortlessly enjoyable way, then, but that doesn’t mean to say Pinhead Gunpowder take things easily, or as if they’re ‘just a side-project’. There’s real ambition, and the desire to bring out the best in each other at all times.

“We don’t ever settle for anything that’s just, ‘Oh, we’ll put some songs together, it’ll be fine,’” says Aaron. “Everybody’s always pushing each other to get better, whatever that might be.”

The same goes for their views of the wider world. While Bill ponders that there’s “a theme of hope and coming together on the record that we didn’t know was there”, Aaron says the band’s collaborative duties on Unt also reflect the lessons learned over the past three decades.

“It’s not a record about being in your 20s – we’re middle-aged guys, and I think it’s important to be like, ‘Yeah, some of the problems that we had as kids are still with us, and you have to fix them or face them,’” he says. “And other things fall away, and you boil it down to the essence. I think that’s exciting – you’re excited more about life itself.”

Now, with the LP primed and ready for release, they’re waiting – and hoping – to see if an opportunity arises to take it on the road.

“We haven’t really made any plans outside of making an album – except for some fantasies about maybe doing some touring,” says Billie. “As soon as I’m done with my day job and I get a bit more free time, sometimes we think about doing an east coast run, or sometimes we think about doing a run in England and in the UK. Maybe we’ll go to Venezuela and do a tour or something like that (laughs).

“I think we can keep that dream alive about playing live, but it’s just a matter of things falling into place.”

Pinhead Gunpowder’s new album Unt is due out on October 18 via 1-2-3-4 Go! Records

Read this next:

• From Tim Armstrong to Mark Ronson: The icons who inspired Aimee Interrupter
• “We didn’t have stars in our eyes, we just wanted our records to get out there”: How Green Day’s Dookie captured the spirit of a generation
• NOFX’s Fat Mike: “I fly my freak flag sexually and musically, and punk allows me to do that”