It’s been radio silence regarding Green Day’s follow-up to 2016’s Revolution Radio since Billie commented “I’m writing new songs for gd now” during an Instagram Livestream on December 8, 2018. But that may be about to change with rampant speculation that not only have the band selected a producer in Butch Walker, but they may have already been in the studio and recorded a new album with him.
Speculation began when the members of Green Day and some of their family and friends all began following a private Instagram account with the username @songsforassholes at the beginning of February. The account, with the description “If you’re knocking you don’t belong here”, posted almost daily to its private group of followers each workday until around the end of March. This is the period where it is believed that the band were in the studio recording a new album.
Where things get interesting is the @songsforassholes account is also followed by Butch Walker who has produced albums for Weezer, Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy and The Struts among many others. With the private Instagram account having just 15 followers, all of whom are members of the bands’ tight inner circle, it seems likely to presume Walker was added to the account in a professional capacity. It’s also worth noting that Walker is represented by Crush Management, the same company that Green Day left their longtime manager Pat Magnarella to join in August of 2017.
In a post on Green Day’s Reddit forum, u/jinxpoetry dug deeper into the Butch Walker connection noting that in a video he posted to his Instagram from a recording studio, you can see what appears to be Tre Cool’s drum set (along with Walker singing “making records is very, very fun”), the video was liked by both Tre and his wife.
What we still don’t know is exactly what the @songsforassholes account itself was used for. Billie Joe is no stranger to creating excitement for an upcoming project using Instagram. Fans will recall that much of his solo project, under the name ‘The Longshot’, was teased through posts on the platform on an account that started out private. Will this account one day be made public as well and document the band’s time in the studio? Or was it simply to keep friends and family updated on their time away from home while recording? Only time will tell.
If the band has already completed recording the album, we could be just a couple months away from a first single and a possible late summer or early fall album. We’ll continue to dig for answers and keep you updated as more information comes out.
