Rumours have swirled for months that Butch Walker is not only the producer of Green Day’s next album but more excitingly that they’ve already been in the studio to record it. Yesterdays Instagram posts by Billie, Mike and Tre as well as the official Green Day account, did nothing but fan those flames with the inclusion of a photo of Billie Joe Armstrong playing guitar in Walker’s studio. The studio is easily identifiable with a portion of his light-up RubyRed Productions sign visible behind Billie Joe as well as light strings, checkerboard floor and the general studio layout matching a photo from Reverb’s “Show Us Your Space” studio tour.
The guitar Billie Joe is posing with in the photo above can also be seen on the wall in a video Walker posted to Instagram on March 27, 2019, in which he was singing “making records is very, very fun” while filming his studio. Each of the photos the band members and official account posted featured a picture of a water buffalo which can also be found in Walker’s studio.
While this seemingly confirms that at the very least the band spent time at Walker’s studio, we still have no official confirmation that he is the producer or that a new album is coming soon. Last week a Kerrang Radio host caused a stir when she mentioned that a new Green Day single was dropping on July 19, which was the same day the above photos were posted, but Green Day’s representatives quickly corrected that there’s “definitely no Green Day single anytime soon”.
With no single coming soon, fans have been left to speculate on what the Instagram posts are hinting at. While it’s possible that it’s just advance hype for an announcement coming soon, there’s also a chance the photo’s last week from each of their Instagram accounts, with one alternating member giving the finger in each photo (Billie | Mike | Tre) before and after arriving at the Golden Bull Bar, combined with the photo’s yesterday could be hinting at the band playing a secret show there tonight and previewing new material from the upcoming album.
We do know that Billie Joe and Mike’s side project cover band, The Coverups, will be playing the 40th St Block Party tonight but we’ll just have to see if they’ll be meeting up with Tre later on this evening. If anything of note happens we’ll have all the details posted here as soon as they are available.
July 21 update: Billie Joe was in attendance at the Golden Bull Bar but Green Day did not perform a secret show. All three band members Instagram accounts as well as the official band account were set to private for about a day but they have all opened back up to the public as well. The wait continues to find out what exactly the band is hinting at.