Green Day Drops New Single ‘Bang Bang’, Releases Details About Upcoming Album ‘Revolution Radio’

Green Day has released the new single “Bang Bang” off their upcoming studio album Revolution Radio, their first album release in almost four years. It’s also the band’s first release since front man Billy Joe underwent rehab for prescription pill addiction in late 2012, around the time when their Uno!, Dos! Tre! trilogy of albums were released subsequently in September, November, and December.

Green Day announces new political album and new single “Bang Bang” https://t.co/aJGdEDn7j0

— TIME (@TIME) August 11, 2016

As reported by ET, Revolution Radio is set for release on October 7, and the group is also set to kick off their world tour later in the year. No dates have been announced as of this time.

Green Day took to Facebook Thursday to release the lyric video for “Bang Bang.”

https://www.facebook.com/GreenDay/videos/10154438448969521/

Most fans reacted positively to the new single, with some acknowledging its nice fusion of the band’s earlier material with their latest releases.

“It’s got the lyrical content of 21st century breakdown, the guitar tone from American idiot, and the speed of insomniac. Love it so much!” one fan commented.

Despite the band’s hiatus, it certainly sounds like they haven’t lost their edge one bit. And they’re not shying away from making music with heavy political overtones, either. In fact, Billy Joe said during his Rolling Stonesinterview that the album was largely inspired by an incident from two years ago, in which he came across a throng of protesters while driving in Manhattan. After finding out that the throng filled the streets to protest Missouri’s grand jury decision to indictthea police officer who killed Michael Brown, Billy got out of his car to join the protesters.

“It was a trip to see people rebel against the old order,” he said.

Green Day announce new album, ‘Revolution Radio’ https://t.co/lzZBFqcT6v pic.twitter.com/8e0V9SqPJS

— Pup Fresh (@PupFresh) August 11, 2016

And from that came Revolution Radio’s first single “Bang Bang,” which was “written from the perspective of a mass shooter,” according to the 44-year-old musician.

“There’s this sort of rage happening, but it’s also now being filmed and we all have ourselves under surveillance. To me, that is so twisted. To get into the brain of someone like that was freaky. It freaked me out. After I wrote it, all I wanted to do was get that out of my brain because it just freaked me out.”

After being asked to expound on the single, Billy Joe said that it’s about “the culture of mass shooting that happens in America mixed with narcissistic social media.”

While the album is a collection of songs about chaotic America in 2016, Revolution Radio isn’t all politics. There are songs with a personal bent as well, such as “Ordinary World,” a somber ballad that concludes the album.

Planning and recording an album require a lot of effort, not to mention that the circumstances of each member have to be taken into account as well. But for Billy Joe, Tre, and Mike, the process has been nothing short of organic. After taking a much-deserved break, Billy Joe, inspired, wrote a couple of songs “out of nowhere.” Somehow, that alone got the ball rolling.

“I moved into a new studio that I built in Oakland and I just started messing around with different riffs. The first song where I was like, “OK, I’m onto something” was “Bang Bang.” And then the first track of the record, “Somewhere Now.” I started doing demos and I showed them to Mike and Tre. That’s the test. And they absolutely loved it.”

Billy Joe has strong opinions about the current state of elections in the United States, saying that “this is the most chaos I’ve ever seen in an election.” The singer, however, chose not to fan the flames but instead assumed a more reflective stand on the issue. After all, he says that everybody’s already “freaked out,” which is why he chose to at least try to “look at myself as part of the problem.”

“I can only go from my own personal life, but this is the most chaos I’ve ever seen in an election.”

[Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images]