Green Day have revealed ‘Troubled Times’, a song off their upcoming record ‘Revolution Radio’, was inspired by the Paris terror attacks that occurred last November.
The attacks shook the world, but especially the rock community. Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong is friends with Eden Galindo, the guitarist for Eagles of Death Metal, who were at the epicenter of the attacks where 89 of their fans were shot dead.
Armstrong told Q Magazine: “I don’t think anything like terrorism hit home right in our backyard the way it did that night. At first, I wrote it and thought ‘I don’t known if I want this on the album’. It’s really heavy to write about and I didn’t want it to be trite or maudlin.”
However, after the similar terror attack at the nightclub Pulse in Orlando occurred this June, Armstrong says: “When Orlando happened, I thought ‘Well, it makes perfect sense to put it on the record’.”
The debut single ‘Bang Bang’ also deals with similar themes in relation to the rising culture of gun violence in America; a single that Armstrong was surprised of due its aggressiveness. He says: “Bang Bang’ is the most aggressive single we’ve ever had. I didn’t plan on it being that way. I don’t want to be the old guy saying ‘We’re going to show these young whippersnappers how it’s done’. It was just ‘Fuck, this sounds really good’.”
Revolution Radio will be released on October 7, 2016.
Listen to Green Day’s latest single ‘Bang Bang’ below.
