Dookie had been a massive success, with the hit singles Longview, When I Come Around and Basket Case turning Green Day into well known icons. Although Insomniac was Green Day's fourth album, it was their second on a major label and in the public eye, dubbed by many magazines as "the tricky second album". Kurt Cobain of Nirvana had died, and to many, rock music was looking bleak. Although Nirvana was a fun, playful band, the death of Cobain put a downer on grunge and modern rock music.

   Some could say that Green Day's 1995 fourteen track record Insomniac didn't do much to get rid of this image. It is true that many of the songs were based on depression and/or drugs (Brain Stew, for example). The album's title, Insomniac, was the first serious sounding CD title Green Day had to date, named because of Billie's insomnia. After signing to a major label, Reprise, Green Day were exiled from the Gilman St. Club back in Berkeley, the club they had grew up as people and musicians watching bands play, and, indeed, taking the stage themselves. No band could play there once they were on a major label, and the band made up of locals Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool was no exception. The song 86, is a song about being kicked out, and remains to this day a good indication of how Billie was feeling about this. A lyric from the track might well sum up the general feeling at Green Day camp; "What brings you around? Did you lose something the last time you were here? You'll never find it now. It's buried deep with your identity." Take what you want from it, but it seems that they felt their identity had been stolen, and it was irretrievable.

   But what exactly was their identity? To some, they had sold out to Reprise. To a blissfully unaware majority, they were a hot new band with multicoloured hair and some good tunes (an image pop bands such as Blink 182 would later perfect). To their core fan base, however, they were energy, they were punk, and they were just great. Insomniac wasn't all bleak. We can't forget that almost all the songs on the album still revolve around three to six power chords and an always upbeat drum rhythm. The bass lines are fun and fast, much like Rancid's "…And Out Come the Wolves" record, made around the same time (this would make sense; they were from the same music scene back in Berkeley). Insomniac did indeed get rid of their "Disney punk" image, but they hadn't changed all that much. The lyrics were somewhat darker, with Billie exploring his lyrical ability beyond one or two rhyme schemes. Some said this was a bad thing (including a parent of an eight year old with the album, but I'm sure there will be more of her later on, nimrods…), but Green Day have always been up for tweaking and changing things and weren't going to stop just because everyone was used to When I Come Around. This is not to say there were no simple, fun happy songs on here, the last track on the album, Walking Contradiction made a great single, and was about nothing and everything all at once. Other singles were Brain Stew and Jaded, which rolled together one after the other. It was the band's first double A-side, and they also shared the same music video. Although they didn't sell as well as the singles from Dookie, Brain Stew and Jaded to this day remain great songs played live, with start stoppy guitar parts and sing-a-long-able verses. While previous albums contained songs about nothing in particular, Insomniac was more down to earth, more personal. Some were about places around where they live. Track eight, Panic Song, is about Mike's panic attacks. Instrumental for a large first part of the song (the first time Green Day had done this), the lyrics kick in around half way through fast and hard. The chorus; "The world is a sick machine. Breeding a mass of shit, With such a desolate conclusion. Fill the void with... I don't care." Possibly a little harder for nine year olds to sing along to than, err, "Do you have the time, to listen to me whine?". The question is, is that a bad or a good thing? Or a bit of both? Or neither? It did get rid of Green Day's "Disney punk" label, which they had been dubbed in '94. Some people said that it wasn't as good, but then that's just an individual preference. The bottom line is, that's the music they wanted to write, and that's the music they wrote. Doing anything else would be "selling out". The opening track, Armatage Shanks, is supposedly about Billie's panic attacks. Seems going on non stop tour for Dookie was somewhat screwing them up… Some were about places around where they live. Stuart and the Avenue is about "standing on the corner of Stuart and the Avenue, Ripping up a transcript and a photograph of you". The Avenue is Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley (the corner of it leads onto Stuart Street). An (anti) love song; "I may be something but I'm not stupid enough to stay with you…" in traditional Green Day style; it is essentially great to sing to and quick to play. Another song about a local spot is Tight Wad Hill. T.W.H was a hill overlooking Billie and Mike's school playing field. There were a lot of people there who didn't want to have to pay to get in, and would just go to the hill. Pot would be sold and taken, as well as other goings-on. The opening line "Cheap skate on the hill" says a lot, really. What Green Day has managed to do is write incredibly personal songs, and make them still mean things to the rest of the public. Why? Because they describe emotion as well as just events! Not only emotion, but it describes a way of life and a chorus that could easily grab a massive amount of the youth population, (obnoxiously dubbed "generation x" – no relation to Billy Idol's band) and make them go "oh yeah!". "Bumming a ride, Burning daylight, Last up at dawn... tight wad hill." Bleak? Sure is. But did it sum up the bored feeling of kids, just like Billie, Mike and Tré were? Oh yes.

   Green Day got their name from days of smoking weed. They weren't, however, just a weed smoking band. They also dabbled in amphetamine. Geek Stink Breath, a single, was a song about this. It made no attempt to hide it, either, with the lines in the chorus: "I'm on a roll, no self control / blowing off steam with meth amphetamine". This is an angry sounding song, but if you look at the lyrics, they aren't really against anything. More just a general, "I'm fucked". The accompanying music video (shown – and edited – on MTV as well as other music channels) is basically a short flick of someone having their tooth ripped out by a dentist, in a dark red room with Green Day bashing out the song in the background. They did it and they wrote songs about it, but it doesn't seem like they loved it. Which is unsurprising; Tré has described meth amphetamine later on as "the ugly drug…".

   Next to each other, when played live, you can sense that songs off of Insomniac are the somewhat "heavier" numbers. As previously noted, Brain Stew/Jaded is still played regularly, Brain Stew being featured on the Bullet in a Bible CD ten years on. Seeing as the majority of the album was written on tour buses while touring for Dookie, it isn't too much surprise that it sound stressed. Billie Joe did say a few years later that although he has no regrets, he thinks he should maybe have had a little bit more fun around that time, instead of focusing on the stress, the pressure and the tiredness. Tré said around the time that Insomniac was a hard record, which was a reaction to Dookie. He describes disliking the lack of control over who likes them, and the "…super-fivin' marines…" saying "…yeah, cool, you're my fucking favorite band, bro!.." Bringing Pansy Division on tour with them also helped to rule out some of the fans who didn't get it (Pansy Division are an openly gay rock band, for those who don't know). The cover art on 39/Smooth was probably the least… Green Day-ish cover art to date. The Kerplunk! cover art was more obviously Green Day with the girl winking, holding a smiling flower in one hand and a smoking gun in the other. Dookie had a fantastic cover, a cartoon masterpiece complete with monkeys throwing shit at various characters based on people from the East Bay (and Satan, of course). Insomniac was going to have to be pretty cool. Winston Smith had also worked with San Francisco based punks the Dead Kennedys, and according to Ben Myers, (author of the Green Day biography 'American Idiots and the New Punk Explosion') was "known for having produced some of the most iconic images in punk". He was perfect to make the art for Green Day's new record. Unlike other covers, this one folded out into a square, to make an interesting, if not slightly disturbing picture of a twisted family, complete with guns and a very strange creature. When turned the right way, three skulls can be seen, one for each member of the band. The artwork was titled "God Told me to Skin You Alive". This is Jello Biafra's first line on side one of the Dead Kennedys' record Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables.

   In its first six months of being released, Insomniac sold around two million. That's a hell of a lot, when you think of how ecstatic Lookout! were just a few years back to sell fifty-thousand. Not quite as big as Dookie, but two million, for Green Day… was just, wow. Except they were no longer being judged by newspapers on the same level as Operation Ivy or MDC. They were now in the "big leagues", Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, U2, plus countless terrible Nirvana-wannabe bands. So, of course, to sell records and to keep working, they went back on tour. Billie Joe was arrested for indecent exposure at a show in Wisconsin, something his mother wasn't happy about at all. The tour ended early, after a date was cancelled at a venue where there was reportedly broken glass, no electricity and criminal. Billie said that he'd rather have a disappointed audience than an audience full of seriously injured or killed people. They were, as Billie said, "Exhausted and wrecked" and "we just wanted to go home". They got their wish, each member returning home to relax, chill out and calm down. The albums tour was over, and it was out in the public. They had made another damn good album, which would not be forgotten.

   Green Day did, however, play one little show. Warehouse. Oakland. Valentines Day '97. Just to a group of friends. Tré Cool: "We wanted to get them all hooked up… when they get knocked up in the parking lot, it's cool, as long as they bring the baby to the next tour and call it Nimrod, it's fine".