GuitarPlayer.com interviewed Billie Joe recently and they cover a lot of ground in the interview and some very nice technical insight to Billie Joe and his style of playing guitar. It is one of it is my favorite interviews done so far this round. It's a very good read that's definitely worth your time.
[quote]GP: I do a bit of teaching at Musicians Institute, and I can’t believe how many young, dedicated guitarists come in and want to play and sing Green Day. How do you feel when you walk in a room and see some 19-year-old who doesn’t even know you’re there playing “Basket Case,” or one of your other songs?
Billie Joe: It’s the ultimate form of flattery. In fact, sometimes it goes beyond flattery, because it’s one thing to sit at home in your bedroom and learn how to play a band’s songs, but I run into a lot of people who say, “The first song my friends and I learned together was ‘Basket Case,’ and now we have a band and write our own songs and have records out.” Hearing that is an amazing feeling. You can’t trade that in.
What I do on guitar is not always easy, but it is always simple, and I think that simplicity has encouraged a lot of young people to play. Back when I was a kid, the big rock bands—the dinosaurs, if you will—were doing things that made you feel like, “Wow, that’s impossible.” But I think when people see Green Day and the way I play, they see it as something that is possible.
What was your go-to guitar and amp recipe for the overdriven sounds on Revolution Radio?
It was a combination of different things. For starters, I often had my ’56 Les Paul Junior plugged into an old Park head that has been totally rebuilt. Another underlying thing on a lot of parts is a Rickenbacker 360—like the ones Peter Case and Peter Buck use—through a Divided By 13 head. Those guitars are so punchy. I was going for something that was in between Paul Weller, Steve Jones, and Johnny Thunders, while still trying to find my own sound. And then, for a bigger, more heavy sound, I’d run a Les Paul through one of my Marshalls.
So most parts were triple tracked?
Oh god, I mean, sometimes I would quadruple track. The setup on every song is a little different. There was some stuff where to get a really big tone, we’d just plug a guitar through a Boss Blues Driver and mess around with different echoes and delays. And on a couple of songs—like “Say Goodbye” and “Forever Now”—I took out a bow and just Jimmy Page-ed that motherf**ker. That was really fun.
Does your famous blue Fernandes make any appearances on the album?
No. But I do use baby Blue on stage every night when we play the old stuff.[/quote]
Read the full interview over at GuitarPlayer.com.
Thanks to [@GreenDayMind] for sharing this.
[quote]GP: I do a bit of teaching at Musicians Institute, and I can’t believe how many young, dedicated guitarists come in and want to play and sing Green Day. How do you feel when you walk in a room and see some 19-year-old who doesn’t even know you’re there playing “Basket Case,” or one of your other songs?
Billie Joe: It’s the ultimate form of flattery. In fact, sometimes it goes beyond flattery, because it’s one thing to sit at home in your bedroom and learn how to play a band’s songs, but I run into a lot of people who say, “The first song my friends and I learned together was ‘Basket Case,’ and now we have a band and write our own songs and have records out.” Hearing that is an amazing feeling. You can’t trade that in.
What I do on guitar is not always easy, but it is always simple, and I think that simplicity has encouraged a lot of young people to play. Back when I was a kid, the big rock bands—the dinosaurs, if you will—were doing things that made you feel like, “Wow, that’s impossible.” But I think when people see Green Day and the way I play, they see it as something that is possible.
What was your go-to guitar and amp recipe for the overdriven sounds on Revolution Radio?
It was a combination of different things. For starters, I often had my ’56 Les Paul Junior plugged into an old Park head that has been totally rebuilt. Another underlying thing on a lot of parts is a Rickenbacker 360—like the ones Peter Case and Peter Buck use—through a Divided By 13 head. Those guitars are so punchy. I was going for something that was in between Paul Weller, Steve Jones, and Johnny Thunders, while still trying to find my own sound. And then, for a bigger, more heavy sound, I’d run a Les Paul through one of my Marshalls.
So most parts were triple tracked?
Oh god, I mean, sometimes I would quadruple track. The setup on every song is a little different. There was some stuff where to get a really big tone, we’d just plug a guitar through a Boss Blues Driver and mess around with different echoes and delays. And on a couple of songs—like “Say Goodbye” and “Forever Now”—I took out a bow and just Jimmy Page-ed that motherf**ker. That was really fun.
Does your famous blue Fernandes make any appearances on the album?
No. But I do use baby Blue on stage every night when we play the old stuff.[/quote]
Read the full interview over at GuitarPlayer.com.
Thanks to [@GreenDayMind] for sharing this.
