This past December, Green Day released a 16-track album entitled The BBC Sessions, which was comprised of four sessions from 1994-2001 at London’s Maia Vale Studios, and tracked the magic that was brewing with the Bay Area punk trio as they broke through into global stardom. By all accounts, this album marks the end of Green Day’s era with Reprise Records and as Variety reported in 2019 — when their Hella Mega Tour with Fall Out Boy was originally supposed to go down — they are now effectively “free agents.” So what does the future hold for the mega rock band?
Two weeks ago, Green Day posted an initial video of them rocking out in London’s RAK Studios and then the numbers “1972” flashed on the screen. It definitely looked like band were recording an album.
But there’s more. Yesterday, Green Day posted a second clip, also without a caption, but leaning into whatever “1972” insinuates. Rather than a soundtrack of hard driving drums and raucous guitar like the previous clip, we see Billie Joe Armstrong strumming an acoustic guitar, spliced alongside artistic vignettes of the band having fun. As the video comes to a close, “1972” flashes on the screen again.
Bear in mind, 1972 is the year in which Armstrong, drummer Tré Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt were all born. It appears very likely that the band are indeed working on an album with their birth year as the title. Their last album, Father Of All Motherf*ckers, was recorded in California and it would seem that now in their newfound “free agency” period, they could find a renewed sense of creative freedom. The band is scheduled to headline Atlanta’s Shaky Knees Festival in April and these cryptic Instagram clips seem destined to continue for a bit until we get an official announcement. Stay tuned.
Green Day is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.