Joey Armstrong talks Green Day on the Trap Set podcast

[pacejunkie punk]

I’ve never heard Joey talk so much about his family experience but in this podcast he talks quite a bit about Billie Joe and Adrienne and his experience growing up on tour with Green Day and being exposed to so much music and the opportunities in his life. 

http://thetrapset.libsyn.com/219-joey-armstrong-swmrs

[Billie Joes Eyelids]

Wow! So impressed with Joey in this. He is excellent at expressing himself. Really intelligent. And it was so interesting hearing him talk about Billie and GD. He never talks about them. But he did say in this he no longer feels like he can’t talk about his dad and the band. 

[PleasedToMeetMe]

Got to hang out and eat candy with Joey briefly around 5 years ago in Minneapolis. Super cool dude!

[Sarcasm]

41 minutes ago, PleasedToMeetMe said:

Got to hang out and eat candy with Joey briefly around 5 years ago in Minneapolis. Super cool dude!

wasn't he 8 

[WhiteTim]

Just now, Sarcasm said:

wasn't he 8 

that'd been Jakob if I'm not mistaken Joey's the oldest 

[UNICORN VOMIT]

That was awesome - I loved how he talked about his Mum ..... how he rebelled with sport 😆Also the part where he dropped out of college his parents questioned that he only really had one tour downunder planned for the year........

Thanks for posting @pacejunkie punk

[HAPPY ZOMBIE UNICORN]

Very interesting to listen to, thanks for sharing! It’s nice to hear how much he’s aware of his privileged position, and how he’s using it in a smart and respectful way. Not something to take from granted in in these contexts, some nice parenting is going on over there! 

Also cool to hear his comments on drummers and “wow” moments in music, it’s awesome how Milton Keynes left such a huge impact also on him, and the final bit about Tre is so so nice!  

[jengd]

What a great podcast, sensible questions the guy asked and a good balance of subjects.  What an interesting listen and what a charming and thoughtful young man Joey is.  Really impressed by him and his attitude and what a credit to Billie and Adrienne, good job on bringing him up to be like this given dad’s job and all that goes with it!  Anyone else think it quite funny (but normal and healthy) that he’s not sure how old his dad was when his grandpa died and we probably all know exactly 😂

[nobodylikeswarning]

I honestly love Joey and how talented he is so this podcast is gonna be a good listen!  

[jengd]

If anyone is struggling with this, @Give_Me_Novacaine90 asked if a I could transcribe it for our friends who don't have English as their first language.  I have made a start and hope to get it here for you guys early next week.

 

 

[Vintage Disciple]

This was a great listen.  He seems so thoughtful and grounded and love that he seems to have his dad's laugh!

[pacejunkie punk]

Thanks @jengd for transcribing!  (I thought the same thing about him not knowing how old his dad was when his grandfather died. It’s funny the stuff we know that they probably never think about).

In the meantime, I just summarized a lot of it from listening the first time. Here’s some of the things he talks about...

He talks about growing up with drums in the house and how he was always drawn to the drums, he says his great grandfather, grandfather, Uncle are all drummers and he describes his dad as a great drummer too. 

 He first went on tour with Green Day when he was six months old. Growing up watching them play for 3 hours a night from the sides was the best education and experience for him. He got to see how hard they work and how high their standards are. 

He describes his mother as inspirational for the charity work she does, she wants to save the world and she’s the sweetest person on earth. 

One of his earliest memories is camping in a tent in his backyard of his first home in Berkeley with his brother, dad and uncle and seeing deer walk by.

He’s lived in Berkeley, Oakland and Piedmont. He first went to a Montessori school in Berkeley, then a private school in Oakland in 4th grade and had a hard time transitioning. A teacher suggested he join the school rock band and that’s how he started making more friends. His dad also told him to join the jazz band and orchestra. He played drums for school musicals including Le Miserables with the Becker kids acting onstage. He’s known the Beckers since he was three and their moms were pregnant with their little brothers. Max and Cole are like his brothers and he describes Jakob as his best friend.

He went to college in San Diego for a year then transferred to the New School for Jazz in NYC but when he told them he needed to work around his tour schedule because his band was touring Australia, the school told him to go pursue that because he was already where most studentswanted to be and the school would always be there for him. When he told this to his parents they were concerned because he only had one tour and what would he do then. So they told him if he wasn’t going to school he had to agree to practice 4-5 hours a day, study privately under several drumming teachers and basically take it seriously. He did.

 He talks about Tre as a mentor and how much he learned from him, his stamina and his style. 

 He was asked about appreciating everything he knows he was given (his privilege growing up). I forget exactly how he said it (something like not being an asshole is how he shows his appreciation) but it was a good question and I liked his answer. He doesn’t deny that he has advantages over other kids but he tries to not take it for granted and he also works hard. 

Oh and thanks @The Insider for reminding me of this last one... that with a rock star dad he was asked how he found a way to rebel and he said he did it by being really into sports 😄 and also dressing in light colors (not black) and generally subverting people’s expectations of him. 

[Squashie]

Overall just a well produced podcast. Great questions about his childhood and musical influences. Billie and 80 have a done a great job of raising those 2 boys. I think the part that hit me most, ironically, was the part where he dropped out of school and his parents questioned his choice and showed some tough love. 

[jengd]

1 hour ago, DadBod said:

Overall just a well produced podcast. Great questions about his childhood and musically influences. Billie and 80 have a done a great job of raising those 2 boys. I think the part that hit me most, ironically, was the part where he dropped out of school and his parents questioned his choice and showed some tough love. 

Yep, I love that they seem really encouraging and nurturing but there is no sense of him being spoiled, he's privileged and he knows it but doesn't take his privilege for granted, he came over really well.

Darn, realised I can't upload it here as an a word doc or PDF, can I email it to one of the mods and they could upload?  Any advice?  I have it about half done but it's becoming really long,  Joey say "like" a lot, reminds me of his dad's "y'know" 😂

[IcyMoffatt]

On 8/8/2019 at 9:47 AM, pacejunkie punk said:

Thanks @jengd for transcribing!  (I thought the same thing about him not knowing how old his dad was when his grandfather died. It’s funny the stuff we know that they probably never think about).

In the meantime, I just summarized a lot of it from listening the first time. Here’s some of the things he talks about...

He talks about growing up with drums in the house and how he was always drawn to the drums, he says his great grandfather, grandfather, Uncle are all drummers and he describes his dad as a great drummer too. 

 He first went on tour with Green Day when he was six months old. Growing up watching them play for 3 hours a night from the sides was the best education and experience for him. He got to see how hard they work and how high their standards are. 

He describes his mother as inspirational for the charity work she does, she wants to save the world and she’s the sweetest person on earth. 

One of his earliest memories is camping in a tent in his backyard of his first home in Berkeley with his brother, dad and uncle and seeing deer walk by.

He’s lived in Berkeley, Oakland and Piedmont. He first went to a Montessori school in Berkeley, then a private school in Oakland in 4th grade and had a hard time transitioning. A teacher suggested he join the school rock band and that’s how he started making more friends. His dad also told him to join the jazz band and orchestra. He played drums for school musicals including Le Miserables with the Becker kids acting onstage. He’s known the Beckers since he was three and their moms were pregnant with their little brothers. Max and Cole are like his brothers and he describes Jakob as his best friend.

He went to college in San Diego for a year then transferred to the New School for Jazz in NYC but when he told them he needed to work around his tour schedule because his band was touring Australia, the school told him to go pursue that because he was already where most studentswanted to be and the school would always be there for him. When he told this to his parents they were concerned because he only had one tour and what would he do then. So they told him if he wasn’t going to school he had to agree to practice 4-5 hours a day, study privately under several drumming teachers and basically take it seriously. He did.

 He talks about Tre as a mentor and how much he learned from him, his stamina and his style. 

 He was asked about appreciating everything he knows he was given (his privilege growing up). I forget exactly how he said it (something like not being an asshole is how he shows his appreciation) but it was a good question and I liked his answer. He doesn’t deny that he has advantages over other kids but he tries to not take it for granted and he also works hard. 

Oh and thanks @The Insider for reminding me of this last one... that with a rock star dad he was asked how he found a way to rebel and he said he did it by being really into sports 😄 and also dressing in light colors (not black) and generally subverting people’s expectations of him. 

I saw the news on Facebook yesterday from the Italian fanclub. Your summerise has been copy and paste by them without saying you were the one who wrote it. They moved your sentence about Tré Cool up in the text, but the rest is identical.

[pacejunkie punk]

13 minutes ago, IcyMoffatt said:

I saw the news on Facebook yesterday from the Italian fanclub. Your summerise has been copy and paste by them without saying you were the one who wrote it. They moved your sentence about Tré Cool up in the text, but the rest is identical.

Yeah they’re weasels. They steal everyone’s stuff and rarely credit 😠

Maybe if people keep publicly shaming them they’ll stop.

[jengd]

Don't know if anyone is still interested but for anyone struggling to get what Joey was saying with the speed he speak at etc, have transcribed the podcast.  Can't seem to upload it anyway so I'll add some chunks and if folk are interested I'll keep them coming.  Below are the bits where he talks about his dad and bits about his mum.

JW: What’s the first thing that you can remember?

The first thing I can remember is that we build these forts I our back yard in Berkeley.  It was my, my brother, my uncle and my dad and every day we would wake up and we would see deer in our backyard, like hanging out in our fort and I just always remember waking, looking out and seeing like 5 – 10 deer back there.

JW: So in my experience, interviewing people that have had professional musicians for parents, it can go one of two ways, either they resent their parent, the parents if fucked up and a bad parent.

JW: And they become an IRS agent or something or they get into music but I wonder if it was a challenge to kinda define yourself and to figure out what kind of music spoke to you outside of your father’s relationship to music?

Yeah. I think, the part I’m really lucky to have was that my dad really pushed me to kind of study as much and different varieties of music as possible.  So growing up, I mean, The Who were my favourite band and I would watch Amazing Journey, the documentary, pretty much every weekend and then School of Rock came out and then that got me into the Ramones and then like the older I got, like when I was in middle school, I remember my dad showing me how to make mix tapes or CDs and so every day before school I was kind of looking up new music and stuff like that and then in High School, he told me to join the jazz band, and the symphonic band and I was doing like the musicals too and that’s the one thing, I’m really fortunate.

Oh, I just remember, Max was, I can’t remember the characters names, he was the master of the house, keeper of the key you know and he still sings a lot of those songs now.  But the part I’m really fortunate for, is that my dad really pushing me out to do all those things and to explore music and have just an appreciation for all music.  That’s something that I think a lot of people don’t realise, is just that my dad has this like very vast knowledge of music and so just kind of being a sponge my whole life has been what I’ve learned from that.

JW: Can you remember the first time you played drums?

JA: Yeah.  I was really young ahm, when my dad would go on tour we’d get concert videos and, or we’d turn on MTV when they were playing music videos all the time and I would  set up this little tiny drum set in front of the TV and I would play along to music videos or the live shows of Green Day.

JW: But you’d already seen a rock band’s lives so many times, was it empowering to see kids?

JA: Exactly. Yeah, it was like, that’s what adults do.  When I saw my dad play I was like, yeah, that’s a grown up job and then all of a sudden you see Zak Mooningham and different like members of the school of rock playing instruments and you’re like, oh man, I wanna do this.

JW: So how do you rebel against your parents when they’re a rock star?

JA: I think for me it was sports. I mean I love sports and my dad love sports too but I feel like it was more rebelling against what people thought you know, I love being the type of person where it’s like you know so many times, people try to put me in this box where it’s like your from a punk rock background, a rock background but I’m going to put a bunch of electronic stuff on our record.  I love playing basketball, probably equally as much as I love playing drums.  I follow sports more than I follow bands and that’s you know, it’s like when your told to like dye your hair crazy colours, wear certain clothes, I like to wear bright coloured clothing and like just go down my own route and be my own person and that’s something I’m slowly starting to like still figure out, what I like.

JA: Drums have been, so my great grandpa was a drummer, my grandpa was a drummer, my uncle’s a drummer and then obviously my dad, my dad’s a great drummer and ah so I think it’s just kind of my family has such an appreciation for the arts in general and so growing up it wasn’t, it was kind of like, the best way to go about what you do is just full on and full steam so it’s kind of like once I figured out that I loved drums, I’m going to hone in on that and attack it full on

JW: Did you have a relationship with your grandparents that played?

JA: No, so my grandpa died when my dad was 12

JW: Ok

JA:  Or 7, I can’t remember but ah yeah, so I didn’t but my uncle plays drums and I have a relationship with him so it’s kind of just a family thing.

JW:  Ok, so earlier you mentioned that there are only a few times when you’ve had your mind completely blown watching music.  Can you think of some of them?

JA: Yeah, so the first one was Milton Keynes, a lot of them have to do with my family, just cos it’s such a family affair.  You know, my brother’s my best friend, he’s a couple of years younger than me, he plays in my band and touring with my dad, sharing that with him has been our entire life.  I think one time that was crazy was seeing my dad getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and standing on stage and watching Tre and Ringo Starr play drums at the same time.  That to me was like a, Ringo Star is my favourite drummer of all time so that kind of like a wtf moment. 

JW: When you’re playing live, what’s your goal?

JA: My goal is to hold it, be solid, that’s just, my dad has instilled one thing in me and it’s chose your moments.  I know so many drummers and it drives me crazy who just like fill space with insane, I mean right now we live in this time where you can scroll through Instagram and see all drummers who I’m like, oh my god, they’re so much better than me, I mean, these crazy gospel.

JW: What was your mum’s role in your development as a person?

JA: The way I describe my mum is that she just wants to save the world and that could mean opening up a chimp sanctuary in Atlanta, which she did, she got me really in NRDC which is kind of helping like save the environment in ways like not using so much plastic and ahm she’s kind of really the figure in me that’s like just be a good person and it’s something that really stuck with me, she’s literally the sweetest person on earth and I’m very lucky to have her.

JW: So tell me about how School of Rock changed your life.

JA: So, my bandmates and I, two of them I’ve known since I was three years old.  Our mums were pregnant at the same time with our little brothers.

 

[PursuitOfEpicness]

From one of the Green Day biographies I own I remember Billie joe saying something very along the lines of what Joey said about Adrienne. And he definitely also said "She's literally the sweetest person on earth". She sounds amazing, being a fan aside, the whole family just seems like amazing people.

[jengd]

3 hours ago, PursuitOfEpicness said:

From one of the Green Day biographies I own I remember Billie joe saying something very along the lines of what Joey said about Adrienne. And he definitely also said "She's literally the sweetest person on earth". She sounds amazing, being a fan aside, the whole family just seems like amazing people.

Honestly, Joey sounded like mini Billie a lot of the time.  That’s not a criticism, he was genuine but he obviously is close to his dad and loves his family so I guess his values are the same.  He was pretty adorable, just like dad! 😂

[Beerjeezus]

30 minutes ago, jengd said:

Honestly, Joey sounded like mini Billie a lot of the time.  That’s not a criticism, he was genuine but he obviously is close to his dad and loves his family so I guess his values are the same.  He was pretty adorable, just like dad! 😂

I thought the way he talks with a lot of filler words and sometimes gets lost in his sentence is a lot like Billie.

[HAPPY ZOMBIE UNICORN]

8 minutes ago, Beerjeezus said:

I thought the way he talks with a lot of filler words and sometimes gets lost in his sentence is a lot like Billie.

Y’know Super Family Showdown  

[jengd]

These snippets are talking about Green Day and Tre.

JW: What do you mean there were few times where it was like oh shit, where your mind was blown?

JA: Yeah, I mean, I stood, it took me a while, you know for the longest time I always tried to avoid questions in interviews or do things my own way because, you know, I want to make sure people know that I’m working my hardest to go down my own path but I can’t ignore the fact and I’ve really come to appreciate the fact that I got to stand side stage and watch Green Day play at Milton Keynes to 100,000 people and I got to watch Tre Cool play for three hours straight, as hard as he hits and playing those types of songs and that kind of set this standard for me where it was like, how hard they work at their craft, I want to be able to do that, then I need to do, I need to put in that those hours in order to get like, not the success they have but just but like feel fulfilled you know.

JW:  Let’s talk about your relationship with Tre because he was a mentor to you.

JA:  Yea. 

JW:  I’ve spent a couple of days with Tre, cos I produced the Fred Armisen special that he was in.

JA:  Oh, no way.

JW:  But, I don’t really know him, so tell me about your particular relationship.

JA:  Yeah, I mean Tre for me, it’s just like, I guess another of those like “oh shit” moments is just actually the multiple times I’ve watch him play drums live.  I mean I’ve watched them play 3-4 hours a night and for me that’s crazy, I play 80 minutes and I’m tired, but for Tre I think he’s one of the more under-rated drummers and I’m, a lot of people say I’m biased, but being able to watch him and have that kind of close-up look, you know I think ahm, he’s underrated and just the fact that just like how solid he is.  You know not many people can do what Tre does and I think that he’s inspired so many incredible drummers and you know, he kinds comes from the style of drumming that I see of him is just like this guy who sits up there and he plays these incredible parts that don’t take away from the music and I think a lot of drummers do take away from the music right now.

JW:  Yea, he’s a drummer that falls into the Keith Moon category where he’s very busy but it works somehow.

 

[Melodyisdestiny]

Thank you for posting these! 😀