Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and filmmaker Lee Kirk hope that viewers have the time of their lives with the road-trip comedy New Years Rev.

Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 12, New Years Rev stars Mason Thames, Mckenna Grace and Fred Armisen in the story of a high school garage band that heads to Los Angeles under the mistaken belief that they will be opening for their favorite group, Green Day. The film is based on Green Day’s real-life adventures while living in a van before the success of Dookie, their 1994 Grammy-winning major label debut album that has since been certified as double-diamond.

During separate conversations with The Hollywood Reporter, Armstrong and Kirk discuss why this was the right time for the project and how they decided which songs and moments from Green Day’s history to include in the movie. Armstrong also reflects on the band’s political statement that went viral during their headlining Coachella set earlier this year.

How did you two end up working together on this film?

BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG I got to know Lee when we did the [2016] movie Ordinary World. I was doing some more acting at the time, and he hired me to be the main character. It was super low-budget and just a really great experience. We really had good chemistry, so he was obvious for when I wanted to make this film.

LEE KIRK Billie Joe reached out a few years ago, a couple days after New Year’s, and said he’s always wanted to make a Green Day movie and never known what it should be. He finally hit on the idea of some sort of New Year’s Eve concert film. We chatted about movies that we both liked: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Breakfast Club, Risky Business, Vacation. We just kept spitballing until I hit upon an idea of this prank that happens with [Mason Thames’ character’s] older brother. It was so fun to write because I basically had the entire catalog of Green Day music to pull from.

Had it been on your mind for a while to make a Green Day movie?

ARMSTRONG I’ve always wanted to do a Green Day film. God, ever since the beginning, just all my heroes have always done films, whether it was Rock ‘n’ Roll High School by the Ramones or A Hard Day’s Night, the Who’s Quadrophenia. I wanted to just do the same thing.

Any favorite moments from the shoot?

KIRK From the beginning, Billie Joe and I had talked about, we would do a real concert when we shot Green Day playing the Palladium. We did stage the concert, but man, that was so fun to shoot. We had incredible extras who were just Green Day fans. I’m especially proud of the energy of their concert.

Did the band want certain songs to be included in the film?

KIRK They wanted me to include something from their new record, Saviors, that just came out. And there was a request for the song “Last Night on Earth,” which I had already pegged to be in there. But they left it up to me. “Know Your Enemy” was obvious, and we couldn’t do it without “American Idiot.” And of course, “Time of Your Life” has got to be in there, too.

How did the original songs from the movie’s band come together?

ARMSTRONG Creating the songs for the band, that was my son Jakob. He wrote almost all the songs for the band, and he became a bit of a musical director on set, where he was in Mckenna [Grace’s] band. Jake and I collaborated on one song together, which made it really special because he’s such a great musician, and it was just fun. It was like, “Oh, my gosh, me and my son are collaborating on this film together.”

Mason Thames is such a rising star. What went into the casting decisions?

KIRK I knew early on that I had my eye on Mason. The kid is an amazing actor, and he was the right age. I really wanted to cast the movie as young as I could. He was a huge Green Day fan and was very excited about the idea of it. Then it was finding the chemistry to go around him. It wasn’t a priority that everyone played an instrument, but it sure helped if anybody had a musical background. This cast is just special.

ARMSTRONG Mason did such heartfelt job of being that kid that comes from a little background trauma, and then he just really has that spirit of, nothing’s going to stop him. I thought him and Mckenna together did such a great job of hitting it off and having chemistry there.

How much from the film was inspired by Green Day’s actual history?

ARMSTRONG It’s about the experience that Green Day had on the road in the early days of more of a DIY spirit. We played anywhere and everywhere, and a lot of shows would get shut down because the cops would come. But there’s also the mud fight that happened at Woodstock. Lee did a great job of incorporating all of those elements that we’ve had in the past.

Green Day is known for songs that can get political. Was there any consideration about giving the story that angle?

KIRK Thought about it, and I tried a few things. Whenever I tried it, it just didn’t feel authentic. So I just ended up leaving any overtly political statements out of it. But these kids who are searching for their people, searching for their community and following their dreams — I felt like that was enough of a hopeful story to tell, and I didn’t want to take a detour in any way from that.

ARMSTRONG There was no reason to [get] political. It’s more about individualism and working outside of the mainstream.

It’s great timing that the movie coincides with your band’s big tour and having recently headlined Coachella, where your “not part of the MAGA agenda” line went viral. What goes through your mind when moments like that can still resonate?

ARMSTRONG Gosh, I don’t know off the top of my head. We live in such chaos right now, and it’s one of the worst times in the history of America in my lifetime. We have these politicians, and how these weird macho comedians are beating people down — people that are marginalized, whether it’s LGBTQ or if it’s people of color or people that have mental disabilities — and it’s like they’re just punching down on people. And [this] brings me to the people that are in the film, like Bobby Lee and Fred Armisen, who are these Gen X type of comedians. That brings back to the Janeane Garofalo type of comedy, where it’s still self-deprecating, but at the same time, it’s got a bigger view of how fucked-up society is, without throwing in conspiracy theories and kickboxing. (Laughs.) That’s the generation of comedians that I think are really the best. There’s a sensitivity and a vulnerability about what they do but somehow make these political statements.