Editing Insomniac (Green Day album) (section)

==Recording==
Much of the album was written and rehearsed in a small, [[Cape Cod (house)|Cape Cod]]-style home in East Oakland, California.<ref name=stonecover/> The band decorated the walls with notes underneath song titles jokingly providing instructions for achieving the intended tempo for each track; these included "Must pop [[Valium]] for this one" and "Must take [[Methamphetamine|crank]] for this one".<ref name=stonecover/>  After the birth of Cool and his wife's first child, and Cool noted that "I can hit the drums harder than I ever thought I could. Having a kid is trying – you have to watch your temper all the time – but it enhances the experience of playing in the band."<ref name=stonecover/>

Eschewing the typical punk rock ethos of creating cheap, low-quality recordings, the band strove to perfect its sound on the record, drawing inspiration from bands such as [[the Beatles]] and [[Cheap Trick]].<ref name=stonecover/> Cool experimented with different cymbal sounds on nearly every song on the album, while Armstrong and producer Rob Cavallo developed the ritual of lining up several guitar amps and testing each one to achieve the desired sound.<ref name=stonecover/> Much of ''Insomniac'' was recorded in short, high-energy bursts. Before takes, the group would drink excessive amounts of coffee, "squeeze every last drop of energy" into the recordings, and then rest immediately afterward.<ref name=stonecover/> Bob Bradshaw of Custom Audio Electronics was employed to apply a thicker guitar sound to the songs.<ref name="Winwood" />