at Ocean Way Recording, then moved to Capitol Studios to complete the album. Cool brought multiple drum kits, including over 75 snares. Drum tracks were recorded on two-inch tape to produce a compressed sound and were transferred to Pro Tools to be digitally mixed with the other instruments. All drum tracks were produced at Ocean Way Studio B, picked for its high ceiling and acoustic tiling, which produced better sound. The songs were recorded in order as they appear on the track listing, a first for Green Day. Each song was recorded in its entirety before proceeding to the next. They reversed the order in which they recorded guitars and bass (recording the guitars first), as they heard that was how the Beatles recorded songs. Armstrong said that at points he expressed fear at the amount of work before him, likening it to climbing a mountain. The band took a relaxed approach to recording. For five months, they stayed at a Hollywood hotel during the recording sessions, where they would often play loud music late at night, prompting complaints. The band admitted to partying during the L.A. sessions; Armstrong had to schedule vocal recording sessions around his hangovers. Armstrong described the environment: "For the first time, we separated from our pasts, from how we were supposed to behave as Green Day. For the first time, we fully accepted the fact that we're rock stars." American Idiot took 10 months to complete, at a cost of $650,000. By the end of the process, Armstrong felt "delirious" regarding the album: "I feel like I'm on the cusp of something with this. [...] I really feel […] like we're really peaking right now." Themes American Idiot was inspired by contemporary American political events, particularly 9/11, the Iraq War, and the presidency of George W. Bush. There are only two overtly political songs on the album ("American Idiot" and "Holiday"), but the album "draws a casual connection between contemporary American social dysfunction […] and the Bush ascendancy." While the content is clearly of the times, Armstrong hoped it would remain timeless and become more an overarching statement on confusion. Armstrong expressed dismay at the then-upcoming presidential election. He felt confused by the country's culture war, noting the particular division among the general public on the Iraq War. Summing up his feelings in an interview at the time, he said, "This war that's going on