In just less than a year, we will be minus Sum 41—they will be no more.
But before this happens, the Canadian pop-punk legends will be on one massive tour, and that’s not forgetting their colossal new album!
A lot of this was by accident,” says Deryck Whibley of the genesis of Sum 41’s eighth record, Heaven :x: Hell. During lockdown, the Canadian singer/songwriter was inundated with calls and requests asking him to pen some more pop-punk bangers – which worried him. It had been several years since he’d done such a thing. But he took the plunge anyway.
At the time, Derek and his wife Ariana had just welcomed their first child into the world – Lyndon Igby. “The only thing he would mellow out to was punk rock music,” explains Deryck, who’d regularly take his son out in the car, driving around the uncharacteristically quiet streets of Los Angeles, blasting the songs that soundtracked his high school years – NOFX, Pennywise, Social Distortion, Lagwagon and Bad Religion.
This routine would repeat on a daily basis and made its way into Derek’s creative cortex. He began writing in a way that was reminiscent of Sum 41’s earlier material. These songs were, at first, due to be gifted to someone else, but eventually, he became reluctant to part with them.
Derek then spent some time trawling through Sum 41’s earlier material and realised he’d amassed quite a collection.
So, he went about adding a pop-punk tune here and a riffy rager there until the bones formed of what would become the band’s final record.
“It was all with the help of our son,” smiles Deryck, whose daughter, Quentin, was born a couple of weeks after this interview – on her mother’s birthday.
When Sum 41 first arrived on the scene in the early 2000s, they were subjected to the same kind of cynicism as many up-and-comers. Some said they were one-hit wonders, a flash in the pan that wouldn’t last. Deryck bristled at the time – not because the naysayers’ words hurt, but the suggestion that anyone else could spell the end for his band. “No one was going to decide when we would go,” he would think. “I will decide when we go.”
“It was hard to bring it up but easy to talk about,” recalls Deryck. “Although they were surprised, and didn’t necessarily feel the way I did, it was a very loving and supportive conversation.”
Sum 41’s final album Heaven :x: Hell is due out on March 29 via Rise Records.
Catch the band at Download, which takes place from June 14 – 16, 2024 at Donington Park – get your tickets now. You can also see Sum 41 live at Rock For People this summer – get your tickets here.