Thursday, April 10, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: Political punks?

Sum 41 guys get serious when they have to

By Brock Radke

The first single, "Still Waiting," on Sum 41's newest CD starts off like this: "So am I/ Still waiting/ For this world to stop hating." Following that comes "Hell Song," which deals with another weighty topic: a friend's positive diagnosis for HIV.

All of which prompts the question: What the hell? What happened to the fun-loving, mosh-inspiring, "hangin' out drinkin' in the back of an El Camino" kids who punched up pop punk with 2001's All Killer, No Filler?

Well, they drank a lot, and after that, they went into the studio and recorded their second album, Does This Look Infected?, which is chunkier and more serious than the MTV staple that came before it. And since singer/guitarist Deryck Whibley, drummer Steve Jocz, bassist Jay McCaslin and guitarist Dave Baksh aren't in school anymore (only Jocz is under 21), the songwriting is a little more serious. And the sounds are a lot heavier.

"What's going on in the world plays a lot into our music, and we just got older," says chief songwriter Whibley. "`Still Waiting' is exactly about what has turned into this [war], that it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. It's possible we could be [political]. We just can't write fictional songs."

Just because you get famous and develop a global perspective doesn't mean you can't write a song about Anna Nicole Smith being a dirty something-or-other. There are still plenty wise-ass hijinks on the new disc, but the biggest sign of growth is a dominant metal vibe. Whibley has even described the songs as "melodic Slayer."

"Our live show has always been much heavier than that first record," he says from Scranton, Pa., where the band was about to kick off its second leg of touring. "And we've always liked heavy music, so this was a natural progression. This record is where we set ourselves apart from a lot of bands we've been [grouped in with]."

Indeed, the newer material is a far cry from the current crop of whiny rock being passed off as punk on radio these days. It seems the goofy rap lyrics claiming "Heavy metal and mullets is how we were raised/ Maiden and Priest were the gods that we praised" from "Fat Lip" are actually true. Besides those influences, it helps that Baksh is almost too much of a would-be woodshredder of a guitarist, once saying that he almost didn't join Sum 41 because he thought he was too metal for the band.

Whibley is quick to point out that even if the new, harder stuff doesn't go over commercially like the last album, it's a small price to pay for being able to lay down the kind of tracks the band envisions.

"A lot of bands take five years to develop before they get to be known," he says. "We kind of have to do it in front of everyone. But we're happy with the new stuff, and the songs seem to be going over very well. The crowds seem to be a little older and not so many kids. And the girls are better-looking."

Sum 41's reputation for being a bunch of trouble-making, girl-crazy rock brats may be well deserved. Even though he often doesn't remember his antics after a night on the town, Whibley has heard the awesome rumor that Island Def Jam Records honcho Lyor Cohen will pay for any damage done in the name of drunken rock glory as long as the destructive incident is caught on tape and can thus be used as DVD fodder.

"I guess that's true. He said he'd get us out of trouble," Whibley says. "As long as it's on tape."