Interviews

Sum 41

Interview with the whole band on Nov 30, 1999 by Archive Bot

I'd like to thank Jonathan at Island/Def-Jam, Jeff (Sum 41's Tour Manager), and all of the guys in Sum 41 for taking the time to talk to me. Also, I want to send a special thanks to SteveO 32 of Sum 41 for grabbing my nuts before the interview. 

PB: Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker and why?
S41: (Brown Sound): Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker and why....... Well, ya know it seemed like a good idea at the time. Sure a lot of people laughed at George Lucas, but look who's laughing now.
(SteveO 32): I think that Luke is a bit of a fag. I was a Han Solo fan. He's got a cool best friend and hung out with dirty damn gangster type guys, so I kind of like him. Out of the two it would probably be Darth Vader. He's got a cool outfit, he's got the power of the force, the shit, and he's not all fuckin whiney like "But I was supposed to go get the power converters." "Luke you have to get your chores done."

PB: What do you think Cone?
S41: (Cone): I don't know, I don't even know them very well.
(Bizzy D): Cone can't even comprehend Star Wars.
(Cone): Whoever has the green sword!

PB: Would you consider Sum 41 punk or pop and why?
S41: (Brown Sound): Rock! We listen to a lot of punk bands, and we listen to a lot of rock bands.
(SteveO 32): I was going through Dave's cd's and I found this punk cd with James Brown and shit.
(Brown Sound): James Brown was quite the punk rocker!

(At this point in the interview girls begin climbing on the side of the tour bus) 

PB: It was interesting reading how you guys were in rival bands in high school then came together to form Sum 41. What was the cause of you guys putting your rivalries aside, and how did Island/Def-Jam get a hold of you guys?
(SteveO 32): We got a hold of them. We sort of made this little video tape of us causing shit all around our home town, and put our music over it. So it was a video tape that we just sent out. The only music was behind all of this stuff, like us driving by squirting people with water guns, breaking shit, and all kinds of stuff. They came down to see us play with a bunch of other labels. We had labels coming for like a month. We picked Island because we liked them the best. Yea, we were all in rival bands until these two decided our band was better.

PB: Tell me the funniest groupy story you guys have?
S41: (SteveO 32): Groupy story?
(Bizzy D): We don't really get with stupid groupy girls. We invited strippers tonight.
(SteveO 32): Show him the dollar bill from Score's it's behind the computer. We did TRL yesterday, and we were like Carsten do you want to go to the strip club after, and he called Marl McGrath from Sugar Ray. Him and his drummer came, so we all went to Score's. Mark McGrath spent like $3,000 worth of these. We were driving in the city playing the Beatles, having a sing-a-long and yelling at people. Ahhhh it was fun!

PB: How about fans that have gone out of their way to do crazy things? 
S41: (Brown Sound): Back when you had to get with groupies or else saving up your pipes for months on end, these girls would just like get attached and travel from show to show thinking that they have a new boyfriend.
(Bizzy D): We like older women!
(SteveO 32): This girl that was with Deryk for one night, she flew from Texas to Detroit to see us then she wouldn't go away. Then, when we go to bed the next day...... I've been up for hours partying and had one hour of sleep, Deryk takes the one bench in the van and just lies on it. Everyone gets to lay down except for me. I look at the end of my bench, and I get this fuckin lump of shit at the end of my bench. At the end of the bench is some fuckin girl, some chick. I wanted to smash his face in, but I love him and I forgive him.

PB: One EP and a full-length later, you guys are huge to put it mildy. Do you think all the videos on MTV may be leading you in the wrong direction, and have you ever been worried about moving too quickly and becoming the next "few hit wonder"?
S41: (Brown Sound): No.... we're just taking it as it comes. You know what I mean?
(Bizzy D): We set out to do all of this. It's not like it's a suprise. It's not like we expected this to happen. We made a video and sent it to MTV so they would play it.
(SteveO 32): Most of the reason we are playing shows, and the reason this whole tour is sold out is because of our video. That's what drives bands in America. 

PB: In an interview I did with Julie from The Real World I asked "Who's better New Found Glory or Sum 41?" She replied, "I love Sum 41. I think they're great. Sum 41 and New Found Glory came out at the same time so Sum 41 is definately better. New Found Glory is like we're running around like Blink 182, and Sum 41 is a bunch of kids rocking out." Please respond......
S41: (SteveO 32): I like Laurie. I like Laurie! Thank you! Do you know Laurie? I wanna bone Laurie. Hook me up with Laurie. That was very nice of you, but maybe a little harsh on your buddies. I'm glad someone is not comparing us to Blink 182. It's just a thing that happens because people are like they are sort of the same genre of music and are funny or whatever. To be honest we don't really get it anymore. Now people realise we're not that much like them. Everyone says I look like Joey Fatone, ya know the hot one!

PB: Gonorrhea or crabs and why?
S41: (SteveO 32): Crabs! Crabs are just itchy and I like a good scratch. Gonorrhea is "burny". Yea so gonorrhea NO crabs YES! That's like a science project or something. "Look at these little guys, they're living off of ME!"

PB: I heard you guys dislike the name Sum 41. If you have to rename it what would it be and why?
S41: (SteveO 32): If we had a name we would have used it. We still haven't figured it out yet. We may do one of those symbol things but we still haven't figured it out yet.
(Brown Sound): Maybe Sum 4 diddy 1! (The bus breaks down in laughter).

PB: What was it like to play at The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. When you weren't playing did you have a chance to sneak around?
S41: (SteveO 32): There's a whole John Lennon thing going on. It felt like we were playing in a mall but it was fun. We went around and looked at the "punk" exibit. It seems almost cheezy that there is a "punk" exibit. There's some stuff that shouldn't be there in my opinion. There's an outfit that Britney Spears wore that I think should be in a Hard Rock Cafe. 

PB: What would you consider a bigger accomplishment..... getting your diploma or reaching #1 on TRL? Do you plan on playing music from the rest of your lives?
S41: (SteveO 32): I've already earned my diploma and a #1 spot on TRL. No, I'm only kidding.
(Brown Sound): I learned more in my year out of school than I did during the entire time in school. I'm not saying that you should leave school..............
(SteveO 32): See my goal would be two chicks at once! No holds barred anything goes. Anything goes! Hopefully, my ideal would be two sisters at once. Air tight!


PB: How does the band feel about sites such as Buddyhead starting rumors like that you guys are "scientologists" or "have crazy coke habits"? Do you take these rumors in stride, and are they rumors?
S41: (SteveO32): Well, for examble we aren't scientologists but I do dabble in dynetics a little bit. We do like to dabble in a little fuckin "white lady" though. We're not scientologists and that's all we're saying. hahhahahaha

PB: What are your thoughts on the events of September 11th. Is it weird being a foreign band touring in the United States right now?
S41: (Bizzy D): It's just going to become a part of life now.
(SteveO 32): I heard Lenny Kravitz isn't flying to MTV tommorow because he's scared of anthrax. He can because he's fucking Lenny Kravitz and his career is where it is and he can do what he wants. We can't be like "I'm not fuckin flying to MTV, there's anthrax in New York!" Unfortunately, now in making it ......... this is just another obstacle.
(Brown Sound): I just can't wait until "Anthrax in New York" is a concert again.

PB: Lastly, thanks so much for taking the time to do the interview before your show. In the song "Fat Lip" you guys sing "I don't want to waste my time and become a casualty of society, I'll never fall in line, became a victim of your conformity." Don't you think you guys are becoming victims of conformity by being on MTV, and conforming to the way society wants bands to conform?
S41: (SteveO 32): Not really, because the whole song is about us not conforming to what our parents and people like that want. They had to get a shit job with a shit family. Not to say that I'm in a shit family, I love ya dad! They settle for this life that wasn't exactly what they hoped for. We wanted to be in a band and that's what we're doing. We're not "conforming" to your average blue collar, house in the suburbs, lame, don't go out, boring life. We fuckin wanna rock! We want to be on TV we're a fuckin rock band. Why would we not?