Sum 41 Frontman Deryck Whibley Talks New Double Album, Admits He Hasn’t ‘Written a Pop Punk Song in 16 Years’ (Exclusive)

Sum 41 recently revealed that their next record will be a double titled Heaven and Hell. One side of the album will be straightforward rock and pop-punk style tunes, and the second side will lean into the band’s heavier side. During an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, frontman Deryck Whibley opened up about crafting the new album, and clarified that he hasn’t “written a pop-punk song in 16 years.”

When asked if he has a different approach to writing different styles of music, Whibley stated he didn’t. “I just kind of pick up the guitar or sit at the piano or do mostly guitar, but sometimes if it’s a slower song, I sit the piano and I just sort of, whatever comes out, comes out,” he said. “Some days I’m in a different mood and I just start writing some metal kind of riffs and it always starts with a guitar riff. So if I pick up a guitar and I plug it in, because I don’t write on acoustic, I always play with an electric guitar through an amp or something like that.”

He continued, “I have a lot of guitars and they all sound different to me. So if I pick up one guitar, plug it in, I start playing. It just makes me feel a different way. And it has a different sound or I’ll plug it through a different amp. And that amp gives me a vibe. And I usually start with a riff.”

Whibley then made a firm clarification on the band’s style and his songwriting over the past decade and a half. “Well, here’s one thing, I haven’t written a pop-punk song in 16 years,” he said. “The last time I wrote a pop-punk song was in 2006. Everything after that has been all sort of darker and heavier.” Even just a casual stroll through the band’s catalog will give any listener the proof of Whibley’s statement. Tracks like “Screaming Bloody Murder,” “Fake My Own Death,” and “Out for Blood” are more akin to hardcore and metal than any of the early songs the band became famous for.

Because Sum 41’s style has been less punk and more rock for 3/4 of their career, Whibley says, “It was almost, in a way, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it when the idea came up to try to write some of these old-style songs for other people or for this universal deluxe package. I think the thing that helped me was somewhat of an accident. I sort of had fallen back into listening to all the kind of music that I listened to in high school, which was a lot of Fat Records punk rock bands like Lagwagon, Strung Out, and Good Riddance, and Epitaph stuff like Pennywise and Bad Religion.”

This eventually led Whibley to discover that his young son was a fan of the same music he was. “I was doing that because in the lockdown when there’s nothing to do, the only way to get out is we’d go out and drive around. And we had a brand new newborn and he liked music. That would kind of keep him from crying. And the weirdest thing is, and it sometimes sounds like some people think I’m making it up, but he only likes punk rock music. I made these playlists that would last for two hours, of all my favorite bands. And we would just drive around town, just listening to punk rock music. 

Finally, Whibley added, “I was doing that for months before I started writing. So I guess that had some sort of influence potentially. I don’t really know. All I know is I picked up a guitar, started writing and I liked everything that I was writing.” Before Heaven and Hell drops, fans can catch Sum 41 on the “Blame Canada” tour with Simple Plan, Set it Off, and Magnolia Park. The tour kicks off on April 29 in Raleigh, NC. Fans can get a full list of dates for the Blame Canada tour, as well as access to tickets, by clicking here.