INTERVIEW: Sum41 (August 5, 2001)
A conversation with the members of Sum41...
What is the most dreadful part about touring aside from being homesick?
Steve: Waking up in the morning and not being able to poo, OR when there’s nowhere to go absolutely and you have to poo in a bag ‘cause on the bus you can’t take a shit but you can pee but you can’t poo. So, the worst is not being able to poo.
What is your tour bus like at this moment, dirty?
Steve: It’s filled with poo.
Lauren: Like containers of poo?
Deryk: Bags of poo!
Steve: Bags of poo! We don’t know where to put ‘em, we have too much, and it’s overwhelming.
Alanna: Do you throw them out on the road?
Steve: No, we like to keep them.
Deryk: I throw them in my bunk.
Steve: They make a cheaper, comfy pillow.
Deryk: Sink right in..
Yum!
Steve: You got to ruffle them up.
Lauren: I was wondering what that smell was... Hey how about giving it to someone on tour?
Steve: We should sell them!
Deryk: We were talking about how we have no pins.
Cone: Sell them on eBay!
Lauren: We don’t need pins, we need poo bags.
Steve: Buy Steve’s pooh.
Alanna: On eBay you can sell it for 20 bucks.
Steve: FedEx, I don’t know if they ship poo.
You guys are big with pranks, what was the most recent prank you did, and to whom?
Deryk: Uh, most recent prank - Waking up Cone in the bunk? No, we haven’t done one in awhile but we have one we’re about to do.
Lauren: Uh Oh. Care to share?
Deryk: It’s not really a prank.
Steve: Not really a prank. I got a good one that I thought of, that we thought of a good one, uh I can’t tell ya or else I’ll have to do it to ya.
Does it have to do with poo?
Steve: No, but there was one time that I did throw... I like throwing poo. If there’s anything that should be projected it should be poo. And it’s fun. Um, so that’s one that I did. I threw a bag of poo patty at someone’s door at a hotel, it stunk up the room. It was a poo party! Everyone’s invited!
*James (Island executive) comes in with New York’s famous roasted nuts*
James: I brought nuts!
Deryk: No way!
Cone: Yes!
Steve: All right. James, you’re the man.
Alanna: Have you guys ever had these nuts?
Deryk: Yeah, we requested them.
Steve: *looks at a half-filled cup of Champaign with a cork in it* I don’t just ask for Champagne. I ask for Champagne with a cork in it. You know? And I get it!
*The guys begin to open the bags of nuts.*
Steve: Mmm ah!
Deryk: Dump them on the table.
Cone: No 'cause then they’ll get-
Deryk: These are our favorite things.
Steve: Here have a nut. No, have two.
Thank you.
Steve: Have more.
Deryk: Crunchy, crunchy.
Lauren: Are they good?
Steve: Try one.
Alanna: She doesn’t like nuts.
Steve: Eat the nut!!!
Deryk: Anyway-
Obviously your fan base has exploded in the past few months. A great big chunk of that fan base is made up of "teenyboppers."
Steve: Are you guy’s fans?
Yes. Huge fans.
Steve: Are you guy’s teenyboppers?
No.
Steve: Are you guy’s teenagers? Do you guys watch TRL?
Alanna: How can you not?
Steve: I can’t! I don’t watch it everyday.
You’re right up there on TRL with Nsync. How do you feel about that?
Steve: We’re making the world a better place.
Do you miss the all punk crowd?
Deryk: We still have that.
Do you now get asked questions more like "is Deryk single?!"
Steve: You know what? You’ll find the same kinds of- well those are usually coming from girls. You’ll find the same girls asking the same questions no matter who they are because a lot of girls like Deryk. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a teenybopper, you know, the question "is Deryk single" can come from a 25 year old.
Deryk: Are you guys going to have any of these nuts?
Lauren: No, take the nuts.
Deryk: Are you guys from New York?
Lauren: Yes. Can you tell?
Deryk: And you don’t like these?
Alanna: Well, we’re very used to the foods here. So it’s not big deal now, you know?
Cone: Okay, question!
What is your input on the term "sell out"? Do you feel those who envy successful bands only use that term?
Deryk: Sure. Yeah.
Steve: Some people have this whole idea of it "what am I trying to say?"
Deryk: I don’t know. Selling out can mean different things to different. People. To me selling out is bands who want to do things just for money, and we’ve never done that. And I don’t think a lot of bands like, well I don’t really know what other bands do but there’s a lot of bands which get labeled as sell outs when I don’t think they’ve sold out. If they do absolutely what they want to do.
Steve: The term "sell out" a lot of the times has to do with fans. Once the band becomes to big and a lot of people are really attached to music that they feel is like their own and underground and when it’s not mainstream. When it’s not main-stream, when it’s "theirs". But when it gets out there and people who think they’re cooler listen to their band it’s like "What the fuck? You’re listening to my band? I used to listen to that band. Fuck that band, they’re sell outs!" - And so they let you go.
Alanna: Well, like the whole thing with Blink182?
Steve: You guys don’t like Blink182?
No we love them. But it’s obvious that they’re music has changed. And many people think their sell outs because they are on TRL.
Deryk: Just because they’ve made money doesn’t mean their music has changed. The fans have to go, the fans have to change. I don’t want to hear the same album every time.
Every band loves to cover songs, especially you guys as seen on MTV’s 20th Anniversary Bash. How long did it take you to prepare that medley close to perfection?
Deryk: Two days.
Cone: Yep, two days.
Who picked the songs?
Deryk: We all did with people here at Island.
Cone: Tommy and Rob came for one day. We’re like on first name bases with them now. Deryk: We heard Rob was coming. So we said "let’s see if we can get him to a song." And then we heard Tommy might be there so we said "let’s see if we can get him to do a song"
Steve, was it hard for you to play with Tommy Lee?
Steve: Actually we were in rehearsal it was real easy, everything was perfectly the same, until we did the live thing and Tommy started throwing all these different grace notes and jazz stuff- He’s real good so, it’s like easy playing to him. Him playing to me would be hard because I have the worst tempo in the world.
When you were asked to join the Warped Tour as one of the headliners, what was your first reaction?
Deryk: We weren’t asked to join.
Cone: We asked to join on the side stage.
Steve: We asked to join on the whole thing.
Deryk: We asked if we could join the side stage but they said "Eh!" then Fat Lip started to take off and it sort of just ‘happened’.
Is Canada more punk friendly than the U.S. and what was it like to crossover?
Deryk: No, it’s the same. There’s a huge punk rock local scene in Toronto. Well, wherever you go.
Steve: I think there’s a punk rock scene wherever you go, because there’s punk kids wherever you go.
Deryk: The industry doesn’t embrace it as much as the American industry.
Steve: And there’s more- because well, America is so much bigger. And there’s so many local places and each local place has it’s own local punk scene.
Is it better to play here in the states?
Steve: There are more places to play here. That’s what’s better. But if you can play a show in Toronto it’d be awesome.
Lauren: I’ve been to Canada once.
Steve: Oh yeah? Where?
Lauren: Niagra Falls. Alanna’s been to Montreal many times.
Steve: Montreal is a great city.
Alanna: I am going at the end of August, with a few people.
Deryk: At the end of this month? When do you turn 18?
Alanna: September 20th.
Deryk: You should go after your birthday.
Steve: Are you going for Warped Tour?
Alanna: No, just going to hang out.
Steve: You’d be able to drink when you’re 18.
Alanna: Oh yeah? I didn’t know that. Well, I don’t drink, so it doesn’t really matter.
Steve: Oh good God!
Deryk: Boo!
Steve: Here have a drink! Haha.
You’ve been opening up for many bands lately, and while we enjoy seeing you play with other awesome musicians, will you be going on tour on your own?
Cone: Yes, we are going on tour by ourselves.
And when will that be?
Everyone: Starting in October.
Awesome!
Deryk: Pretty much the whole month.
Cone: With Unwritten-Law, and the opening band changes.
Is it going to be like bigger places or small intimate venues?
Cone: Yeah, like Irving Plaza!
Alanna: Many bands are going on tour in October. New Found Glory, Good Charlotte...
Steve: Who is New Found Glory going on tour with?
Lauren: R-X Bandits? Are you friends with any of those bands?
Steve: We’re friends with actually all of, well not RX Bandits, but with New Found Glory and Good Charlotte.
Lauren: Cool guys?
Steve: Great guys.
"In Too Deep" is the next single. We heard the video takes place at a pool. Would you like to clarify on that?
Steve: It does take place in a pool, yes.
When is it going to be released?
Everyone: September
Steve: I wear a Speedo. And it’s Versace. I’m very pale.
We’re going to start receiving questions asking if Steve’s single now.
Steve: Yeah? Wait, what you don’t get them already? Once they see how big my package is they will go wild.
Deryk: He’s ripped.
Steve: I’m ripped! actually I am not but for whatever reason the lense was fairable.
Do you remember the first time you heard "Fat Lip" on the radio?
Deryk: Yes, we were on the way to the airport, no not airport. We were going on tour with Mark. We just picked him up; he’s our new tour manager. We were just driving on tour and we heard it.
Steve: In California.
Did you flip out?
Deryk: Not that, but we’ve been hearing that it just started getting played and we haven’t heard it yet.
Steve: Oh yeah it started playing in L.A. before anywhere else was playing it. And we knew it was being played in L.A. and we were in L.A. for a week and we never heard it and the last day right when we were driving away it came on.
Wow.
Alanna: They play it a lot on K-Rock.
Lauren: Every time that I turn on MTV2, Much Music the video for "Fat Lip" is playing.
Steve: You get Much Music?
Lauren: Yeah, I have DirectTV. I get around 600 channels.
Deryk: Oh wow!
We've run out of time! Thank you so much for chatting with us!
Sum 41: Thank you! We had fun.
