QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS |
ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS ARE ACTUALLY ANSWERED BY THE BAND. THEY ARE NOT IN ORDER AND MANY OF THEM ARE FROM A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO. Q- What's your favorite thing about touring with each other? A- Dave- Playing live and givin 'er with a bottle of booze. Q- What's your favorite movie star/actor? A- Deryck- Al Pacino Cone- Meg Ryan Steve- Nina Hagen Dave- Don King Q- What do you do when your not on tour? A- Steve- Internet porn and food. Deryck- Internet porn and booze. Cone- Internet porn and movies. Dave- Internet porn and porn movies. Q- What's the craziest thing that happened on the Sum Like It Loud Tour? A- Steve- The craziest thing that happened to me was I almost died as a result of tonsleitis. Wow. There I was a bacteria party in my throat and everyone who is anyone was there. I had a fever of 104. I fuigured if I was gonna go I was gonna go big. Q- Whats your favorite Simpson character? A- Steve- My favorite Simpson character would have to be Milhouse. Only because he reminds me of Cone. My favorite Milhouse episode is the one when they shoot the Radioactive-man movie and Milhouse is cast as Fallout Boy. Q- Where is your favorite place to perform at? A- Dave- Well we have been to the Glass House in Pamara about ten times. Q- Deryck and Dave, when did you start playing the guitar? A- Dave- Deryck and I started playing guitar when we were 14 years old. Q- When did you guys come together? A- Deryck- We all met in high school, and uh, we went through high school together as friends and at the end of it we formed a band. Q- So it wassort of the classic guys who wanted to live the dream and be rock stars? A- Cone- Yeah, we were all in different bands, rival bands, and then we formed one. Q- Just to get all the chicks, right? A- Deryck- Yeah, well that's the idea. [Laughing] Q- How about the name, Sum 41. Sounds like the answer to a math problem. A- Deryck- No, we started the band 41 days into the summer. Q- Pretty staight forward. No mystery... A- Deryck- Yeah. Nothing too exciting. Cone- That's our interview answer. We have other ansers we can use too. Q- Stuff that you save for the Internet chat rooms? Like that it's something satanic or drug-related? A- Cone- Yeah, thats it. Deryck- Yeah, four lines and one ounce or something. Q- How is touring going? A- Deryck- Ir's awsome. It's really fun. Q- Everything you thought it would be? A- Deryck- Yeah, I didn't know what to expect. I thought it would be tougher. I'm having more fun than I thought I would. Cone- Yeah, it's great. It's not cushin' but we get a hotel every night. It's like, it's not as nice as being in a bus, but it's pretty fun. Q- What's your favorite city to play in? A- Cone- San Fransicso Deryck- To play in? This place. [The Glass House in Pomona] Cone- Yeah, pomona, but the nicest city... Deryck- Oh, yeah, to live in, would be San Francisco, but plalying wise is this place, this is the best club we've ever played at. Q- How many times have you played here? A- Deryck- This is our 3rd time. Q- Where do you see rock music heading? A- Deryck- I don't know. I have no idea where it's heading. It keeps going in circles- guitar rock, to electroic, and back to guitar rock again. I think we're in a guitar rock phase right now. There are lots of heavy metal bands right now. Q- What do you guys listen to in the van? A- Deryck- We listen to lot's of stuff... mostly rock bands. I guess. We've been big fans of face to face for a long time... al the SoCal punk bands...rock bands. Cone- At lotta funny stuff, too. We lesten to Tenacious D, and, umm, like we were listening to Neil Hamburger. Do you know who he is? He's a comic guy. We also listen to funny stuff like that...but a lot of punk and rock. Q- What inspired you guys? What made you pick up the guitar? A- Deryck- Ummm.... just music in general. We wanted to be a part of that whole scene. We all listen to tons of different bands and we wanted to do the same type of thing. Wasn't like a specific band or person or style of music. Cone- And we're from a city where there's nothing to do either. We're from like this small city outside Toronto where there's really nothing much to do there. Q- What do you think of Napster? A- Deryck- I dunno. I thinks it's got it's... it's good and bad. It's great for bands to get known, and it's bad for bands that spend a lot of money and lose a lot of money. Not so much not making money, but losing the money, then it's bad. Q- Losing money can be bad. A- Deryck- It's not normally a good thing. Cone- I think a lot of bands like Napster, but a lot of record companies don't. Like face to face is promoting Napster on this tour... Q- Record sales are up... A- Deryck- I don't really know enough about Napster to have a firm belief in it, but it seems like a good thing. Q- How about the album title- how did you arrive at that? Sounds like a religious thing... A- Deryck- No, it's just a non-stop half-hour of power. Cone- For a long time we couldn't play longer than half and hour. Deryck- Yeah, really, the whole album this is our set, from beginning to end. We just went in and recorded our set. Q- How do yu guys get along? A- Deryck- Great. Like best friends. Cone- It's easy, we're just hanging out with friends. Q- What's the next step for you guys? A- Deryck- Tour. And finish the record. Q- What's the Sum 41 live show like? A- Deryck- Non-stop, ass-whupin' rock. For half an hour. [Much Laughter] Q- How's the tour been? A- Steve- A lot of fun, a lot of backstage betties. (We laugh) Q- Getting a lot of action, huh? A- Steve- Not really, but you can print that so we seem really cool. (laughs) It's a big fat lie. Q- The video "Makes No Difference" hasn't promoted you to pimps? A- Steve- Well, maybe it's just me. I'm the drummer, so they can't see me behind the kit. Q- Don't you have someone to go out in the crowd for you? A- Steve- To find babes? Q- Yeah. A- Steve- ( we begin to laugh) Like Van Halen? Theyused to have this grid thing worked out. Like they could say, 'The girl in 3G with the huge knockers.' Q- You guys need to get organized and get something set up. A- Steve- We can't figure out that math, so that isn't going to work. Q- Just toss a key out in the crowd. A- Steve- Yeah. I'll toss my key to the hotel out in the crowd. Q- Well, you'll figure something out. I mean, you haven't been on tour that long yet, right? A- Steve- Well, about two weeks, but it's going good. Q- Are you going to be spending a lot of time on the road? A- Steve- Well, we've got a few weeks left with Face to Face and then we are going out with the Bosstones, and then we are going to LA to record some more. Q- Tracks for a new album? A- Steve- yeah. That'll be out in March. Q- When did you finish Half Hour Of Power? A- Steve- We just finished it. Q- Have you been working on the road? A- Steve- Whenever we have time off, we hit the studio. Q- Do you write together? A- Steve- Deryck, the singer, writes the songs and we take the credit for them. (Laughs) He's smaller than us so we box him around. He cries that they are his but I pull off my belt and he shuts right up. (The band begins to laugh in the background) Q- Speaking of Deryck crying, I heard that he got beat up. Is that a rumor? A- Steve- No, no, no, that is just a rumor. Well, my lawyer told me to say, "No Comment!" We went to this mansion the other night in Pamona, it's like this seven-million-dollar mansion, and me and Deryck had a couple and I didn't know when to say when. So there was this big hard guy walking around the place, telling people what to do and not to spill beer and stuff, so we strted making fun of him and he pulled a knife on us. We had this showdown and he was breathing really hard and was pumped up on steroids. He probably was into sports. He wanted to kick out ass. (laughs) Then the girl who owned the house kicked his ass. It was pretty crazy. Q- Were you going to run if he started swinging the knife? A- Steve- No, we don't run from our problems. I was ready to go Jackie Chan on his ass. (Steve starts to make karate sound effects) Q- A lot of people here and fans have been wondering if the things you guys do in "Makes No Difference" were staged. A- Steve- Like? Q- Well, the pizza heist for one. A- Steve- That really happened. In Canada there are no guns, so the chances of that guy coming after us with a real gun is pretty slim. If you get arrested there, the cops apologize if they have to arrest you. They're like 'Sorry we have to do this to you guys.' Q- Where in Canada are you from? A- Steve- Toronto. It's like practically New York. Q- I was born out side of Buffalo. A- Steve- We were like neighbors. Q- How has it been finally being able to get out of there and to explore America? A- Steve- Great. Toronto is just starting to get cold right now, so when they said we'd be touring all winter in California, I wasn't upset. My mom was a little upset. She started crying a bit, but she's found some new friends. Q- But you have to miss those strip joints. A- Steve- Yeah. There are some great strip clubs in Canada. Q- They bare it all in Canada. A- Steve- In know. And they do those lap dances too. Q- Everyone in New YOrk goes there when they turn ninteen so they can drink. A- Steve- I know. I just turned nineteen, and right when I turned nineteen we went on tour in a country where you have to be twenty-one to drink. So no strip clubs for me. Q- If your label, Big Rig, Dicky's label from the Bosstones? A- Steve- Yeah. It's a part of Island. In Canada we are signed to a different thing. Q- How did you get signed? A- Steve- The video really. We sent that out with a bunch of music to labels and they thought it was funny and they came to see us play. Just because of that video, everyone saw how hilarious we were and they all wanted to sign us. That was until they met us. And only Island had the balls to sign us. Q- You guys are all over the place with your music. What did you grow up listening to? A- Steve- Well, Dave listened to that crazw (Starts making all kinds of bizarre noises) Indian music. It's funny because even though the videos were made in 2000, they look like they were filmed in 1984. Dave loves that shit. The more orange they wear, the better. (the whole band erupts) We got into hip-hop growing up. Dave actually listened to a lot of heavy metal when he moved from Guyana to North America. We all listened to Nirvana and punk like five or six years ago. Q- The opening track on the record is like total '80's metal. A- Steve- Our favorite band has got to be {Iron}Maiden. Q- I was waiting for you guys to break out with some "Breaking The Law" or something. A- Steve- Yeah, right? Q- What will the next album be like? A- Steve- It'll be more rock. I mean, there will still be punk, but it'll be harder. It won't be like ( begins to growl). It just rocks a little harder. Q- Maybe you can go for the Van Halen thing for the next record and get more honeys then. A- Steve- We could try. The problen is like in that video there are a lot of effects that make us look good, but in real life we look like a sack of potatoes. Q- I think you guys just need some moves. A- Steve- Well, we had this plan that we were going to walk around bckstage in bathrobes with thongs on, like David Lee Roth did back in the day, but that just got us beat up by bouncers. Q- Do you think that is turning the girls off? A- Steve- That might be the problem. Q- Since you seen to be struggling with the ladies, what word could we get out to them so you can know they are interested? A- Steve- The best way is to dress like they used to in the rock days. They have to wear like florescent clothes. If they want to camouflage thenselves, tell them to do it in zebra and leopard skin suits. Ones that are real tight. Q- Should they bring signs? A- Steve- They person they want to sleep with should be written on a sign. That would make it much easier. Tell them they should buy the album. If they want to sleep with us, they have to buy the album. Simple enough. Q- So who dresses better: Sum 41, Blink 182, or Slipknot? A- Deryck- I don't really know what Slipknot wears. Q- They wear masks. A- Deryck- Well, then, I think Slipknot dresses better. Q- You allegedly made a pact with the Devil to bring elaborate pyrotechnics to shitty little punk clus. How far has it come along? A- Deryck- We're not allowed to bring in any of that stuff into clubs in the States- we can just do that in Canada- but that was pretty fun. We had all these spirally things that shoot flames and stuff. Q- Did your parents see too many Kiss concerts when they were young and is this the result? A- Deryck- No, we just all like fire. Q- Why is that? A- Deryck- I don't know; lack of stuff to do that's exciting. Q- So, were you the type of kid who would go behind the garage and set things on fire? A- Deryck- Yead, we used to set a lot of things on fire when we were kids. Q- Like what, the family cat? A- Deryck- No. We'd always burn stuff; you know, anything. Q- Could you please be a little more specific. A- Deryck- We burned a Datsun that we saw behind a building. It was there for like a week. We saw it every day, until finally I said, "Let's burn that car." So we set it on fire. Q- So then it was just a short step to pyrotechnics. A- Deryck- Pretty much. Q- Did you get caught for torching the car? A- Deryck- No, we never got caught for it, but it got written up in the newspaper. Q- If you don't give me better answers I'm turning you in. Since you perform with fire in your stage show, does that dictate the kind of things you wear onstage? A- Deryck- No, I mostly wear all black. Q- Are rock stars different from the rest of us? A- Deryck- No, nobody I've net, really; everybody seems like they're real people. Q- Are Canadians different then Americans? A- Deryck- Not really. I haven't noticed a huge difference. In certain parts of Canada on the East Coast- not where I'm from- people are overly nice there. Q- Who rocks harder: Geddy Lee or Eugene Levy? A- Deryck- Ha, ha. Eugene Levy. Q- Why? A- Deryck- I just don't like Rush. Q- Did your parents make you listen to Rush when you were little? A- Deryck- No, they don't like Rush, either. Q- Billy Joe or Fat Mike? A- Deryck- That's a tough one. I don't know. They're both in my favorite bands. I guess I'd have to say Fat Mike. Q- Is there ever a day when you wish you named your band something else? A- Deryck- Maybe in the beginning, but I Don't know what else we could have named it. I don't think this is the best name there is. We were 16 when we named the band, so it didn't really matter and we weren't planning to stick with it too long. Q- Who in the band taks the longest to get ready? A- Deryck- Dave, our guitarist. I don't know what he does. He putters around. He takes a while to pick out his outfit. Q- Do you take a lot of clothes on tour with you? A- Deryck- No, we hardly bring anything. I have one pair of black pants. I have one pair of shorts and four or five shirts. Q- Where do you buy your clothes, and what is the most you have ever paid for an article of clothing? A- Deryck- The Goodwill and thrift stores. And the most I've ever paid is $20- it was a T-shirt. Q- Any advice for would-be thrifters? A- Deryck- You have to really look. You always find something the dead middle of something where you wouldn't really expect it to be. You have to be really thotough. Never go thrifting if you're in a hurry. Q- Who in the band has the best taste in clothes? A- Deryck- I would say Cone, our bassist. He always seems to look good in his clothes. Q- Your hair is rather spiky- what's your secret? A- Deryck- I usually wake up an that's it. My hair just stays- I cut it myself. Q- How do you know when you need a haircut? A- Deryck- When it doesn't stay up anymore; it starts to fall over. I've been doing it for five years. I use kitchen scissors and cut it unevenly. And be fearless. Q- Describe what you'd wear if you were having your picture taken for posterity. A- Deryck- I would wear my Adidas shoes, white socks with black Dickie pants and fitted black button up shirt with short sleeves, but very small. I'd wear a tie for a belt, a burgundy one. I've been doing that for a while. I get them at thrift stores for a dollar. Q- What's your favorite piece of clothing? A- Deryck- A pair of shoes by Sha-Sha; they're black and white with white flames on them. Q- Is there someone else's shoes you'd like to be in? A- I don't want to be anyone. No wait- I'd like to be Gary Shandling, because he's awsome. Q- Who is the secret slob in the van? A- Deryck- Steve; his stuff is all over. But then I just throw my clothes everywhere, so maybe it's me. Q- Do you have a lucky piece of clothing? A- Deryck- No. I just wear the same thing everyday anyway. Q- How often do you do your laundry? A- Deryck- We've been on the road for a while and we haven't done it yet. We haven't been able to. It's been a month. Q- So you're wearing those same five T-shirts over and over? A- Deryck- Yeah. Q- Why don't you at least buy some more clothes? A- Deryck- But they wouldn't fit in my bag. Q- DMX was in your video- how did that happen? A- Deryck- He's on our label and he was doing his movie in Toronto where we were doing our video. Our label guy asked us if we wanted him to be in our video and we said sure. Q- Do you like DMX? A- Deryck- I don't know any of his albums, but I'd heard all his songs on MTV and Much Music. He seemed cool. Q- Did you like his clothes? A- Deryck- He wasn't really wearing any. Q- What's is the greatest misconception about Sum 41? A- Deryck- That we're just going to have one album and have one hit. We plan to be around for a long time. I'm sure every single band says that, but we're going to do it. It's the only thing I can do. Q- How you doing. Describe each member of the band. A- Steve- Cone's quiet, but he's a smart character. An attractive young man, he's the sweetheart of the band. The girls love him. Dave is the most punk rock person in the band so he's mister credibility. [yelling] DAVID!! Q- How so? A- Steve- Well, aw geez, that's really a lie. Dave's not punk rock at all. Deryck is the puppeteer. We're puppets and we're marionettes in a little play that he's puttin' on, you know what I mean? And me, I'm crazy, woooo!! Q- Whats the one thing that everybody's going to find out about Sum 41? A- Dave- Just basically that we're out to have a lot of fun. We're not mad at anything like a lot of bands out there. We're just hear havin' a good time and striking out at bat. Steve- I don't think the music has anything to do with it. I think it has to do basically with, with, with my humour, Cone's looks, Deryck's attitude, and Dave's darkness. Q- What do you guys think of all the comparasions that are being made to "Sum 41" like the "Blink" thing and all that? A- Cone- I don't know. I think we're always gonna get, every band's gonna get compared to another band. I don't think we're like "Blink" at all. I think we're just the same genre of music. Steve- Cone, it you don't make it to the top, first, we're kickin' ya out of the band! Dave- Cone, it looks like you got a little doodie in your pants! [Laughter] Cone- The pressure, I don't know. It doesn't really effect the band too much. Q- How do you feel up here? A- Cone- Holy shit. Q- I've heard A&R people when we went through the whole, um, the U.S. thing, say that they're the kind of band that comes along every so often that reminds you why you got into it. A- Dave- Dannit! Why isn't this thing throw this shit a little bit slower? Ohhh. Alright. Q- Are you athletic to begin with? A- Dave- Very athletic, don't let htis fool you, I'm usually better at this game. I mean I almost went pro. Q- Tell everybody about "Gasingee." A- Deryck- "Gasingee" was, uh, when we first got money we decided to sponsor a child in Kenya, but, uh, Q- Kinda like one of those "World Vision" thing where you send money every month and you help a kid go through school? A- Deryck- Yeah, but we lost his address and, uh, we kept trying to write back to world vision to give us the address but they never did, so we don't know what happened to him right now. Q- However, you guys did honour him in some way. A- Deryck- Yeah, we called out first, our "EP" "Gasingee." We thought that made up for it. Q- What are your thoughts on him? A- Steve- I hope he's alive, but I'm not crossing my fingers, oh oh, sorry, I could be crossing my fingers, get outta the way! Q- Of all the bands that are out there, why do you thing it was "Sum 41" that got picked up? A- Dave- We got a brown guy like me, our music's really great and, uh, when you come see us play, you get a whole package. Q- Boxrs or briefs? A-Deryck- Boxers, they're ridin' up like crazy. Q- Boxers. With a tie as abelt? He's not lyin' A boxers man. A- Steve- Just sit back! Q- For MTV's All Access Week, you were asked to tape yourselves on tour for TRL. Carson Dly was unalbe to air the majority of what was taped. What exactly was on there? A- Cone- They wouldn't air it? Deryck- What? Steve- Did they show the mud wrestling? Q- Yes. A- Deryck- Then, what's the rest? Q- I don't know. A- Dave- I don't know either. Q- What was on those tapes? A- Deryck- Just us causing trouble. They won't show that bad of stuff. Steve- They sent us this disclaimer. You can't show people under 18. It's hard finding people that are over 18 on this tour, anyway. If you do, you still can't get them naked or anything crazy like that. Tha'ts kind of a bummer Deryck- You can't show any drinking. Steve- I'm under age in this country. Here you have to be 21. What number were we on TRL the other day? Q- I think number 3. Do you guys like watching yourselves on TV? A- Steve- We love it! Especially when they show my enormous head. Q- Really? Some artist can't stand it. A- Dave- Well, we're not artists. Cone- We're musicians. Steve- We're in a rock band, baby. {in a sarcastic tone} We just like to drink and get laid all the time. Q- Few rock groups have made it to number one. Why do you think Sum 41was able to accomplish this? A- Cone- Limp Bizkit, Blink 182, POD... Steve- I think they said we were the fifth rock band to make it to number one and we're the twenty first group to make it to number one. And the only Canadian band to make it to number one! I think it's all Cone... look at that face! Take a picture of this face, please. Who wouldn't fall in love with that? Q- Do you think rock is making a comeback? A- Deryck- It's always been there. It's getting bigger. Steve- Pop just got really popular. Rock's always been popular. I think pop's on it's way back out. Q- How did you land your record deal? A- Dave- We're always filming stuff. We had tons of footage that we put together as an EPK. Deryck- We put out music over it and sent it out to all the labels. It's different. We didn't send any CD"s out. It was funny. It spread and people were like, "Have you seen this yet?" Q- How did those tapes compare to the TRL ones? A- Deryck- Smae sort of thing. Cone- Except the time we had only one day to do it. We weren't prepared to do it at all. We didn't know what to do. Q- What's your favorite prank to pull? A- Steve- I don't know if it's one prank that we do. I'll tell you the spark of the pranks... boos. The pranks flow when the boos are flowing. No one really knows what's happening. Except for when we're doing out drive by water gun stuff, but we'd never drink and drive, kids... very bad idea! Of all out pranks, that's the best one. We go up topeople and spray them. Cone- They get so mad. Steve- We've been in so many close calls with car accidents with people chasing us. One guy got into an accident and he blew out all his tires. He wanted to kick ou asses. It was in Canada so it wasn't that scary. He probably didn't even have an gun. Q- Trashed any hotels larely? A- Steve- The other day on my birthday, I didn't trash the room...I broke something. It turned into this big thig, but it wasn't barely andything. Deryck- We don't really stay in hotels any more. Steve- We started trashin the bus, but then we realized, "That's not cool." Dave- It's like trashing your room. Q- Okay... Then, any fights lately? I heard you got into one with SR-71. A- Deryck- We can't discuss it. Steve- No, we don't fight with bands! Cone- Well, we're friends with every band except the,. Steve- There haven't been any fights... sorta. Q- {laughs} Okay...between the fights and drinking, do you feel you have to live up to the whole rock star facade? A- Steve- We don't have to live up to it... we don't have to own up to it! {laughs} Next question! Q- What's the craziest thing you've done together? A- Steve- San Fran Porno Van {Much Laughter} Q- What's the San Fran Porno Van, guys? A- Cone- Nah, that's for anyother day. Steve- When we strip together that's always crazy. The stuff we do isn't that crazy. That's not crazy--that's just kind of bizarre. We did it for our album release party. The prigional idea was that we'd have strippers and it turned into us being the strippers. Tp practice the routine, we did it in the basement- stripping down to these thongs. We did it for my mom. She was proball\y having the thrill ride of her life warching my three young friends. Q- Speaking of parents, what do they think of all the? A- Dave- They're happy. Steve- I'm sure it's a little weird. I'd think it was weird if my mom was on TV all the time. Deryck- They search around for magazines that we're in. Cone- They're collectors! They have personalized license plates. Q- How's the tour going? A- Deryck- It's like going to summer camp and seeing all your friends that you saw last year at summer camp. Steve- There's a barbeque every night. Dave- The Gimme Gimme's set up a bar between the two main stages. Cone- We're going to start to have a daily mud wrestling event. Q- Where do you get nspiration from when writing? A- Deryck- The back lounge. It's just on of those things that comes out. You don't know where it comes from. It pops in your head. Having so much fun is inspiration. Steve- 'Cause we looove having a good time! Q- I've noticed there aren't too many songs about love on the album. A- Deryck- We write songs about every day life. Girls don't like us. Dave- Maybe if he could find a girlfriend, he's write about one. Steve- What's so funny is that a lot of bands write songs about girls breaking their hears, but all these guys are out mac-ing girls every night. Please, "your don't have a girlfriend." You've got a girl in every town! Cone- Deryck's a hopless romantic. Nah, not really. Q- You gluys always say tha girls don't like you! That can't be true is you're hitting number one on TRL! A- Steve- We have Cone! Cone- Maybe they just like the song and the video! Maybe they don't think we're good looking. Steve- Maybe it's not just a sex thing! Dave- Maybe Cone's not a sex symbol! Cone- People think you're on TRL because of your looks like the Backstreet Boys. Steve- Come on, let's talk about the backstreey Boys looks for a second... {Much Laughter} Dave- We were all dorks. Nothing's changed. Cone- I don't like you anymore I did like you. Deryck- These are my only friends. Q- Why did you decide to put "Pain for Pleasure and the end of "Fat Lip?" A- Deryck we put it in the video because it has every style of music that we do. We put it at the end to be different. Steve- It's also becuse it's really funny. Dave-We had all these metal clothes. We thought it'd be fun to dress up. Q- Whats the next single? A- Deryck- "In Too Deep." Q-Have you already made a video for it? What's it like? A-Deryck- Can't tell you. Cone- It's different than the last one. Deryck- It's by water. Dave- It envolves the element of water. Cone- People getting wet. Q- What's something that you've learned out through all of this? A- Steve- I never know I farted in my sleep until I met these guys. Cone- This is a question I've never had before. I've learned to say, "Next question" in interviews. Steve- You can't this time. Cone- You get away with farting in your sleep? Dave- I've learned that if I"m not careful and I tan too much, I'll turn into a piece of charcol. Deryck- I don't know. What's something you guys have learned about me. Steve- I learned that he is a bit of an egomaniac... just kidding. {in a teasing tone} I've learned he won't drink any more because it hurts his throat! Cone- I've learned that he will only go after twenty year olds and over. Deryck- Yes, I've learned that I'm through with young girls. Younger girls are just annoying. Cone- I'm sure Deryck would go for a younger girl if they were more mature. Steve- He means if their boobs are really big. Q- What drives you insane? A- Cone- I'll be sleeping and Deryck will come into my bunk and pull me out. Steve- What drives me insane is looking at Cone's face day after day...always on the bus! Never changing! I'm only kidding. That's the only thing that keeps me together. I' love Cone. I love everybody...there's no favories in this group. Q- You all have a long list of former bands. What happened to them? A- Steve- They sucked. Dave- Yeah, but I was in Anthrax for a while. Deryck- And Def Leopard. Dave- We love Anthrax. Well, I do. Steve- He was in No Doubt. Dave- Yep, I was the bass player. Deryck- But those bands just faded away. Dave- Like girlfriends in high school. Jay- You guys had girlfriends in high school? Q- Deryck, when was the first time you were arrested? A- Deryck- On Mother's Day. Q- Did teachers ever tell you were good with music? A- Deryck- No, I remember there was this time where they asked me what I wanted to be and I said, "A rock star!" They said, "You're never going to be a rock star!" Q- Why the name Sum 41? A- Deryck- No reason really, we started the band 41 days into the summer and we thought it was a good name. You know, a California thing. Q- In your bio you refer to yourselves as four ugly, young goons from Toronto, Canada. You don't think you're good looking? A- Deryck- Not really, I mean I think we're all kinda fucked-up looking. Q- I actually think you guys look pretty cool in a punky/bratty kinda way. A- Yeah, It's a amazing what Photoshop can do. (Laughs) Q- Do you consider yourself a rock star? Deryck- A rock star, no not really. I don't even know what a rock star is. Q- Mick Jagger's a rock star. A- I'm not as big as Mick Jagger, so I'm not a rock star. Q- You recruited Jerry Finn (who produced Green Day and Blink 182) to produce your full-length debut album All Killer No Filler. Do you think that your music sounds a lot like Green Day or Blink? A- Deryck- No, I don't think any of those guys have done rap or metal. I think we do a lot of different stuff then those bands. Q- What do you do to keep yourself sane on the road? A- Deryck- Um, It's not really that hard. We're always hanging out and going out...go to bars doing everything that we'd normall be doing at home. Q- So it's all beautiful women and booze every night, right? A- Deryck- Well, not every night. (laughs) Q- How many nights do you actually perform every week? A- We take one night off a week. So we're up on stage six nights a week. Q- How old are you? A- Deryck- I just turned 22. The rest of the band are 20 and 21. Q- What's the weirdest thing to happen to you on the road? A- Deryck- Not that many goofy thing happen. We all hang out like a big summer canp. Our van spontaneously combusted recently. We were just driving and we kept smelling smoke and we were like "What the hell is that smell" and we thought it was just the street. We were in the middle of Los Angeles on the busiest street in rush hour. We looked back and all this smoke was pouring out of the vents. Of shit, like the van was on fire. It was an electrical fire so all the doors and windows wouldn't open , so luckily the front window was already open and we all jumped out. We were trying to pull out all of our equipment as the fire was getting bigger and bigger. We were throwing equipment out into the middle of the street and everyone was honking at us and out of nowhere this dude comes running out with a fire extinguisher that he had in his car and put the whole fire out. Q-Do rabid fans make you nervous? A-Deryck- Um, I never really know how to react. I'm kind of a shy person. I really don't know what to say to people. It's hard for me to react to a lot of people. There's always a couple of psycho fans out there, but mostly they're not crazy- they're excited and want to have a good time. Q- Do you see your music going in a new direction on your next album? A-I know we get bored quickly with stuff, so I could see us changing. Um, we never said we are a punk band or anything. I think it's healthy to grow. We definitely plan on changing. Q- Are you working on your next album and when is it coming out? A- Deryck- We haven't been writing a lot because we've been busy tourning, but we still try to write on the road. We're planning to have our new album out in October. Q- What music lit your balls when you were growing up? A- Deryck- When I was really young I was into the Beatles and stuff like that. That was the stuff my parents were into, the Rolling Stones and stuff like that. When I started to form my own opinioon, I got into Guns 'n Roses, Nirvana...all the hard rock stuff. Q-Do you consider your band to be accomplished musicians? A- Deryck- Oh, definitely not (laughs). Dave's a really good guitar player, but the rest of us...shit. We're playing all the time now. We're just really, really bad. Q- What do you like to do when you're not touring? A- Deryck- We like to do the same thing we do on the road and that we do in every city. Go to strip clubs, stuff like that. Q-If you could tour with anyone who would it be? A-Deryck- Probaly Iron Maiden. I think that would be a fun tour because they're so hard. Q-Who helped create punk music? A-Deryck- Obviously the Ramones, New York Dools, Sex Pistols, but that stuff was way before in time. I wasn't super into it. Q-What about Iggy and the Stooges? A-Deryck- Yeah, you would definitely have o throw Iggy in there. Q- Do you guys do a lot of hotel thrashing? A-Deryck- Um, not like intentionally. It doesn't necessarily have to be hotels. We did a hometown show in Toronto about three or four days ago, so all of our friends came. All of our friends were totally drunk and out of control, so we had 10 or 15 of our friends backstage. We were throwing everything around. Someone brought us these big "Welcome Home" cakes and we threw everything up on the ceiling and that was the point of the game to make everything stick to the ceiling. A big cake got thrown up and just stuck there and our promoter came in and was freaking out and yelling at us and he was standing right under the cake as pieces were falling down on him. He stopped and yelled "What the fuck us going on in here?" as little chocolate bits kept falling on his head. He was totally pissed off. There was pretty much a whole loaf of bread, every piece of meat and everything that you could imagine was stuck to the ceiling. Q-Who's the hottest female singer out there today? A-Deryck- I'm trying to decide whether Shakira is hot or not. I think she's pretty hot, but I think she's too over dramatic. Gwen Stefani is as hot as hell. Q-What do you think of The Osbournes on MTV? A-Deryck- You know I've never seen the show, being on the road and all, but I hear it's really funny. Q- Could you see Sum 41 having their own reality show? A-Deryck- Definitely not! People have actually approached us on this. We've been approached six or seven times. We're not into that right now. Q- Where did you get the name Bizzy D? A- Deryck- Dave gave it to me. Meaning was I was in high school and in a band and Dave said you're so fucking busy that I'm gonna call you Bizzy D now. That's it, pretty simple. Q-Your website resembles and early 80's video fame, what kind of games do you play? A-Deryck-I don't play video games that much anymore, but I used to play Atari all the time when I was a kid. Right now the only game I play now is Grand Theft Auto 3 because it has a lot of killing. It's pretty violent. Q-Why would I want to buy your new DVD "Introduction to Destruction (Video Treats to Move Yo Feet)"? A-Deryck- A lot of things are like just live shows and if you're a fan and want to know who we are and what we're about. It's got everthing from the first time we started the band until now. Everything we've ever done. Two hours of backstage road tour stuff. If you wanna come on tour with us, watch the DVD. Q-Alright, the first question we always ask is about history, where did you guys come together, how did you guys meet? A-Dave-'96 was the year; Deryck and Steve were in a band called Weezer...(all laughing.) No, it was in '96 and Deryck and Steve were in a band called Casper, and me and Cone were in different bands...Dave and Cone left their bands to join Derck and Steve's band because they were looking for a guitar player and a bass player, that that's how Sum 41 got formed. Q-How did you guys end up signing with Island? A-Deryck-We just sent our stuff out, sent a video of us making all this trouble in our home town to all these labels, and Island just bought us dinner and it went from there. Q- How in your minds do you think you guys matured musically between "Half Hour of Power" and "All Killer No Filler?" A-Deryck-They were both recorder really, really close toghether, so it's kind of... there wasn't that much of a growing period, but, I don't know, I think the songs just got a lot better for "All Killer No Filler." Q- Do you guys think you changed your image in-between CD's? A-Deryck-No, not at all. Q- If you look at Blink, the transition they made form back when they were in '95 to now... A-Deryck- Well I mean like, people grow and it's a natural thing, and people change. Cone-You get bored of the clothes you wear, the same hair-color... Deryck- Yeah, when we look the same... Dave-Yeah, we definitely got bored plaing the same music over and over again, so we would want to get something new in there. Q- You guys have the unique sound, with sort of the hip-hop infuences, how does that all come about? A-Deryck-Yeah, we're just big fans of all sorts of music, we're not just fans of one kind of music, so we try to incorporate everthing we've enjoyed listening to, and try to make it fun to play. Q-Describe yourselves in 10 words or less? A-Cone-Oh, man... Their Roadie Hewitt- That t-shirt... Deryck- Yeah, I gotta memorize that. Cone- Red and black hair. Dave-Go get it... go get the t-shirt Cone- Red and black hair. Deryck- I dunno, we're all like the same person, we're all...I dunno... Dave- All of the ten words... Deryck- We don't do anything but try to have fun. Dave-Pants, Shirt, Shoes...(pause)...three quarters of us are white...(all laughing.) Is that good, that's like 10 words. Q-Describe your writing process. [Deryck walks to the back of the bus] A-Dave-Writing process? Deryck leaves in the middle of an interview, cause he's got a riff in his head...(laughing)...he'll go into the back lounge, or he wants to go get his shirt...(laughing) Cone-Deryck has a studio in the back. So he'll go back... Deryck-[Deryck comes back] This is my 10 words. Dave- This is Deryck's 10 words. Deryck- Okay: Compulsice, neurotic, anti social, manic depressive, paranoid, but basically happy. That's me on my shirt. Cone-Writing process...Deryck has a studio in the back [of the bus] so he'll go write stuff back there then... Dave-He'll totally write stuff back there, and he'll get riffs in his head, he'll take the riffs, put them in the computer, and then the computer will (pause)... Cone- Spit it out. Dave-Spit out a song, and then that's how our songs are written...(laughing) Cone-Your in a band, you oughta get one of those computers, they write the song for ya [snapping fingers.] Dave- Thanks Macintosh...(lauging) Q-You have a new record still in production, how is that going? A- Cone-We're in the really early stages, I don't know how many songs... Deryck-Yeah, it's pretty early, there's like a bunch of ideas, we won't really get started until out tours over. Q-I heard some stuff that will be on the Spiderman soundtrack, it's got a little different vibe to it than the first two records you have out, is that kind of what the new record's gonna show? A-Cone- We just amde that song for the Spiderman movie, like we just remixed it for it. Deryck-Well, actually that song is on our first record... Cone- It's just a remix. Deryck- And it's a remix, we just added more verses and stuff like that, it's basically...It's a whole new song or it's a whole longer song, it was just like a little bit before, and now it has turned into a whole new song. Q-Have you guys seen the movie? A-Deryck-Yeah, we have seen parts of it. Q-What do you guys think about the "Becoming Sum 41" stuff and all that stuff on MTV? Dave-It's creepy...(all laughing.) Deryck-I thought it was great, they did a good job I guess, it was kind of cool. Q- Do you guys have any pre-show rituals? A-Deryck- Drinking... Cone-We drink al lot...(laughing) Deryck- We dring so much, everything, every condiment has to have Jack Daniels in it; Jack Daniels Barbeque Sause, Jack Daniels Mustard. Dave- Heinz Vodka Ketchup...(all laughing) Q-Who are you influenced musically by the most? A-Deryck-I dont' know, cause there's o many different influences, obviously the Beastie Boys, Iron Maiden and all the California punk rock bands like NOFX, Strung Out, and Lagwagon and all that kind of stuff. Q-Alright, now that you guys can get laid all the time, do you still have time to masturbate? A-Cone-Always. Deryck-Of Course. Dave-There's always time for masturbation. Deryck- It's usually in the morning when you wake up and you're like, "Oh that was a good night last night." (all laughing...inaudible comments.) Q-Who does the artwork behind the logos that you guys have? A-Cone-There's and artist that works at the labels, and he'll draw stuff up and send it to us, and we'll approve or we'll say that sucks. Deryck- We'll always say, "We want a demon." Cone-So he'll draw a demon. Deryck-Or a skull thing and he's draws it up. Dave- His name is Da Vinci Q- On the "All Killer No Filler" cover and the "Fat Lip" video you guys do that thing where you shake your heads where did that come from? A-Deryck-Actually a friend of ours named B-rab; took a pole... Dave-And shoved it up our asses, four rimes, and that's the reaction ...(all laughing)...is what I would say if he really did that (all laughing)...but what really happend was... Deryck- He just did it... I dunno, it's just thing thing he does all the time, so that's it. Dave- Actually, them and Steve were the ones that didn't get the pole up their ass, they just shook their heads and they just tricked me into thinking you actually had to get a pole up your ass to do it. Q- What was that like? A-Dave-First it hurt...(all laughing), then it was pleasure. Deryck- It's pain for pleasure...(all laughing) Dave-It's spawned a song...am I rubbing your leg (all laughing) Q-What's up with Steve right now, he's sick? A-Cone- He's got strep throat. Q- That sucks, is he gonna be able to play tonight... A-Deryck- Probally not...(all laughing) Dave-He's been diagnosed with Hepatitis strep throat. Q- Not a lot of singing for him then, huh? A-Deryck-Yeah, how's he gonna sing "Pain for Pleasure?" [Talking to the band.] Cone- I got it...(all laughing) Deryck- Yeah, Cone's gotit. Deryck- Maybe we'll bring up somebody. Cone- Yeah, maybe we'll bring someone up. Q-Do you guys listen to your own stuff? A-Dave-Hell No. Q- You don't sit around and... A-Deryck-At first you listen to it a little bit. Q- Is it weird seeing you guys on TV and stuff, like in the beginning? A-Deryck- I haven't seen us on TV in a long time man. Dave-Cause the only thing that's on this TV is "Grand Theft Auto." Deryck-Yeah this TV only plays "Grand Theft Auto." It was really weird at first, it was cool, and exciting being on MTV. Q- All right, Deryck, we have chicks that have freaking orgasms just talking about you, were you considered that hot in high school, or is this like a new thing? A-Deryck-High School... Q- Do people ever come up to you, like people who knew you in high school, who weren't very nice to you or anything? A-Deryck-Yeah, yep...(all laughing.) Uhhh no, I didn't, I wan't very...no, in High School? [shaking head] (all laughing) Dave- I don't think any of us were chickmagnets in High School. Deryck-Also, our school, I feel, we probaly went to the ugliest school I've ever seen in my life. Q-What is it like touring oversees? Do you get freaked when the foreign kids are screaming the words? A-Deryck-Yeah, it's kind of weird, like it's not weird, but definitely different, when your in Japan and stuff like that and people are singing along to every word, but they don't know what your saying... Q-Do you guys do the switch over and bust it out in Japanese? A-Deryck-(laughing)...We know some word. Dave-Yeah, we learned words at the gay bookstore...(all laughing) Deryck-We learned how to say "Your very cute," [then he says it in Japanese.] Dave-And that was Cone's stunt-double that we found in Japan. They actually have a Cone stunt-double dool. It doubles as a video guy. Q-What's your favorite venue or favorite city? A-Deryck-Milan. Cone-It's in Italy. Dave-We like playing the Hollywood club in Milan. Deryck-Becuase it's a bar full of models. Dave-And you don't really have to play. Deryck-Yeah you don't really have to play there. You go there, play the show and you go to the model bars cause it's the model capitol. Q-The motivation viedo, that was filmed on a green-screen right? Not an actual room? A-Cone-No. Deryck-It was a real room. Cone- It was a real room, it was like a set built for it. Deryck- It was a set, it wasn't like a green screen, it was like in a warehouse. Cone- Actually, the Spiderman video we did on a green-screen. Deryck-It's all green-screen, yeah. Cone-It should be out any time. Deryck- I should be out on, what day is today? Dave-Tuesday. Deryck- It comes out tomorrow. Cone-Ohhh, does it? Q-Is it gonna be on TRL or something? A-Deryck-I think it debuts on TRL tomorrow. Cone-Nooo... Q-Are you guys scheduling to be on TRL soon? A-Cone-Naw. Deryck-No, I don't think so. We've actually never really been on there. We went once to do the interview. Cone-We've been on it, but we never played. Deryck-Oh yeah, we did Key West TRL. Dave-Yeah, I think it's getting premired [Spiderman video] this week, or next week, I dunno. Q-Guys MTV or MTV2? A-Cone-Well MTV2 plays a lot of older stuff you never see on MTV. Deryck-I dunno, like for the, I like "Dismissed." Dave-Fuck yeah... Q- Did you see that Playboy model chick in the Spring Break "Dismissed?" A-Deryck-Was that they one where she did it in front of the whole crowd? Q- Yeah and she took her top off. A-Deryck-Yeah, you told me about that one [talking to Cone], I missed it...(laughing.) Oh, "Shipmates" is a good one too! Dave- Yeah, "Shipmates." Dude, last night I sat there and watched every single dating show...(all laughing) Deryck- There all awesone, I wanna go on one of those so bad. Cone-I saw "Rendezview" last night, it sucked. Dave- "Blind Date" was on too, you should've gone there. Deryck-Yeah, there's a couple of them that suck Q-"Elimidate's" tight, cause they send out one dude with 5 chicks, and they all have to go nuts to get him to win them over. A-Dave- Yeah dude, that one's awsome, it's kind of like "Dismissed." Deryck-I like "Dismissed," that one's a good one Cone- You know what else I like, "The Bodyguard." Deryck-What's thta one? Cone-Ah, he's not into that...(all laughing) Deryck-I don't know what else is on, is there any other good...oh, "Becoming" is funny, when it's us...(all lauging) Dave-"Making the Video." Deryck-"Making the Video." I like that one. Oh,"Cribs," that's a good one too. Q- Sre you guys ever planning on being on another "Cribs," I know you were on before... A-Deryck-Yeah, we'll be on one, when we actually own a house that's worthy of it...(laughing) Q- What's your definition of sellling out? So many kids are always trashing bands for selling out. A-Deryck-My Definition... Dave-Is Sum 41...(all laughing) Is that allright? Deryck-Selling out is only when you are doing something you don't want to do for money. You're doing it cause you don't want to do it, but you're getting paid, so do it, that's selling out to me. Q-We got a few comments about that- on our website, with people saying you've sold out, do you wnat to address them? A-Deryck-Yeah, we haven't sold out. Cone-We're doing everything we've waned to do, we want to be on MTV. Deryck- Everything's going according to plan. Q-What band wouldn't want to be on MTV, ya know? Yeah, if you think about Britney Spears, I don't see her as a sellout because she wanted to do that foever. A- Deryck-If that's what she wanted to do. Q- Th Pepsi commercial, she didn't want to do that. A-Dave-She's a sellout, she's a sellout. Deryck-Well, there's lots of bands that would never do something, and then they get paid money to do it. Q-Well if someone asked you to play a venue for no money, would you do it? A-Deryck-If it was for a good cause. Cone-Like a benefit. Deryck-But you've got to mae a living at the same time. Q- Stop touching me...(Laughing) Dave-I can't stop touching you..[Dave leans over and puts his arm around me.] Q-Dude, I don't know what your like out of the band (all laughing) A-Dave-Dude, stop touching me {joking} Q-Does he have his own bus or something.... Where do you want to be in 5 years? A-Deryck-5 years... Dave-where do we wanna be in 5 minutes? Q-No, 5 years. A-Dave-In 5 minutes I've got plans [they were just alerted that dinner would be in 5 minutes]...(all laughing) 5 years, that's crazy talk man. Deryck- 5 years, I don't have anything planned. Just going with it. Cone-Yeah, don't really expect to be anywhere, cause chances are you won't be there. Deryck- We don't really have any expectaions. Dave-Nothing solid. Deryck-Hopefully we'll be having fun. That's all I care about. Dave-Hopefully Im alive. Q-You guys play any pranks on each other, on tour? A-Dave- What was that prank that just happened there. Deryck- I always forget them... Dave- Ohh, we don't really play them on each other. Deryck-The four of us gang up on one person...(lauging) Dave- The baseball game day...(Deryck laughs0, the Rochester Redwings. Deryck- We got kicked out of the Baseball game, there's these meat-head jock dudes that were doing pull-ups, they had these chin-up bars set up... Dave- The marines. Deryck-Yeah, the marines...and we had hot dogs and we threw our hot dogs at the guys and we got into this big fight with all these old men marine guys, and we got kicked out of the park and didn't go to the game. Dave-We're getting in the car, and the guy who's driving us back to the venue is like "The Marines are Coming!!" Deryck- He backed out, hit a car, and peeled out of the parking lot. Q- Oh yeah, Steve's not here, but why is 32 such an important number? A-Dave- It was his age when he joined the band (all laughing.) Deryck- Well we all hate sports and he is the worst at every and any sport, and jocks always call each other by their numbers, "You, 32!!" Dave- They'll say "What's Up!", then a pat on the bum or something like that. Q-Oh, so like the "In Too Deep" video? Deryck-Yeah. Deryck-So, we started calling him 32 in like the 10th grade cause he's so bad at sports. Q-So it's just a ramdon, arbitrary number? A-Deryck-Yeah, well we used to... like we called him 45...32 just stuck. Q- You released a DVD just recently, "Introduction To Destruction," and what's on that basically? A- Deryck-It's a whole bunch of stuff, it's got a live show, it's got two and a half hours of stuff like backstage stuff that shameless Hewitt here has shot for us, and just like a bunch of backstage pranks. Cone-What it's like to be on the road. Deryck-That's about it... Dave-All our videos. Cone- All the makings of our videos. |
