Number crunchers

"I’m just glad I lived long enough to hear the shittiest band ever."

A quote from Oasis’ Noel Gallagher regarding Sum 41, as posted (with pride) on the latter’s website.

Sum 41 like being hated. Their website also kindly informs us that Nokia have dubbed ‘Fat Lip’ their most annoying ringtone – now there’s one for the mantle piece.

"We’ve never really considered ourselves punks or as a punk band," recounts Sum 41 singer/guitarist Deryck Whibley, in the band’s defence.

"We grew up listening to punk music, but also with metal and rock. We were into a little ‘70’s UK punk, but it was mostly SoCal (South Californian Punk – think Descendents, Offspring, Green Day etc), and punk that we were around for like NOFX and Lagwagon – the whole Epitaph records thing. Then there’s Metallica and Maiden in there as well. For me, I like really melodic kind of in-depth songwriting, y’know, The Beatles, Elvis Costello and The Rolling Stones."

Despite such choice influences, Sum 41 soon became the S Club Juniors of the pop-punk scene. Renounced as sellouts by their contemporaries, they were lovingly adopted by a plethora of teenage devotees looking for the missing link between Westlife and Pennywise.

"We had that a lot on the last record," says Deryck, speaking of the band’s pop promotion. "People put us in magazines and on TV shows that we wouldn’t have chosen to be in if we’d known. It’s harder for us to have control over our marketing regime in other parts of the world than in North America because there we know what all the lame shit is and we can say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to it. But now we’ve been around a little bit longer and we know what we want to do and what we like."

The rock ’n’ roll lifestyle that reportedly swung into action following the sales phenomenon of the band’s breakthrough All Killer No Filler album sounds like the stuff of your average 20-something suburbanite’s wet dream, although Deryck is quick to kill the assumption that the band might actually be able to hold their sauce.

"It probably happens less than people think," Deryck recounts of the band’s drinking habits. "We do drink a lot, but probably not by your (Irish) standards. You guys would probably laugh at us. We drink every day probably, but I don’t wake up and have a beer for breakfast. Not yet, anyway."

There goes that theory then. Well surely the troupe have been living it up on the road? All those top tens must count for something…

"Not much. I don’t know, there’s just like… I don’t know. There’s nothing to tell," he mutters cagily. Then comes the revelation: "We’re trying to steer away from that sort of stuff. There’s more important things to talk about instead of just boning chicks and going to strip clubs."

I knew it was coming. The pivotal moment when a band decides that after two albums of immature rock music, they want to be taken seriously.

"I think the biggest thing about us is that we’re really really serious about music," he says, speaking verbatim from the industry classic How To Please Your Record Company, Vol 1. "We’re way more serious about being a good band than just going to strip clubs. The song topics on this album are different, the style is different," he adds. "It’s heavier and it’s harder, and it’s a better record. The songs are better and we’re better musicians. We wouldn’t have been able to play anything like this on our last record but we’re touring so much that if you don’t get better after all this playing, then you just really suck."

However, this new-found skill does not extend to the lyrical content, as lines such as "You look like ass you smell like shit/So why are you such a dick" affirm.

"I think some of it is quite deep," Deryck adds, sincerely. "There are serious topics; every song we write is about life and real situations. There’s nothing more, uh, like, real than life itself. I mean, you can’t get much more real than that."

Can anyone else smell Spinal Tap?