Sum 41 is ‘back’ and stronger than ever

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This article was published 21/11/2019 (2450 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Despite the fact Canadian punk-pop rockers Sum 41 have consistently released records through their career, their newest full-length, Order in Decline, has been deemed a comeback album of sorts — even more so than their actual “comeback” album, 2015’s 13 Voices.

It’s a pretty straightforward rock record, packed with the typical gritty guitar hooks and brisk drum lines underneath vocalist Deryck Whibley’s recognizable sing-shout, but fans and critics alike are responding to the more serious, less ironic sound and lyrical content, and even the band members feel as though Order In Decline is some their strongest work to date.

“This record has just been accepted everywhere as one of the records that kind of put us back on the map…” guitarist Dave Baksh says. “I think that you get the vibe from this record that there’s a strength back to the band; I mean, we feel that every record we’ve done is something special, but there was something about this record that just felt like one of the best we’ve done in a long time and it was just a really good effort on everyone’s part.

“I got to sit there in my studio and track in the most comfortable atmosphere possible — no time restraint, no money restraint, just get into my studio, get the exact performance I want on tape — and then Deryck would mix and edit everything. It’s one of my favourite records that Sum has ever done.”

Baksh says each band member records his part remotely and sends it to Whibley — a stark change from the early days of their career when they used a more traditional recording style, all together in one studio.

“That has its charm — you get to be in the studio, you are under a time constraint so you have that pressure getting the best out of you — but there’s something to be said for the other side of the fence too, which is waking up, getting a bowl of cereal and going down to the studio to record in your underpants,” Baksh says, laughing.

While everything seems to be coming up Sum 41 these days, it’s been a bumpy road to get here. Baksh left the band in 2006 citing “creative differences” (he returned in 2015), drummer Steve Jocz jumped ship in 2013 (he didn’t return) and in 2014, Whibley notified fans he had been hospitalized for liver and kidney failure owing to excessive drinking.

For Baksh, rejoining the band after nearly 10 years away was not the awkward situation one might expect. Instead, after shaking off the first-day-back nervous energy, it further cemented the friendships and working relationships he had cultivated with his bandmates since the beginning of Sum 41 in their high school days.

“Everything just fit and felt right because that’s just what we knew… We were 14 years deep into our friendship when I had initially quit the band, and then once I came back, that chemistry that was so familiar was just there and apparent and you could just feel it in the room. The energy was dead set and it was on,” Baksh says.

“At the core of our relationships, we’re all still really close friends. I heard Keith Richards describe it once: it’s beyond family, it’s beyond business, it’s something on another level. I don’t really have the words for it, but it’s stronger than it’s ever been.”

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @NireRabel