Sum 41 get serious with new album, harder rock
By KELLY WILSON
Get Out

“I’m hungover,’’ Sum 41 drummer Steve Jocz moans over the phone from Vancouver, where the band is enjoying a two-day break. “Yesterday we drank until we puked.’’

But the night before was no ordinary night of partying for the Canadian punk rock quartet, which also includes singer Deryck Whibley, guitarist Dave Baksh and bassist Jason “Cone” McCaslin.
They spent the evening matching shots with United Nations peacekeeper Chuck Pelletier, whom they credit with saving their lives in May after violence broke out in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After being evacuated, the group showed their thanks to Pelletier by naming their third album — which was released earlier this month and debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard Top 200 chart — after him.

“While we were sitting there, we were like, ‘If we live through this, let’s name the album ‘Chuck,’ ’’ Jocz says of the Congo situation. “We just sort of said it as a joke ... Now we have a war story that we can overexaggerate to our children. When they're complaining about going to school and walking through snow, I can tell them, ‘I was in the (expletive) Congo — bullets whizzing over my head.’ ”

Jocz says Pelletier, also from Canada, was honored.

“He loved it,” the drummer says. “He had no idea who we are and then he came home and told his friends and they all know because they’re in Canada and our album already went gold in Canada.’’

The new album’s first single, “We're All to Blame,’’ isn't directly about the Congo events, Jocz says.

“I think it’s more about how there are terrible things that go on in the world and everybody is partially to blame in a way because they don't care,’’ he says. “Before Sept. 11, nobody gave a (expletive) about terrorism (in America) but when it happens to them, now all of a sudden they're scared of it and people don't understand why it's happening.’’

It's clear Sum 41 are not the same party boys who came onto the scene with their 2002 release, “Does This Look Infected?’’ In fact, Jocz says the one-night stands — for which he and Whibley were notorious — are a thing of the past.

“We still party and stuff but it's different now because we all have girlfriends,’’ he says.
Rumor has it that Whibley's girlfriend is wannabe punk rocker Avril Lavigne, but Jocz is coy when asked if there is any truth to the hearsay.

“Maybe they bump uglies, but I'm not sure,’’ he says. “I can't comment on that because I'm not Deryck ... To be honest, I'm curious about Avril and Deryck, too, because I read the damn magazines but I don't know. The guy just doesn't talk. He's quiet and shy.’’