Sum 41: “We’re not ashamed of anything, we’re not afraid of anything – we just do what we do”

nme.com:

Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley has spoken to NME about their new “accidental” double album and the upcoming anniversary tour for ‘Does This Look Infected?’.Confirmed earlier this year but still without a release date, Sum 41’s new double album ‘Heaven And Hell’ is almost finished, according to Whibley.

Speaking to NME after headlining Slam Dunk festival last month (June 3-4), he revealed that there are about four weeks of work left to do on the record but “the only thing holding it up is the touring.”“Music will come out sooner rather than later,” said Whibley, who is pushing for a new single to be released this summer.Written during the pandemic, ‘Heaven And Hell’ will feature one disc of metal-inspired songs (“there are definitely songs on there that are heavier than anything we’ve ever done before”) and one of pop-punk-influenced tracks. “‘Heaven’ is weird because it doesn’t sound like either of our first two records, but it fits in with that style.

It sounds more confident than those early records though,” the band’s frontman said.That was helped by the fact that the band didn’t set out to write one album, let alone two. “I was asked to write songs for other people,” explained Whibley. “With that, you’re not worrying about anything, you’re just trying to write something you think somebody is going to like.” But once Whibley had seven songs finished, he decided to keep them for himself, which “kickstarted my creativity because the pandemic was so uninspiring”.“The reason that it’s a double album is because it told us it needed to be,” Whibley continued.

He sent all the demos to the rest of the band, thinking they’d help him pick the 12 best but “one by one, they told me they liked the idea of a double album.