 Sum 41 is a Canadian punk rock band from Ajax, Ontario, made of Deryck Whibley (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard/piano), Jason "Cone" McCaslin (bass), and Steve Jocz (drums/vocals).
The band was formed from members of several local high school bands, 41 days into the summer (July 31st) of 1996, hence the name Sum 41. Sum 41 reached mainstream success with the release of All Killer No Filler, which sold over 2 million copies. The album was made popular due to the hit singles Fat Lip and In Too Deep, the former reaching number 1 on the US Modern Rock charts.
Since signing a record deal with Island Records in 1999, the band has released four studio albums, two live CDs, two live DVDs, over ten singles and sold millions of copies worldwide. As of 2006 the band performed more than 600 times and have become famous for their world tours that are usually more than a year-long.
On, May 11, 2006, Dave Baksh (a.k.a. Dave Brownsound) announced in a statement through his management company that he was leaving Sum 41 to work with his new band, Brown Brigade. Baksh's departure from the band was said to have been due to artistic differences, and his desire to play music with a more classical metal sound.
On May 12th, Deryck made the first official comment on the subject on the official message board post addressing Dave's departure. Deryck said that they have no plans of replacing Dave, and will hire someone to tour with them and play on live shows, although that person won't be in videos, photo shoots, albums, or have any decision-making power in the band.
 During the band's touring hiatus, Cone started a side project with Todd Morse of H2O and Juliette and the Licks. The two-person band, named The Operation M.D., have already begun recording demos which can be found on their MySpace site. Cone lends his vocal talents as well as playing bass and keyboards in the band.
An announcement on Sum 41's official website states that the new album can be expected to be released on July 24th 2007.
"Hello everyone. We have finished our new album. We still don't have a name for it yet though. It will be coming out [around mid-2007]. We are now about to start auditions to find a touring guitarist. We have no idea how long this will take so I can't really tell you when we will be back on tour. If all goes well we should be back playing shows in mid-April. We will keep you all updated here as frequently as possible. Thanks for all your support and I can't wait for you to hear this album." -Deryck Whibley On April 16, 2007, absolutepunk.net has revealed that the title for the new Sum 41 album will be Underclass Hero, and will be released on July 24, 2007. The first single from the album will be the title track, "Underclass Hero."
On April 17, 2007, the band also released a song on itunes called "March Of The Dogs." The site states, "lyrically it's one of the more political songs that are on the album, following in the style of our songs "Still Waiting" and "We're All to Blame." I wanted to let you all know that this will NOT be a political record. This is just one of our favorite songs on the album so we wanted to give it to you early since the record won't be out until the summer."
Sum 41 said that their early music (Half Hour of Power) was heavily influenced by NOFX. Another influence on their music was Beastie Boys, especially in their All Killer No Filler hip-hop persona and their Rapcore music found in the "Fat Lip" and "What We're All About" singles. Their later music in the album Does This Look Infected? had heavy influence from The Offspring, as the band itself commented. Also, some metal influence coming from bands like the Iron Maiden is noted. In the song "Fat Lip", the quote "Maiden and Priest were the gods that we praised" refers to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Their album Chuck features a series of songs that can be compared with Thrash metal, and they have named Metallica as one of the main influences on their metal music.
The band's early musical style is often compared to blink-182 pop-punk songs, owing to the catchy melodies and humor present in the work of both bands. More recently the musical genre of Sum 41 has been disputed among fans because of the complex combination of different musical styles. The argument is centralized around the punk streak of the band, and they have been labeled as pop-punk, punk rock and even pop rock. Their lyrics contain some influence and the band's later albums are known for their often politically-driven music.
Discography: Half Hour of Power (June 27, 2000), All Killer No Filler (May 8, 2001), Does This Look Infected? (November 26, 2002), Chuck (October 12, 2004), Underclass Hero (July 24, 2007) Links: Official Website See Also: SUM 41 - Part I SUM 41 - Part II
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