That is The Anthem, the place we’re telling tales behind basic albums and songs by interviewing the individuals who have been actually there. This week, we’re homing in on Sum 41’s everlasting 2002 single “Nonetheless Ready.”
Sum 41 grew up quick. Barely six months after dropping the ultimate single from their goofy, ever-so-catchy debut album, All Killer No Filler, the Canadian quartet reemerged with the lead single from its follow-up, Does This Look Contaminated? Fairly merely, “Nonetheless Ready” signaled their transfer from innocence to expertise. Vocalist Deryck Whibley, bassist Jason “Cone” McCaslin, guitarist Dave Baksh and then-drummer Steve Jocz have been getting into their 20s with 300 or so reside reveals and way more musical expertise underneath their belts, but in addition with a far larger consciousness that the world was greater — and scarier — than it seems outdoors the partitions of highschool.
Learn extra: The 20 most underrated pop-punk albums from the final twenty years
Does This Look Contaminated? marked a heavier flip for the band each sonically and lyrically, with their material turning into ever extra severe by concerning medication, insomnia, HIV and the more and more ugly state of the world. The band have been coming of age in a fraught post-9/11 local weather the place concern and jingoism bubbled underneath the floor as George W. Bush launched the Struggle On Terror — and an actual battle towards Iraq was on its method. It led Sum 41 to show their hand for the primary time to political songwriting, birthing a track whose immortal chorus stays depressingly related in 2023: “So am I nonetheless ready for this world to cease hating?”
The way it began
DERYCK WHIBLEY (VOCALS): The report [Does This Look Infected?] was just about written. We have been already within the studio making it, and for some cause, this little concept got here into my head after I wasn’t even making an attempt to write down songs anymore. I believed I used to be performed. I awakened with this refrain in my head. I went and sang it and rapidly had a riff instantly, which turned the verse riff. I knew I needed it to have screamy, shouty verses. I’m screaming as arduous as I can in these verses. It’s a type of songs that got here out precisely the best way I heard it in my head.
JASON “CONE” MCCASLIN (BASS): We have been in Toronto doing pre-production, and we have been wrapping up. It may need even been the final day. “The Hell Track” was going to be [the lead] single. “Over My Head (Higher Off Useless)” was most likely going to be the second single. Deryck got here in with this little cassette tape, and he says: “I acquired this tough new track.” All of us listened to it, and it was so tough and distorted, and we have been like, “That is actually good.” It was method completely different from All Killer No Filler due to the screaming, it was in a minor key. It was darker. All of us agreed at that time that we needed to attempt to match that track in, so we took it to New York and completed it within the studio there.
WHIBLEY: There was simply a lot strain in these days, from myself, from the label, from all people concerned, as a result of we have been following up a report that had bought a couple of million [copies]. [We] needed to ship to show that [we] weren’t this one-album band. Straight away, everybody agreed that the track, regardless that all I had was a verse and a refrain, was most likely going to be the primary single. You might inform that there was one thing particular about it, that it was higher than all the things else on the report. Within the first week of recording in New York Metropolis, I stayed again on the resort daily making an attempt to complete this track. All people was asking me, “Is it completed but?” I stayed within the resort for every week until it was performed. On reflection, it was fast, but it surely felt prefer it was taking a yr as a result of all people was hounding me for it.
[Sum 41 pose for their AP cover in 2002 / Photo by Chapman Baehler]
The lyrics
MCCASLIN: The Iraq Struggle on the time was such an enormous factor. Though we have been Canadian, we spent quite a lot of time within the U.S. We have been solely like 22 years previous on the time, however we might speak amongst ourselves, and we [all thought] it was insane that this battle was truly going to occur. Even being 22 from Canada, we have been actually affected by it. We lived by the Gulf Struggle, and it was following the identical strains.
WHIBLEY: Touring the world on that tour for the primary time on the All Killer tour [gave us] extra of a way that there is this world on the market. It is not simply the place we grew up and our pals in highschool and all that stuff. So that you’re beginning to actually take note of all this stuff which are occurring on the planet and all these atrocities. We thought this battle was very clearly not about what George [W.] Bush and his administration have been saying it was, and that is what the track turned to me. On the similar time, [with] a number of the lyrics, you nearly needn’t know what the track is about, particularly with the refrain, as a result of it’s simply relatable. It’s simply the only lyric. I keep in mind [producer] Greig Nori saying, “I do not know concerning the lyric ‘So am I nonetheless ready for this world to cease hating?’ It is a bit juvenile. It is a bit fundamental.’ I keep in mind pondering, “I do not know tips on how to make it the rest aside from what it’s.” It could be juvenile and easy, however that is what all this bullshit is on the planet — it’s all juvenile and silly.
The music video
MARC KLASFELD (VIDEO DIRECTOR): Sum 41 exploded in 2001, however then in 2002, the scene shifted, and indie bands just like the Strokes, the Hives and the White Stripes all turned widespread. The video ended up turning into partly a satire of that complete band motion. We took parts from one of many Strokes’ movies, a number of the Hives with what they have been sporting, making enjoyable of and commenting on the hip bands of the time. It feedback not solely on that development however developments normally and the way developments come and go.
MCCASLIN: We have been in England for Studying and Leeds, and we have been staying on the similar resort because the Strokes. We went as much as Julian [Casablancas’] room, and we had a pair extra drinks. We mentioned, “We now have this concept for the video. We wish to run it by you.” We informed him the entire concept: “We wish to costume up the identical and have the set such as you guys. You’re the brand new cool factor, and pop punk is getting pushed out.” He was like, “I like it. You guys should do it.” We acquired his blessing at six within the morning!
KLASFELD: The man at first, Will Sasso, he’s so phenomenally proficient. I simply gave him a briefing of what I needed the scene to be about, and he simply adlibbed the shit out of that scene. He was simply so humorous, and I believe the largest downside for the blokes was making an attempt to maintain a straight face throughout the entire thing as a result of the dude was so humorous.
MCCASLIN: The opposite factor that was humorous about it was the trashing factor on the finish. I keep in mind the entire crew was like, “Don’t contact the lights!” And I believe the signal was at all times gonna get pushed down, however the lights behind us, the lighting folks didn’t need them damaged. And, in fact, we broke them. At that time, we have been simply ingesting loads on a regular basis. In order the day went on, video shoots might be 20 hours lengthy. We have been annihilated by the tip, completely hammered. That complete trashing scene ultimately. I imply, quite a lot of us could not even stroll. That is how we did it again then.
KLASFELD: The blokes have at all times stored a humorousness about their stuff. In my estimation, that’s what folks have at all times favored finest. They’re actually good at it.
