Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Guitar Amps
  • Plugin Week 25
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Artist news
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • Drums
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • Plugin Week A-Z
  • You Oughta Know
  • Fake AI band
  • 95k+ free music samples
  • Wrecking Crew
Recommended reading
Stevens with Idol
Artists “The last thing we wanted to do was say, ‘Hey, let’s do another Rebel Yell’”: Steve Stevens on the new Billy Idol album
Ian "Shiner" Thomas of Those Damn Crows onstage playing to a festival crowd with his Gibson Les Paul. He wears a baseball cap and sunglasses.
Artists Shiner from Those Damn Crows on how to write a No.1 album and the Slipknot riff he wish he wrote
Aaron Comess of the Spin Doctors
Artists “I used the snare I played on Two Princes”: Why the Spin Doctors are still rocking with the gear they used in the ’90s
Lifeguard's Kai Slater, Isaac Lowenstein and Asher Case
Artists Lifeguard on abstract noise and pop hooks – and the creative epiphanies behind their stellar debut
Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater
Artists “I needed to scratch an itch”: Mike Portnoy talks about his years away from Dream Theater
Jackson Pro Series Lee Malia LM-87: The Bring Me The Horizon guitarist's new signature model is inspired by the Surfcaster and debuts a hunbucker/P-90 combo.
Artists “I feel like that song had everything we needed to come back with”: Bring Me The Horizon’s Lee Malia on Shadow Moses, its riff and the secrets behind its tone, and why it was the right anthem at the right time
Pelican's Trevor de Brauw [left] and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec perform at Hellfest 2022. De Brauw plays his Gibson SG. Schroeder-Lebec is playing his Silverburst Gibson Les Paul Custom.
Artists Trevor de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec on musical wanderlust and Pelican’s riff evolution
  1. Artists
  2. Guitarists

In the studio: Sum 41

News
By Matt Parker ( Total Guitar ) published 1 September 2016

Deryck's back from the brink with a three-guitar attack on 13 Voices

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Introduction

Introduction

“I thought I was never going to walk again. I didn’t know if I could stand for more than 15 minutes. My voice was so gone that I thought it was gone forever. I couldn’t write songs, it felt like nothing was coming, for months…”

I knew where my fingers were supposed to go but I couldn’t get them to go there

Sum 41’s lynchpin Deryck Whibley is talking about his 2014 hospitalisation for liver and kidney failure. Years of heavy drinking bludgeoned him into intensive care and left him sedated for a week. When he woke, he was told that one more drink would kill him.

“I couldn’t even play guitar anymore,” continues Deryck, on the point that proved most devastating. “I was so surprised. It felt like the very first year when I was playing guitar, when I was 13 and I knew where my fingers were supposed to go but I couldn’t get them to go there.”

Page 1 of 3
Page 1 of 3
Making progress

Making progress

A year of doubt and grindingly slow progress followed. “The only thing that I cared about was getting back on stage and making music again. It became my drive to get better.

The same period saw guitarist Dave Baksh return to the fold, giving the band a three-pronged guitar attack

“They told me it was going to take two years and I just thought, ‘There’s no fucking way I’m going to let that happen’.”

Astonishingly, Deryck’s force of will saw him return to the stage for the Alternative Press awards in just over a year. What’s more he also managed to write and record the Sum 41’s sixth album, 13 Voices, (due 7 October) and the same period saw guitarist Dave Baksh return to the fold, giving the band a three-pronged guitar attack.

“I was playing it for a friend and he started laughing,” Deryck tells us. “I said, ‘What’s so funny?’ And he said, ‘It’s hilarious that in the time when everyone’s going pop that you’re adding more guitars than ever before!’”

Page 2 of 3
Page 2 of 3
Back in the saddle

Back in the saddle

Central to the tones have been a ’59 Les Paul Reissue through a combination of Marshalls, including a modified ’72 Super Bass, a Jubilee, a ’79 JMP and a JCM800 and Deryck says Does This Look Infected? is a good reference point.

I think, ‘Holy shit, if I’d have died, how much shit would I have missed already?’

“They’re straightforward songs. They punch you in the face, they end and then another punches you in the face again!” The frontman is clearly, deservedly, happy to be back in the saddle.

“One thing that sticks out is just how quickly life goes on,” reflects Deryck. “I think, ‘Holy shit, if I’d have died, how much shit would I have missed already?’ It just feels like there’s so much around the corner still.”

Sum 41’s sixth studio album, 13 Voices, is released 7 October via Hopeless Records.

Page 3 of 3
Page 3 of 3
Categories
Guitars
Matt Parker
Matt Parker

Matt is a freelance journalist who has spent the last decade interviewing musicians for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.

Stay up to date with the latest gear and tuition. image
Stay up to date with the latest gear and tuition.
Subscribe and save today!
More Info
Read more
Stevens with Idol
“The last thing we wanted to do was say, ‘Hey, let’s do another Rebel Yell’”: Steve Stevens on the new Billy Idol album
Aaron Comess of the Spin Doctors
“I used the snare I played on Two Princes”: Why the Spin Doctors are still rocking with the gear they used in the ’90s
Ian "Shiner" Thomas of Those Damn Crows onstage playing to a festival crowd with his Gibson Les Paul. He wears a baseball cap and sunglasses.
Shiner from Those Damn Crows on how to write a No.1 album and the Slipknot riff he wish he wrote
Lifeguard's Kai Slater, Isaac Lowenstein and Asher Case
Lifeguard on abstract noise and pop hooks – and the creative epiphanies behind their stellar debut
Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater
“I needed to scratch an itch”: Mike Portnoy talks about his years away from Dream Theater
Jackson Pro Series Lee Malia LM-87: The Bring Me The Horizon guitarist's new signature model is inspired by the Surfcaster and debuts a hunbucker/P-90 combo.
“I feel like that song had everything we needed to come back with”: Bring Me The Horizon’s Lee Malia on Shadow Moses, its riff and the secrets behind its tone, and why it was the right anthem at the right time
Latest in Guitarists
Jackson Pro Series Misha Mansoor Juggernaut HT7 and HT7P
Misha Mansoor spills blood as a home shopping TV presenter to unveil new signature Jackson 7-strings
Dickey Betts and Warren Haynes live onstage with the Allman Brothers Band in 1992. Haynes wears a patterned shit and plays his Les Paul Standard.
Warren Haynes on what Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts told him when he joined the Allman Brothers Band
Joe Trohman of Fall Out Boy plays his Zemaitis singlecut onstage in 2023.
Fall Out Boy’s Joe Trohman ruled out for rest of the year as he gets surgery on injured right hand
Vivian Campbell and Ronnie James Dio onstage in 1985 as they tour Campbell's final studio album with Dio, Sacred Heart. Campbell is playing a well-worn Charvel S-style electric guitar.
Vivian Campbell on his relationship with Ronnie James Dio – and what Dio told Ozzy about his playing
Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age plays a red/orange Gretsch onstage, and is framed by a triangle of yellow-green stagelights.
“It was the most bizarre musical experience”: QOTSA’s Troy Van Leeuwen on playing Paris's Catacombs
[Left] Richie Faulkner plays his custom Les Paul Custom while Rob Halford looks on; [right] Late-stage Ozzy-era Sabbath the first time around, with Ozzy cheering on guitarist Tony Iommi
Judas Priest salute the OG metal gods with a cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs
Latest in News
Jackson Pro Series Misha Mansoor Juggernaut HT7 and HT7P
Misha Mansoor spills blood as a home shopping TV presenter to unveil new signature Jackson 7-strings
Ozzy Osbourne
“The greatest day in the history of metal”: Black Sabbath’s final mega-gig raised £140m for charity
David Guetta
David Guetta says he’s never played a pre-recorded DJ set, and can’t understand why anyone would think he has
Blackstar ID:X 50: The new combo from the British amp titan is described as "this is the most natural-sounding" modelling amp on the market.
Blackstar unveils ID-X combos – complete with 6 amp voices, over 35 effects, CabRig and OLED display
The Gibson Les Paul Music City Special – 50th Anniversary is a limited edition hybrid that combines the old Marauder and Music City Junior, and offers them in wine, tobacco sunburst and ebony finishes.
Gibson celebrates 50 years in Nashville with limited run twist on a cult electric played by KISS
PRS SE NF 53: the super-versatile bolt-on electric gets a long-awaited SE release, and here all three finish options – White Dog Hair, Black Dog Hair and Pearl White – are photographed in front of a pair of PRS half-stacks.
PRS remixes its NF 53 for the SE line – and it's a serious workhorse electric for under a grand

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...