Sum 41 frontman says band has "new lease on life"

Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley said this week that the group wasn't sure if it would make another record after finishing its tour last year in support of its 2004 album, Chuck. Whibley admitted that the band was "burned out" at the time, adding, "Everything about the (Chuck) record was a fucking mess. The band relationship was terrible, we didn't have a clear vision of where we wanted to go, we didn't really want to make a record together and we didn't get along with our producer at the time...we honestly weren't a band. We were a machine."

Chuck, which was Sum 41's worst-selling and worst-reviewed album, was named after a United Nations worker who helped evacuate the band from the war-torn African nation of Congo while it tried to film a documentary there.

Whibley said that firing Sum 41's management, accountant and lawyers, while also parting ways with guitarist Dave "Brownsound" Baksh and becoming a trio again, gave the band a new lease on life. He explained, "For whatever reason, it felt more right than it ever had before. So at the beginning of 2006, we all got together and decided to make another record."

Sum 41 recently entered the studio to begin recording Chuck's follow-up, which does not yet have a title but is expected out next summer.

Whibley married longtime girlfriend and Canadian punk-pop singer Avril Lavigne this past July.