SUM 41 Announces Split: 'We Are Excited For What The Future Will Bring For Each Of Us'

Canadian pop-punkers SUM 41 have announced plans to split up following the completion of a worldwide tour in support of their upcoming album, "Heaven :x: Hell".

Earlier today (Monday, May 8),SUM 41 released the following statement via social media: "Being in SUM 41 since 1996 brought us some of the best moments of our lives. We are forever grateful to our fans both old and new, who have supported us in every way. It is hard to articulate the love and respect we have for all of you and we wanted you to hear this from us first.

"SUM 41 will be disbanding. We will still be finishing all of our current upcoming tour dates this year, and we're looking forward to releasing our final album 'Heaven :x: Hell', along with a final worldwide headlining tour to celebrate. Details will be announced as soon as we have them.

"For now, we look forward to seeing all of you skumfuks on the road and are excited for what the future will bring for each of us.

"Thank you for the last 27 years of SUM 41."

Last month, SUM 41 frontman Deryck Whibley told the "Tuna On Toast With Stryker" podcast about "Heaven :x: Hell": "It's a double record, and the 'Heaven' side is 10 songs and it's all like our old-school SUM 41 pop punk sound. New songs that are in the vein of 'All Killer' and 'Does This Look Infected'. The 'Hell' side is another 10 songs that are all in sort of the heavier sort of [direction from] 'Chuck' to what we've been doing lately, heavier sound. So it's 20 songs total."

Regarding the songwriting process for "Heaven :x: Hell", Deryck said: "A lot of these songs I wrote by accident. I didn't try to write a pop punk album and a heavy… The pop punk stuff came because during the pandemic, all of a sudden a lot of people were calling, my manager or labels were reaching out and saying, 'So-and-so artist would love to see if you would write with them.' A lot of people were reaching out for songs. And I didn't have any. And everybody was saying, 'We’re looking for pop punky kind of stuff.' So I thought, 'Well, I should probably start writing some stuff.' I'm, like, 'I haven't written a pop punk song in 16 years. So I don't even know if I can do it.' So I started writing some, and I got like three or four, and I listened to them all, and I go, 'I like these.' I was surprised by how much I liked them. And I thought, 'I don't want to give these away. I don't know what I’m gonna do with them, but I don’t want to just give them away. I like them.'"

He continued: "I had already been writing some of the heavier stuff already. So I had about four or five of those. And I just kept going and all of a sudden I just had 20 songs. And at the time, I didn't know what to do with them. I thought, 'I'll pick the best 10 maybe and make an album.' And I just went and listened to all 20 in a row. I thought, 'Okay, I'll listen to all the pop punk first, all the heavy second. And these are just demos. I'm driving around, I go through all the pop punk songs and I get halfway through the heavy, and that's when it hit me: I think this whole thing should be an album. It should be a double album."

SUM 41's storied 24-plus-year career includes over 15 million records sold worldwide, multiple Billboard-charting releases, a Grammy Award nomination, two Juno Awards (seven nominations),a Kerrang! Award in 2002, as well as multiple Alternative Press Music Awards.

Photo credit: Ashley Osborn