SUM 41 HISTORY

Sum 41 is a Canadian Punk rock band from Ajax, Ontario. The current members are Deryck Whibley (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard/piano), Cone McCaslin (bass/vocals), and Steve Jocz (drums/vocals).

Since signing an international record deal with Island Records in 1999, the band has released five studio albums, two live CDs, two live DVDs, more than fifteen singles, and sold millions of albums worldwide. As of 2006, the band performed more than 600 times and has become famous for their long and global tours, often last for more than a year.

The members of Sum 41 started out in rival bands in high school. They joke that they met while attending a Hole concert 41 days into the summer of 1996. According to the website Supernova, the band was originally a NOFX cover band and named Kaspir, and changed their name to Sum 41 for a Supernova show on September 28, 1996. The website also states that they were scouted by Greig Nori of Treble Charger at a Supernova show at the Opera House in Toronto on February 24, 1996. The current bassist, Cone, joined the band in 1999, after the band went through several other bassists. They spent many years playing together, hoping to make it big one day.

The band carried a video camera with them to film their crazy antics including robbing a pizza place with water guns and performing a dance to "Makes No Difference" in front of a theater (both of which can be seen on both Introduction to Destruction and on some versions of the bonus DVD from Does This Look Infected?).

The band submitted the video footage along with their demo tapes to several record labels. Island Records, wanting to capitalize on the pop-punk fad popularized by Green Day and blink-182, signed Sum 41 in early 2000.

Sum 41 released the album, Half Hour of Power, on June 27, 2000. The first single released by the band was "Makes No Difference", which had two different videos. The first video was put together using the video clips sent to the record label, and the second showed the band performing at a house party.

info : wikipedia