Whibley and his friends formed Sum 41 when he was 16—on the 41st day of his summer vacation. He was inspired, in part, by seeing NOFX at Warped Tour ’96. Almost immediately, the band became his entire world. “I barely passed high school, because I intentionally didn’t pay attention,” he remembers. “I didn’t want a plan B. I was so convinced I was going to be in music one way or another, whether I was super successful or just in a punk rock band that played small clubs.”
16岁那年,惠布利和他的朋友们在暑假的第41天成立了Sum 41。他的灵感部分来自于96年在Warped Tour上看到的NOFX。几乎立刻,乐队就成了他的整个世界。“我勉强通过了高中,因为我故意不专心,”他回忆道。“我不想要后备计划。我非常确信,不管我是超级成功,还是只是在一个小俱乐部演出的朋克摇滚乐队里,我都会以某种方式进入音乐界。”
By the time Sum 41’s classic lineup came together in Whibley’s senior year—lead guitarist Dave “Brownsound” Baksh, bassist Jason “Cone” McCaslin, drummer Steve “Stevo32” Jocz, and Whibley, who went by “Bizzy D,” on lead vocals and rhythm guitars—the band had already devised a live show that matched its outsized ambitions. “We were trying to put on an arena show in tiny clubs,” Whibley says of Sum’s legendarily raucous early performances, which involved trampolines, fireworks, and choreographed guitar moves. “It was all very Kiss.”
当Sum 41的经典阵容在惠布利高年级的时候——首席吉他手Dave“Brownsound”Baksh,贝斯手Jason“Cone”McCaslin,鼓手Steve“Stevo32”Jocz和惠布利(他以“Bizzy D”担任主唱和节奏吉他)——乐队已经设计了一场符合其巨大野心的现场演出。“我们试图在小俱乐部里举办一场舞台表演,”惠布利谈到Sum早期传奇般的喧闹表演,其中包括蹦床、烟花和精心设计的吉他动作。“一切都很棒。”
Around that period, the quartet began mailing their goofy VHS demos to virtually anyone in the music industry whose address they could find. Billie Joe Armstrong got one, as he fondly recalled in a recent interview, as did NOFX’s Fat Mike, who briefly considered signing them to his Fat Wreck Chords label before deciding a band with that much commercial potential needed to be on a major. He was right: Not long after, in 1999, Sum 41 signed to the newly conglomerated Island Def Jam Group, and the fame Whibley had dreamed about in high school suddenly arrived hard and fast.
大约在那个时期,四个人开始把他们愚蠢的VHS样带邮寄给音乐行业里任何他们能找到地址的人。比莉·乔·阿姆斯特朗(Billie Joe Armstrong)在最近的一次采访中深情地回忆道,他得到了一张唱片,NOFX的胖迈克(Fat Mike)也得到了一张唱片,他曾短暂地考虑将他们签入自己的Fat Wreck Chords厂牌,后来才决定让这支具有巨大商业潜力的乐队成为主流乐队。他是对的:不久之后,1999年,Sum 41与新组建的Island Def Jam Group签约,惠布利在高中时梦想的名声突然迅速到来。
Sum dropped a well-received EP, Half Hour of Power, in 2000—DMX showed up in the band’s first-ever music video—quickly followed by All Killer No Filler, its debut full length, a year later. The album went platinum in three months and remained on the Billboard 200 for 49 weeks. “Fat Lip,” the first single, beat out the likes of NSYNC’s “Pop” and J.Lo’s “I’m Real” for the number-one spot on TRL over and over and over again.
2000年,Sum发行了一张广受好评的EP《Half Hour of Power》,dmx出现在乐队的第一张音乐录影带中——一年后,他们的首张完整专辑《All Killer No Filler》紧随其后。这张专辑在3个月内成为白金唱片,并在Billboard 200排行榜上停留了49周。首张单曲《Fat Lip》击败了超级男孩的《Pop》和珍妮弗·洛佩兹的《I 'm Real》,一遍又一遍地夺得TRL的冠军。