Even though the pop-punk quartet Sum 41 [ tickets ] has long fared well in the United States, drummer Steve Jocz said the Canadian band had a tough time proving itself in its home country.

"We could sell out places in the United States and then go home and play to nobody in our hometown," Jocz said.

"Canadians are like that. You have to prove yourself. You have to get Americans to like you, then the Canadians love you. Unless you're The Tragically Hip and you've been around for 30 years and all you sing about is the 100th meridian and the plains and s---. Once they like you, they love you and they're there forever and loyal."

Sum 41--which also includes guitarist/vocalist Deryck Whibley, guitarist/vocalist Dave Baksh and bassist Cone McCaslin--made news earlier this year when it traveled to Republic of Congo to film a documentary for the nonprofit organization War Child Canada. During its visit, a yearlong peace was broken and the quartet ended up in the middle of civil war.

"It's a real sensational sort of story. Everywhere we've gone, people ask about it," Jocz said.

During a recent tour stop in Mesa, AZ, Jocz talked with liveDaily about the trip to Congo and Sum 41's its new album, "Chuck."

Your new album is named after the United Nations volunteer who helped rescue you from Congo. Have you seen him since Congo?

Yeah, Chuck is actually Canadian. He was a U.N. volunteer, but he's from Victoria, BC. We had a show on this tour in Vancouver--which we had to cancel because Deryck had laryngitis. Chuck was home on leave, so we went and partied with him. He's a great guy. I would love him even if he didn't save my life. He likes to drink and party and be loud and obnoxious.

How did he rescue you in Congo?

Chuck was the one who came back and got us. He worked with the U.N. He was staying in the hotel we were staying at. He was told twice to go back to the U.N. and deal with the camps that he manages. He said, "F--- no. There are 40 people at this hotel." Nearly every other hotel had been sacked. That means all the women had been raped. All the men were killed or got the s--- kicked out of them. It was really f---ing terrible things that happened. They didn't bother us because Chuck was there. He's a U.N. guy. They saw the blue helmet and they didn't want to bother him. He was calling in the helicopters that would just hover over our hotel. When the helicopters were there, those guys [rebels] wouldn't come near. We actually saw one of the helicopters shoot into the jungle when we were safe in the U.N. compound. They had been hovering for days just scaring them. I think they just got fed up with the continued fighting. We saw a burst of lights and then the jungle was engulfed in flames. We're like, "Yeah. Kill those m-----------s." Everybody cheered when that happened. I'm sure it killed 50 people--50 bad guys. There was just all this fighting and it wouldn't stop, and that prevented us from leaving. So I'd just sort of had it.

How did you handle the whole situation?

The whole situation's bad. We weren't hurt. We came close to dying. But nobody was ever injured. They were firing mortar rounds from across the lake. They had the distance right but the target was off. There was constant gunfire. When there were loud noises, we were jumpy. Two days ago, I was on the bus; I heard a real loud pop and I immediately just thought of Africa. Nobody's traumatized. I never had a nightmare. Actually, I had one the other day. But once we got to the U.N. [camp] we thought everything was going to be fine. It wasn't fine, because, the next day, the U.N. got brushed aside. The airport we were evacuated from, it fell to the rebels.

How are your experiences in Congo reflected in your album?

This one was recorded before Africa, except the single, "We're All to Blame," was post-Africa.

Was "Chuck" recorded any differently than your previous releases?

This one just took a lot of time. The first two, we had to rush a little bit. The last one was written and recorded in two months, which was a stupid way of doing things. This one, we had 10 months, so we just took our time.

How did the songs evolve over the 10 months?

Everyone threw in their two cents. We sat there and analyzed, but it was also nice to have 20 songs even though you're going to pick 12. We never did that before, but we had an opportunity to do it. Sometimes we would take the chorus of one song and the verse of another, put them together and had another song.

"Chuck" has a darker feel to it. To what do you attribute that?

The last album ["Does This Look Infected?"] had serious songs. "Hell Song" is about how one of our best friends now has AIDS. "Still Waiting" is more of an angry political song than "We're All to Blame." We recorded our first album when we were in high school and didn't care about the outside world. We were 18 when we were signed. I didn't care, but that's also around the time I started to care. Now, we've been around the world four times, I read the newspaper, books and I'm curious about how the world works. One thing you learn is: the world isn't a great place. Sometimes it's a nasty place. We mainly write songs about observations that we have. You can't ignore the cover of every newspaper and every news broadcast--the war on terror, the war on Iraq, Bush, what happened in Russia. It's hard to ignore them and not form an opinion, especially when you're writing songs.

Describe Sum 41's songwriting process.

Deryck writes the songs as much as he can, and then we all get together and work in them. Then, we get together with Greg [Nori], our producer. Some songs change drastically. The lyrics always come last. Often, it's Deryck sort of scrambling to write them. He goes right in the studio to sing line by line and verse by verse. I write some of the lyrics, but not too many. "Fat Lip," we all wrote it. "We're All to Blame," Deryck and I and Greg wrote the lyrics. I don't really take too much credit. I'm not a songwriter. I never have been. I don't care for it. I don't even really like drums. I take piano lessons and I practice the piano four hours a day. I never practice the drums. Drums are something I've always done with a band, with friends. Playing the drums by yourself is so boring. It's fun when you're in a band and you're with your buddies. Piano you can do by yourself. That's my little hobby.

Are you going to incorporate your piano playing on the next record?

Nah. Deryck played the piano on this record. Maybe on the next record, we both might play. I don't care. I'm fine with just the drums.

It sounds like you have a lot of fun with the band. You don't really see it as a job.

The only time I see it as a job is when we have to go to the airport. I hate the airport. But airports, like everything else, have wireless Internet. It's great. I can't live without the f---ing Internet. I'm the Internet guy.