13 Voices

Album: 13 Voices (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • In 2014, Sum 41 frontman Dereck Whibley was hospitalized with liver and kidney failure as a result of years of alcohol abuse. He started working on new songs for the 13 Voices album upon release from hospital. This song, the title track, explains the paranoia Whibley was feeling as he attempted to take care of his health.

    "There's so much chaos in my head of being newly sober, going through recovery and doing everything for the first time, everything felt new and frightening and scary, and there was so much noise in my head of self doubt and insecurity and I was questioning whether I was doing anything correctly," Whibley explained to TeamRock. "I couldn't be around people, everything was just really bizarre. I thought I was going crazy and becoming schizophrenic or something."

    "That's always been a fear of mine, when you see crazy people on the street it's like, 'How did they get there?'" he added. "Is it possible to all of a sudden become crazy one day, and had I done it to myself? I thought I was losing my mind so that's what that song is about and what that title represents, all the voices in my head at once, all screaming at one time."

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