Sum 41 joined us for a special performance and interview from the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ in Los Angeles, giving us a taste of their 2024 live set as they continue the second North American leg of their Tour of the Setting Sum -- and speaking with us about how the outing has been going so far.

It truly was a historic night at KROQ, with Sum 41 joining the station that has been with the band for all 23 years of their epic run, now as they give fans one more go before packing things up for good.

Just months ago, the band released their final album Heaven X Hell, with Heaven representing their Pop-punk side and Hell focusing on the heavier side of their songwriting -- two equally tense worlds that the group has brilliantly straddled since the start.

“I don't know if we call it tension,” says frontman Deryk Whibley. “We're fans of that kind of music and other kinds of music as well. I think we just, I don't know, I don't think we ever really talked about it or thought about it, we just did stuff. Even with this record, ‘Heaven and Hell,’ we didn't say, ‘Let's make a double record.’ The music was just there, and we all collectively listened to it separately, but came up with the same idea.”

This year has been feeling like a throwback to 2001 for the band members as they make the press rounds amid their current tour. “I think the funniest thing that I think back to is that it doesn't feel like it was that long ago,” Deryck says. “It really just feels like a couple of years ago.”

Back then he adds, “It was a lot of work and it was a lot of fun -- everything was happening so fast. It's kind of the only difference now with everything happening so fast and so much going on is that we're old enough to recognize it and take it in because back then you're just like, onto the next thing, onto the next thing, and you kind of forget. You don't take those moments in.”

Calling it quits after this record Deryck explains “was never the plan. Nothing was ever thought of this whole record. Like I said, the songs are by accident. The idea was just a thing that the music spoke to us, and then I think once the record was finished and it was mixed and recorded, the whole thing was done is when that hit me. I felt like this to me was the record that we've always been trying to make -- this encapsulates everything that we've always wanted to do.”

“That's the sound of Sum 41 from the beginning to now,” he says. “It just kind of made too much sense for this to be the final one.”

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Kevan Kenney

Earlier this month, host Miles the DJ was joined by current Sublime frontman Jakob Nowell's solo band -- Jakobs Castle -- for a special performance and interview live from the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ in Los Angeles.

Jakobs Castle’s 2024 debut, Enter The Castle, was released in April coinciding with frontman Jakob Nowell’s Coachella performances -- not only with Sublime -- but also a pre-party held with his solo band. “It was a lot of fun out there, Coachella,” Jakob tells us. “Super excited to be playing with my dad's band Sublime and continuing to do Jakobs Castle all together. It's one big family out there, let me tell you!”

“To keep that vibe,” Nowell explains, “every single Sublime show I play, you know, obviously a lot bigger and stuff, I always try to go out into the audience and just have fun and romp around a little bit.” Gesturing off stage to his friend, “My boy Mark over there saved me from drowning on three occasions,” he laughs. “I like to usually like jump in the water if we're playing by a beach or in a pool.”

Following Sublime's second Coachella weekend set, fans may have noticed Jakob screaming to the crowd when the microphones were cut. “I think I was just trying to incite chaos if I remember correctly, that's usually my goal,” he says.

Though both weekends were amazing and “different in their own ways," he tells us of his time with Sublime, “The more we play shows, the more we just get locked into that vibe and we get more comfortable with one another," describing it as “totally a surreal experience.”

“It's so amazing,” he continues, “how many people's lives have been touched by that music and that sound, and this amazing, amazing scene we have here in Southern California, the best place to be in the f***ing world.”

“It's so beautiful because every show I play, whether it's a Sublime show or Jakobs Castle show, people come up to me with amazing stories and ways that that music has affected their life and continues to do it,” Jakob explains. “I think playing with my uncles like that has just sort of strengthened our relationship, and it's challenged me as a musician, and its shown me that music goes beyond just the sounds that we make and the fun events that we do. It's the memories that we create here, you know, all these things that we do -- we do it because those are the memories that no one can take away from us.”

Stepping into the Castle today, a place that would exist “somewhere in the present that's also rooted in history,” according to the band’s bio, Jakob states further, “To be my most authentic self, I have to draw from where I come from -- the sounds of the past. That's sort of referencing the entire Skunk Records scene in Long Beach in general, in Southern California, but with also an eye towards the future, and innovation, and all the amazing musicians in many different scenes, and many different genres, that have also been inspired by that.”

Imagine Dragons joined us for a special performance and interview in the Helpful Honda Sound Space to give fans a preview of their brand new album LOOM, upcoming tour dates, and more.

With the arrival of their brand new, sixth studio album LOOM, Imagine Dragons dropped by Audacy's KROQ in Los Angeles to give fans a taste of the new record, as well as what to expect from the band on their impending tour which kicks off at the end of July. LOOM is available now.

Looking back on the band's relationship with KROQ, frontman Dan Reynolds remembers the first time he heard their music played on the radio back in 2012, recalling they were driving from Las Vegas to L.A. to play a show. “We were just getting in range to pick up the station and -- this sounds like such a made-up story, it's so dramatic -- it was fuzzy," he says as their single "It's Time," came through the speakers. "We were just racing as fast as we could to kind of get a better signal to hear it. It was straight out of a movie. We were all just like, ‘This feels too weird.’”

12 years after their debut, the group just released their sixth studio album, LOOM, and are feeling familiar excitement and relief now that it’s finally been delivered.

“You know, when you make a record -- you're working on it for over a year, sometimes two years," Reynolds says. "So, we've been sitting with this music for a long time, and it's really hard for us to sit on that. I hate it, I'm always anxious about it, waiting. So we've been counting down the days for a long time… It's a relief and we also are really proud and excited about this record and we hope everybody likes it as much as we do.”

“You have given me purpose and a place to sing and dance,” Dan stated when announcing the new offering. “You have continually stood by our side now for over a decade. in return we will always be here singing along with you. I always and only hope that it helps you feel less alone. It brings you joy. makes you cry. makes you angry. makes you dance. makes you FEEL something.”

“I've just spent a lot of my life numb,” he tells us. “I had a hard time expressing myself. That's why I turned to music in the first place -- I found that it was something I could always turn to and feel any emotion. I'm kind of one of those people who doesn't cry for a long time and then when you cry, you just cry really hard in a long time. Or, when you get angry you're really angry because you've been holding it in, and that's really unhealthy. I did that for a long time,” he admits.

“Now I'm just angry all the time, I cry all the time,” he laughs. “But only a little bit angry,” bassist Ben McGee adds.

Guitarist Wayne Sermon says of the new record, “The album cover itself, you don't even know if it's necessarily a sunrise or a sunset… The word ‘Loom,’ it can be a positive or negative connotation just depending on what's going on. I think o ...