Three Days Grace: The Best of Both Worlds (Part 3 of 3)

Continued from Part Two…

How do you handle the lead vocals live? Does Adam sing lead on material from the first four albums with Matt taking the lead on the rest?

Matt Walst: We switch it up. Sometimes I’ll take lead on a few verses and choruses of old songs, and then with the newer songs that I sang on, Adam does the same. We trade [lead vocals] back and forth. I’ll do harmonies and play rhythm guitar on the older songs. It’s all over the place. We switch it up as much as we can to keep it interesting. And you can tell by the fans’ reaction that they love hearing Adam’s voice on “I Am Machine” or “Painkiller” [both from 2014’s Human] or “The Mountain” [from 2018’s Outsider]. We’re making it fun.

The band has released two new tracks, “Mayday” and “Apologies,” both of which are on the new album released in August. “Mayday” shot to the #1 spot of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock singles chart. The opening riff of “Mayday” is very reminiscent of “Animal I Have Come,” one of Three Days Grace’s breakthrough hits from 2006. Is that similarity a coincidence or intentional?

Adam Gontier: I think it’s a little bit of both. We’re super aware that it has a similar riff to “Animal I Have Become.” And it’s a little bit of a tip of the cap to the old stuff.

The second new single, “Apologies” made it to Number 6. Taken together, those two songs are the debut of the new lineup featuring both of you, so they could be thought of as a peek at the band’s future. The vocal on “Apologies” has a fair amount of vocal processing on it, giving the song a pop feel; that’s something we haven’t really heard on past Three Days Grace tracks. Were you at all reluctant to move in that pop direction?

Matt Walst: The producers we worked with are Zakk Cervini and Dan Lancaster. Dan Lancaster produced that song; he’s a pretty pop-orientated producer, but he’s also heavy at the same time. The Vocoder-type effects… I feel like he’s a little bit more that way, and so that’s how that song turned out.

Adam Gontier: The band evolves, too. We definitely want to stay true to who we were and who we are, and we do that. But at the same time, you want to move forward a little bit and try different things; otherwise you’re just sitting in one spot, spinning your wheels. So it’s nice to have different vibes on certain songs.

What can you share about Alienation, set for release in August?
Adam Gontier: “Mayday” and “Apologies” are the first two songs, and they’re the only two songs that anybody’s heard yet. I can tell you that the rest of the record has got a lot of heavy stuff and a lot of really cool things, too. It’s all over the place; it’s nice for us to be able to mix it up.

Matt Walst: Yeah, it’s pretty diverse. There are some super heavy songs, some lighter ones and some in the middle. We like to spread it out and not just be heavy the whole time. It’s like with our [live] show: we try to be dynamic with it. Because if it’s full-out the whole time, that kind of gets boring. So it’s nice to make an album that has different flavors on it.

In the live shows on this tour, are you both playing guitars? With lead guitarist Barry Stock, that would mean three guitarists onstage all at once…

Adam Gontier: Matt will play during a few of the older songs that I sang on, and I play guitar on a couple of the songs that Matt doesn’t play on. So there’s never three guitars. For a lot of the show, there’s just Barry [on guitar].

So you’re not going to turn into Lynyrd Skynyrd…

Adam Gontier: Not anytime soon, I don’t think!

What can people expect on this tour?

Adam Gontier: Like Matt was saying, we’re fortunate that we have a whole bunch of songs to choose from. We try to get in as many songs as we can that people know and love. But it’s also cool that we’re able to take some B-sides – and some songs that weren’t necessarily singles – and put them in the set as well. It’s a high energy show like it’s always been; we give it everything we’ve got when we’re up there. We’re doing a Canadian tour now; it’s been a lot of fun. And then we’ll be out on a co-headline with Breaking Benjamin in the fall.

Your tour routes through the U.S. from mid-July to mid-October. With all that’s going on politically between the U.S. and Canadian governments, do you have any concerns about the rules changing up so that some of the band can’t come here?

Matt Walst: Oh, God, no. Nothing’s changed.

Adam Gontier: No, not yet. I live in Nashville now, and Barry lives in Kentucky, so we’re okay. I’m pretty sure that the rest of the guys will be allowed in with no problem. I hope so, anyway.
After the North American dates, you’re headed over to Europe, right?

Adam Gontier: That’s right. We’ll be over there in November for about a month. We’re looking forward to it. It’s going to be a busy year. We’re excited to get out there and get the show on the road.

Some bands tour, and then when they come off the road, they go home and write songs. Other bands write all the time, and might even “field test” new material on the tour. Are you already writing for the next album, or are you focused completely on the here and now?

Matt Walst: We never stop writing and being creative, so that never stops. We have a few ideas kicking around, but right now we’re out here rocking.