Media Credit: Three Days Grace Website- Official Photos
By Kate Drexel
Arts & Entertainment Editor
On October 2, Canadian rock band, Three Days Grace, released their fourth album, Transit of Venus. An album filled with love, hate, anger and sorrow, all emotions the band is known to play from their previous albums, Three Days Grace, One-X, and Life Starts Now.
The band formed in 1992 in their hometown Norwood, Ontario, but with a different name, Groundswell. It was founded by their front man, Adam Gontier, bassist, Brad Walst, and drummer, Neil Sanderson. By 1995, the band broke up briefly due to two of their members dropping out, however Gontier, Walst and Sanderson regrouped and changed their name to the world-renowned name, Three Days Grace. By 2003 they released their first self-titled album featuring singles like “I Hate Everything About You”, “Home”, and “Just Like You”.
During that year, they got their current lead guitarist, Barry Stock. The record was certified platinum in the US by the RIAA in 2004. After their success, Gontier succumbed to an addiction to OxyContin and was admitted to a rehabilitation facility in Toronto immediately. During his time there, he wrote four songs for their sophomore album, expressing his experience. Songs like “Animal I Have Become”, “Over and Over”, “Gone”, “Pain”, and “Never Too Late”. Once Gontier recovered, the band found a secluded cottage in the Northern part of Ontario, working on their new album, One-X. After months of recording, the band finally released their record in June 2006. After two years of touring, the band began to work on their third album, Life Starts Now, which was released in September 2009, their leading singles, “Break”, “The Good Life”, “World So Cold” and “Lost in You”.
On January 5, 2012, the band announced they were working on their new album at which they announced the title: Transit of Venus. On July 31, they announced they have completed their work and the album’s release date is October 2. This 13-track record received a plethora of positive reviews and in celebration of their success; the band invited the fans to participate in a live chat where they also performed songs acoustically from their new album as well as songs from One-X on October 4 in Livestream’s studio in New York City. The first song that filled our ears was their leading single, filled with anger and angst, from the new record, “Chalk Outline”.
How did you all meet?
Adam: I met Brad and Neil in high school, when we were 14…and we just got together and jammed a lot.
What do you do while on tour?
Adam: I play video games
Brad: Same…and I sleep a lot
How did you come up with “Chalk Outline”?
Adam: We actually wrote it together and it’s basically saying that you feel like you’ve been tossed aside a lot and you’re just sick and tired of it.
Who is your dream collaboration?
Adam: Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails.
Neil: Dude, that’d be awesome!
Adam: Yeah, we were actually influenced by him while working on our record…we listen to him a lot.
What made you choose the artwork for the album?
Neil: There was this graffiti artist from Sao Paulo, Brazil. We saw some of his work while touring there then we though maybe he could some artwork for the new album. I emailed him and he sent us his work.
Who are your music inspirations?
Brad: Muse
Adam: Yeah, Muse and Nine Inch Nails
Neil: Definitely Nine Inch Nails
Barry: Muse
Ben: …same
[All chuckle]
What do you generally write about?
Adam: I write about real personal experiences like life, death, pain and so on…
Why did you change your music style?
Adam: We wanted to step away from our comfort zone and add something different like our keyboardist, Ben, who we found on craigslist and so far, he’s been a great addition. And like I said, Trent Reznor really influenced us on this record.
Transit of Venus is now available to purchase at your local music store and for digital download.
5/5
No tracks to skip
