Three Days Grace on Reuniting With Adam Gontier for New Album & Whether They’ll Keep Making Music With Two Singers

It’s safe to say that what’s happen with Three Days Grace was not on fans’ bingo cards.

The Canadian rock group parted ways, somewhat acrimoniously, with original frontman Adam Gontier during 2013, after four albums (three of them platinum or better) and 10 Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s, including “Animal I Have Become,” Billboard‘s Rock Single of the Year in 2006. Matt Walst, younger brother of bassist Brad Walst, came on board in Gontier’s place for the next three albums and another seven Mainstream Rock Airplays No. 1s.

Then, on April 19, 2023, Gontier joined Three Days Grace for two songs at the end of its set in Huntsville, Ala. A few months later, he did the same for three songs in Nashville. A year later, the band confirmed that Gontier was back in the band full time and would be sharing lead vocals with Walst — and that the group, dubbed Three Days Grace 2X, was working on its eighth studio album. Fans got their first look at the reorganized group earlier this year when they supported Disturbed on its The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour, and at the subsequent Inkcareration Festival during July.

The album, Alienation, comes out Friday (Aug. 22). With the revamped group already notching two new No. 1s on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, “Mayday” and “Apologies,” expectations are high. The 12-song set was written in Nashville and at guitarist Barry Stock’s home studio in southern Indiana, with Dan Lancaster and Zakk Cervini co-producing at a rented house in Franklin, Tenn. Howard Benson recorded Gontier and Walst’s vocals at his studio in Calabasas, Calif., while Lindsey Stirling guests on the track “Never Ordinary,” which was originally intended for her to release.

Alienation gives the Three Days Grace faithful much of what they love about the group. It opens with the slamming “Dominate,” already nabbed by the WWE’s Goldberg for his entrance music, and keeps the energy torqued high on “Deathwish,” “In Cold Blood,” “In Waves” and “Another Relapse.” Even when the intensity ebbs on tracks such as “Don’t Wanna Go Home Tonight,” “Never Ordinary” and “Kill Me Fast,” there’s a power that comes from both the playing and the exchange between the two vocalists.

Three Days Grace hits the road again Aug. 29 for a North American co-headlining tour with Breaking Benjamin, then heads to Europe during November and December. During the calm before the storm, Billboard got with Gontier, Sanderson and Matt Walst to talk about the animal the band has become, and the good life that it’s living now.

This version of Three Days Grace was not something a great many of us would have expected or predicted. How did it happen?

Gontier: I stayed in touch with the guys on and off, Brad more so than the other guys. During Covid Brad and I started getting together in our hometown of Peterborough, Ont., just to have coffee and hang out and that sort of thing. I guess he and Matt had been discussing the idea of me coming back; I think Matt, basically, it was his initial thought.

Walst: I remember talking to Brad about it and bring up maybe bringing Adam back and me staying and doing a record together. Shortly after that we had (Gontier) out to sing a couple of songs in Huntsville, Ala., and then we did it again in Nashville, and it was so much fun. It was great to see the audience reaction to it. Then we made plans to hook up and write, and the writing was so easy it was just, “OK, this is gonna be fun” and we went from there.

Sanderson: We got together at this great place Barry has in southern Indiana, and as soon as we wrote the first song — actually “Mayday,” the first single, was one of the earliest things we started throwing around when we got down there — a lot of signs were pointing in the direction that we’re right where we want to be, we’re right where we should be right now. We’re keeping our heads down and doing the work, ’cause we’re catching a nice wave here, and it’s great. But we’re humble about it; it’s like, “Do the work now, and we can look back on it later. Just…go!”

It takes a certain generosity of spirit to share that lead singer spotlight, especially after working so hard to establish the credibility of a new frontman.

Walst: I grew up watching Adam and Brad and Neil jam in my basement when I was 11 or 12 years old. If it wasn’t for Adam getting Brad to pick up a bass guitar and then my brother bringing an electric guitar home for me to pick up and play, I don’t know if I ever would’ve been a musician in the first place. So as a fan of the band first and foremost, I wanted to see Adam come back and sing the songs he recorded with the band, and for me to sing my era of Three Days Grace. It just felt full circle.

Gontier: We were friends before were bandmates. I watched Matt grow up from about the age of eight to, well, now. Before the band took off we were friends, and that’s never changed. So watching him grow up and stuff, it’s pretty cool.

Adam’s departure in 2013 was a little tense. Were there any hard feelings or animosities that had to be dealt with before he could rejoin?

Sanderson: Not really. We were different people back then; we’re talking about 12 years ago now, and just being different people, with different people around us, too. Things were moving very, very quickly and se spent that decade being on a bus and just doing all this stuff for the first time. Everybody has a different experience with that, and it got to a point where it wasn’t very healthy for some of the guys. But nothing really happened; it’s not like something festered or it was like, “Oh my God, the Thing!” There was no Thing. We were all just in different places at the time, and drugs were an issue and alcohol was an issue and people around us were an issue. Put those things together and you never know what’s gonna happen.

Gontier: The way that it all happened, and the way I felt, was pretty abrupt and it caught everybody by surprise. So, yeah, a little bit of anger there, probably, from everybody involved. It could’ve been handled different, but I was not in a great place emotionally. I wasn’t good at dealing with things. But it’s been many years and we’ve all grown up quite a bit and we’ve all got young kids and everything, so it just seemed like the right thing to do, and it definitely felt like the right time.

What are the dynamics like of having two lead singers and deciding who sings what?

Walst: For a few parts during the demo process we were just doing rock, paper, scissors for who was gonna sing the next part. But as the songs grew we kind of knew what parts I’d be singing and what parts (Gontier would) be singing, and we’d try back and forth and just mix it up and have fun with it.

Gontier: Going out with Disturbed was a lot of fun, ‘cause I got a chance to sing some of Matt’s songs and he’s been singing some of the songs I wrote with the band for 10 years now. It’s cool to go up and sing different ones like “I Am Machine” and “Lifetime,” ’cause I’m a big fan of those songs, too. And on (the album) we both sing on all of the tracks. When we started the demo process we wanted to save our voices so we would do rock, paper, scissors to see who was going to do the demo version.

Sanderson: I think one of the most exciting moments for me, live, was when they were trading off vocals, and a lightbulb went off. They have very distinct, different voices, but when they come together and when they harmonize it’s really powerful and unique. I instantly thought of Pink Floyd, ’cause I’m huge Pink Floyd fan, and those two guys, Roger Waters and David Gilmour, never tried to sound like one another but having them both just added another dimension to the possibilities of what the group could do. We thought it was gonna be a lot more work than it was, but it came together pretty naturally.

“Mayday” and “Apologies” have given you guys another couple of Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1s. Do you have a sense of how happy fans are to see Adam back and the group continuing like it is?

Sanderson: Oh, 100%. In a way it feels like closing this big loop. It’s just this coming together and this moment where you’re at the right place at the right time and we’re making the right music, and it feels complete. It feels like the best version of Three Days Grace that we can offer so far, and now with this new facet of having another guy and another guitar player (with Gontier). For us to go and explore that more creatively is exciting us, too.

Walst: When we played at Inkcarceration we were second from the last at that festival and there were about 35,000 people there, and seeing the videos afterwards of young people singing “I Hate Everything About You,” a song that came out 22 years ago — before some of them were born, probably — and they’re singing it and loving it, which is super cool. Some crowds sing louder than Adam and I do. It’s pretty crazy.

Why was Alienation the right title for the album?

Sanderson: I think it’s to do with this common thread and common themes we’ve had throughout our records. It’s a nod to our (2006) album One-X, because it’s that one person who doesn’t feel like they’re amongst any sort of community. They feel isolated, alone in their thoughts and feelings, nobody to relate to. We talk about that a lot in our lyrics, the anxiety and isolated feeling that can have on you when you might be amongst a lot of people and you still feel completely alone, and that’s an alienating feeling. I think that’s a message we try to tell people, especially young people, that you’re not alone. There are a lot of people who feel that way. This is another album that talks about that a lot, and we thought Alienation would complement that thought.

“Apologies” is probably the newest sounding thing on the album. Where did that come from?

Gontier: The whole album was a lot of fun to write, but “Apologies” is just a different vibe for this band. It leans a little more modern, a little more poppy. It was fun to write that one, ’cause it was different for us.

Sanderson: The original version was pitched up a lot higher; it had even more of a pop feel to it. But I just believed that song had the right food groups to really say what we were trying to say, and it also felt like it was in the wheelhouse of Three Days Grace. So I brought it to the band and we put it in a new key and changed a bunch of stuff to make it suit the band, and now it’s No. 1.

There are tour plans set through the end of the year. What’s 2026 looking like?

Sanderson: We have big plans for big tours. I think the moment right now is just amazing. The fans are really embracing the new music and the new lineup ad this new look for Three Days Grace. It’s time for us to go out there and play and do this live in front of as many people as we possibly can, so 2026 will be some heavy…it gets to a point where I don’t even unpack my suitcase, y’know?

Is this version of Three Days Grace a going concern, then? Is Adam back for good?

Gontier: Oh, yeah, absolutely. That’s the idea, for sure. Like I said, we’ve all experienced a lot over the past 10 years, so at this point we’re all in it for the long haul.

Walst: it’s been awesome. In the live shows we can do so much more vocally than we used to be able to do; I’m doing harmonies on the older songs and backing (Gontier) up on a few parts, and for newer songs we’ll switch up and he’ll sing a verse and a chorus, or back me up. It’s really fun, and it feels like we’re just at the beginning of it.

Sanderson: (Alienation)’s just coming out and we’re already thinking, “What’s next? How far can we take this? How deep can it go, and how fun is it gonna be?” We’re seeing eye to eye. We’re on the same path. We wake up excited. Everything’s getting bigger — we have more buses, more trucks, the shows are huge and everything like that. There’ll be more of this, for sure.