Grace under fire has almost become a way of life for Adam Gontier unfortunately.
The frontman of Toronto rockers Three Days Grace says he and his bandmates feel like they've endured a barrage of personal tragedies, illnesses and challenges in their career.
"All of us have dealt with diseases in our family and people getting cancer and people passing away," says the 31-year-old singer-guitarist. "A couple of us are going through that right now. We know everybody has problems and battles in life, but it seems like ever since we signed a record deal and hit the road, we've been dealing with those things."
If there can be an upside to these crises which include bassist Brad Walst's son being diagnosed with cancer and Gontier's past battle with substance abuse it's that they've given the band plenty
of inspiration. To hear the proof, look no further than their latest album Life Starts Now, another dark opus laced with grim post-grunge fare such as Bitter Taste, Break and World So Cold.
"You get in the studio, and it's a chance to write and get out a lot of feelings and emotions," Gontier explains. "And we had a lot to work with this time. We were all feeling pretty emotional and going through our own things. All that stuff the personal issues and the family issues it's all come out on this record."
But many of the tracks also feature something relatively new for Gontier: Light at the end of the tunnel. First single Break, for example, is about rejecting negative influences. "I felt like I
wanted it to be a bit more hopeful," he says. "The songs still came from a pretty dark place of confronting things. But I think there's definitely hope on this record. For us, it just comes down to playing the hand that you've been dealt. That's kind of what Life Starts Now
is all about, really dealing with reality."
The reality is, while many critics scorn their music, 3DG's walloping modern rock resonates loud and clear with their fan base. Life Starts Now debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album to date. The disc also opened at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums list, while Break was No. 7 on the Billboard Rock Songs chart. The disc also sold 79,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week, a pretty hefty figure these days especially for a Canadian band on its third release.
That's no accident. From the beginning, the quartet rounded out by drummer Neil Sanderson and guitarist Barry Stock has been focused on building and maintaining a career south of the border, says Gontier.
"When we had record labels that were interested in the band, it was important for us to sign with a label in the States. We wanted that support in the U.S. We wanted to make a career out of this. We didn't want to be a band touring Canada for four or five years."
Instead, after releasing their self-titled 2003 album and scoring a hit with the single I Hate Everything About You, they ended up touring America for years a grinding path that eventually led to Gontier's self-medication, which he has since conquered.
"For the first two records, we got thrown into touring pretty quickly. There were personal decisions that I made, and I made some bad choices for myself. That was a really dark place. But now, any sort of fleeting thought of going back and using, or going back to that lifestyle, it's gone really quickly. All the bad things that happened are outweighed by the good things. I don't want to be there again. I don't think anything could take me back to that place, no matter how bad things get."
These days, he says, he exorcises his demons in the studio or on the stage. And given the way things have been going lately, he's eager to hit the road for the band's latest Canadian tour.
"I am really looking forward to that. There's a lot to be said for getting onstage for two hours every night and getting a lot of stuff out. It's always been cathartic for us, but even more so this time around."
