LIVE ‘N LOUD MEETS THREE DAYS GRACE
Canada’s favorite rock band, Three Days Grace, was back with a new album this past September. Called “Life Starts Now”, this album shows a grown band, one that wants to show the world the great things in life, with messages of hope through their heavy guitars and drums.
The band was at the end of their promo tour as they stopped by Montreal on October 13th to play a few songs at the TV station Musique Plus and the answer a few journalist’s questions afterward.
Live ‘N Loud Magazine’s interviewer Vanessa Leclair met with Neil Sanderson (drums) and Barry Stock (guitar) who took the time to answer a few questions about “Life Starts Now”, touring and also answer a few unusual questions that will let you know them a little bit more!
Interview done by: Vanessa Leclair
Written by: Nour Haik
Photos by: Claudia Matteau
Three Days Grace vs French Fans
Live ‘N Loud (LNL): Your last show in Montreal was in January 2008 in a sold out Metropolis. Do you agree when people says that the music market in a French province is more difficult to reach?
Neil Sanderson: I don’t think so really, but we’re from Toronto, so it’s only 5 hours. *laughs* We get here pretty quickly! I actually find that the crowds here are a little less inhibited and I think they’re more emotionally into the music and it feels like the crowd here listens a little bit closer, which is cool. Maybe there’s a little bit of a language barrier, we don’t speak a whole bunch of French but our singer, his last name is French, we’ve got that going for us!
Barry Stock and Neil: Gontier *pronounced with a French accent*
LNL: Would you learn French if you had to?
Neil: Juste un peu ! [Just a little bit]
LNL: Are you one of those who failed French class?
Neil: No! I passed this class with flying colors! I can get by actually. I went to France and I was kind of forced [to speak it] and I was surprised at how much French I could speak. It sounds ridiculous when I talk it!
Barry: I didn’t like that I was forced to learn it when I grew up, because you had to take it in school, I kind of regret that though now. I wish I had paid attention a little more!
LNL: Yeah, most people I talk to they say that. But it’s kind of like me when I speak in English, with my French accent *laughs*
Barry: You can finish a sentence at least!
Neil: Exactly! *laughs*
Life Starts Now: Evolving As A Band
LNL: How did Three Days Grace evolve between the “One-X” album and “Life Starts Now”?
Barry: This time around we wanted to do something different as far as challenge our selves individually and as a group musically. We all wanted to play a little more, go for a different sound. We went to The Warehouse, Bryan Adams’ studio, this time around and recorded “Life Starts Now” to get more of that a bigger, “boomier”, drum sound. Not such of a layered sound like everybody’s been doing for years. Bigger layering, more guitars, thinking that’s the answer to get a bigger sound. We wanted to go back to our roots more, like classic rock bands that we like and try to record in that matter. It’s just as big as a sound but just recorded differently with more of a bigger drum sound. Not so much layered guitars and stuff.
LNL: Now that the album is released, is there something you wish you would be able to change on it?
Barry: Yeah, I think there’s a typo in one of the…
*everyone laughs*
Neil: No, not at all. It is tough to put your stamp of approval on something you’ve been working so hard for, but at a certain point you just have to release it to the world. Within the band we have a fine balance. I am a bit of a perfectionist, to a fault where I always want to keep on working on something, but it balances with the rest of the band. [The new album has] been really well received by the people, and they can hear what we were going for. It goes with what Barry was saying: every other band is trying to make this over produced mechanical sound, layered record, and we didn’t want to do that. When you listen to the record it feels like you’re in the room with the band and this is what we were trying to achieve. Yeah it’s going to be really fun to play live! We’re excited and our fans are excited as we are!
Three Days Grace On Tour!
LNL: For “One-X”, you toured for about two years straight. Will it be the same this time around or are you planning on doing it a different way?
Neil: We’re definitely road dogs, workaholics.
Barry: We love to play live every night! I think we all share that passion to be able to get up and share our music with other people and have [them] sing back to us; I don’t think that will ever change for us. But I think we’ll make our touring schedule a little easier, trying to be home a little more often than we have in the past! *everyone laughs* But we’ll still be touring for a long time, we can’t help it!
LNL: Being on the road is not always easy. What would make this part of your job easier?
Neil: More buses
Barry: Yeah for touring with the family and stuff that would ease the pain
Neil: Dirt bikes!
Barry: Yeah, more toys!
Neil: Harleys… how long do you have?
*everyone laughs*
LNL: This way you could have your schedule tighter than last year!
Neil: I think we’ve been a band for a long time so we respect each other. The biggest thing is to be able to give each other space. It’s hard to do on a bus, but you have to figure it out. You can’t always be in each others faces all the time. So yeah, we just need more buses, more trucks, more stuff!
Barry: More toys!
*everyone laughs*
Three Days Grace in the History of Music
LNL: If you had to be remembered for only one of your songs, which one would you like it to be?
Barry and Neil: Woah! Hmmmm…
Neil: I don’t know! You know we consider each album to be a single entity. A record represents a moment in time for us because we write about real things, that we go through and real things that we observe in life. So it’s almost impossible to say one song! I would actually be really bummed out if we were remembered only by one song!
LNL: Of course!
Neil: This record is extremely personal to us. We’ve been through some crazy personal shit, family health issues, confronting death and stuff like that in the last couple of years and that’s part of the reason why we called it “Life Starts Now”. It just reflected the whole thing; redefining what life is. I think sometimes it takes being faced with things like death to really think about what your life is and what it is and how to wake up and conduct yourself and realize that today is the first day to the rest of your life and you have to figure your shit out.
Having Fun With “Life Starts Now”
LNL: For the last couple of questions we thought it would be more fun to get to know you guys a little bit better. It can get a little tiring to answer the same questions over and over at the end of a promo tour, so here are a couple of questions that got inspired by each song title of “Life Starts Now”.
Neil: Alright! Do it!
LNL: “Bitter Taste” – It leaves me a bitter taste when…
Neil: When someone thinks they’re more important than somebody else… and Swiss cheese leaves a bitter taste in my mouth
*everyone laughs*
LNL: “Break” – I might break into tears if…
Neil: If I watched the movie Dumb and Dumber I would break into tears laughing my ass off!
Barry: Good one!
Neil: I know!
LNL: “World So Cold” – My world becomes so cold when…
Barry: Winter in Canada!
Neil: When shoveling 6 feet of snow in my backyard!
*Barry laughs*
LNL: “Lost In You” – First thing I do if I get lost into a city I don’t know is…
Barry: hmmm… Call the tour manager!
Neil: Yeah! Call the tour manager.
Barry: “I don’t know where the hell we are, come save our asses” *laughs*
LNL: “The Good Life” – My life is good because…
Neil: ‘cause… for a lot of reasons. First off, we live in a great country and we have food and water and shelter basically.
Barry: I have my feet on the ground still!
LNL: “No More” – If I had no more music in my life I…
Barry: I’d be miserable.
Neil: I don’t know actually! There was music before speech. Actually there’s a book called “Your Brain On Music”, which talks about how music was a huge part of human evolution.
Barry: [By] Daniel Levitin isn’t it?
Neil: Yeah! Do you have my fucking book?
Barry: No no! I think I bought it too!
Neil: Oh, ok…!
*everyone laughs*
LNL: “Last To Know” – My fans are the last to know that I…
*thinking for a while*
Neil: That I’m a pretty good wakeboarder!
Barry: …and I’m not!
*everyone laughs*
L
NL: “Someone Who Cares” – I can’t believe someone who cares about me would…
*thinking…*
LNL: Those questions are making you think!
Barry: Yeah! It’s good! I like it!
Neil: …would steal my fucking computer out of my car!
Barry: That wasn’t someone who cares…
Neil: hmmm right! But that’s my answer anyways! Some asshole stole my computer the other day.
Barry: It’s not easy to find someone who cares about you.
Neil: …but it’s easy enough to find someone who steals your fucking shit!
*everyone laughs*
LNL: “Bully” – I might behave like a bully if…
Neil: If I’m bullied.
Barry: Yes!
LNL: What can get you bullied for?
Neil: I used to have the shit beat out of me in school. But I wouldn’t become a bully as a result of it. Bullying is a weakness in personality.
Barry: I think we all have been bullied a bit at some point.
LNL: “Without You” – On the road, I wouldn’t be able to live without…
*thinks*
Neil: Water
Barry: A big bag of weed!
*everyone laughs*
LNL: “Goin’ Down” – I would like to be going down in….
Neil: hahaha I didn’t know where that one was going!
*everyone laughs*
Neil: what’s that question again?
LNL: *laughs* I would like to be going down in the history of music as…
Neil: As real in a world contrive shit.
Barry: I’d like to become a classic rock band, that’d be cool!
Neil: Our goal is to have a cover band called like Two Days Grace or something like that
*everyone laughs*
L
NL: “Life Starts Now” – I felt like my life started the day I…
*thinks*
Neil: For me, I think it was the first time we played a show in grade 9 in high school. That’s when I knew first of all what I wanted to do in life, second of all, that it would be like people in bands *laughs*! So, I figured that would be my key to my survival in high school: just to keep rocking. The jocks can fuck off!
L
NL: That was it for me! Thank you very much for you time.
Barry: Thank you!
Neil: Take care!
Three Days Grace will soon get on the road for their Canadian Tour starting in Victoria, BC on November 16th and ending in Quebec City on December 22nd. Click here for all the tour dates.
Photographer Claudia Matteau took photos during the band’s performance at the Musique Plus station.
Category: Interviews, Photo Updates