Page 32 - Black Velvet Issue 96

BV96 pg32-34 3dg_BV96 pg32 11/03/2018 21:14 Page 1

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Climbing Mountains
Climbing Mountains

ometimes you just need to get away from it all, to clear your head and remove
Syourself from the hustle and bustle of the world around you. That’s the headspace
Canadian rockers Three Days Grace were in when they were working on the band’s sixth
studio album ‘Outsider’. The quartet - lead vocalist Matt Walst, guitarist Barry Stock, bass
guitarist Brad Walst and drummer Neil Sanderson - felt that they had to seclude them-
selves in order to be able to focus on what they had set out to accomplish. When Brad
called us up to chat about ‘Outsider’, we discovered which of his fellow bandmates
showed a different side to himself in the studio, why he’s a homebody and why he has
concerns for the next generation.

e usually do most of our writ- easy is it to remain true to yourselves
“Wing and rehearsing in Down- when you have so many expectations to
town Toronto, which is a major city, 3 fulfill?
million people. For this record that became “It’s definitely a conscious thing that
an obstacle for us. We really had to get out you have to really…” Brad pauses slightly
of the city to achieve what we wanted to before continuing. “First of all, we’re big
achieve,” Brad tells Black Velvet. “We ba- music fans so we write from our hearts,
sically moved to my house. Just out in my and everything we do is real life, so for us
garage I have a big loft above it and we we just kind of keep, like you said, just
converted that into a studio, and we just keep looking forward and not looking
started writing here. I live two hours east back. We just write music and nothing is
of Toronto, so you know there’s nobody; I really finished until all of us are a 100%
have no neighbours and 25 acres. It’s happy. There are many times where I’ll
quiet; there’s lots of deer, wolves, bears write a song and bring it to the band and if
and everything else. We just had to get they like it, it goes, if not it goes away. I
away from the mainstream of the city.” think that’s the really important thing with
The band went on to record the album Three Days Grace; we collaborate with
at Jukasa Studios, located outside of each other, we collaborate with other writ-
Toronto on a Six Nations Reserve. Brad ers and we take a lot of time to craft that
tells us there was a really positive energy song. If one person has an issue then we
during their six weeks there. “The mood try to solve it, then once everybody high
was great because the place we were at fives it’s ready to go!”
was amazing; the staff were amazing and
you’re allowed to be very creative in there. ne song on the album - ‘Infra-Red’
We made some great music. The studio O- is about having an instant con-
was basically world class. It actually has nection with someone because you under-
the SSL mixing board from Abbey Road stand each other. The song includes the
[Studios, London], if you crawled under- lyrics, ‘We see each other in a different
neath the mixing board you could see the light.’ We ask Brad what qualities he sees
underside, it was signed by John Lennon, appear in any of his fellow bandmates
which is pretty awesome! Having a piece when working together in the studio that
of gear like that in the room definitely gave may not always be seen when in another
it a vibe, you know, it had an energy about environment. “Wow!” Brad laughs. “Well,
it.” the studio is definitely a different environ-
Three Days Grace managed to get their ment. You know, I think for myself I see
‘dream team’ in the studio with them, pro- Matt a little bit differently in the studio, es-
ducing, engineering and mixing the album pecially for this record. I found that he re-
- Gavin Brown, Howard Benson, Mike Plot- ally had a lot more aggression and a lot
nikoff and Chris Lord-Alge. The dream more confidence; that was something re-
team are in fact longtime collaborators and ally cool to see. Matt’s a great frontman.
friends of Three Days Grace. Brad tells us Being my brother I’m always a little biased,
the band feel very lucky to have them all but I really thought that he shone through
back together; the last time three out of on this record, and in the studio he nailed
four of this team worked on the same it, for sure.”
album was on 2006’s ‘One-X’, an album Following on from ‘Human’, the new
that went multi-platinum and to this day is album is Matt’s second with Three Days
still a firm favourite among fans. It’s no Grace, after replacing original lead vocalist
wonder that there are high expectations Adam Gontier, who had made the decision
for this new release. to part ways with the band at the start of
There is a theme running through 2013.
some of the songs on ‘Outsider’, which is Matt has always been involved with the
to be true to yourself and push forward no band, right from the beginning when he
matter what. As a successful band, how co-wrote a couple of the songs on the

THREE DAYS GRACE