Canadian hard rockers Three Days Grace are, quite literally, bigger than ever before.
A lot of this comes down to how the Norwood, Ontario-formed outfit’s eighth and latest album, Alienation, reintroduces founding guitarist-vocalist Adam Gontier – writer of the band’s brawny, brooding, and ever-enduring I Hate Everything About You single from the early ‘00s.
But his return didn’t come at the sake of the group’s other long-running vocalist-guitarist, Matt Walst, who’d joined the band following Gontier’s departure in 2013. Instead, Three Days Grace are now operating as a beefed-up quintet for the first time ever, bolstering their thick-chording sound with tandem powerhouse crooning.
“We've never done the Molly Hatchet thing, where all three guys are ripping away,” Stock says with a laugh, “but there's definitely songs like Home [off 2003’s Three Days Grace] where there's clearly two guitar parts – a heavy rhythm and a lead bit over top. It's awesome that one of them will jump in and cover that.
“It's a whole new chapter and something to be excited about, because we have two singers, and we're trying to figure out how to make that work,” Stock adds, though he clarifies of how everything played out in the studio, “I did all the guitars [on Alienation] and allowed those guys to focus on [vocals]. Having said that, we always write the same – everybody has parts and ideas.”
Reached at home in Southern Indiana while working on one of his Porsches, Stock discusses Three Days Grace’s current pit crew, roadster-inspired guitars, and more.
You're laying all these guitars down in the studio, but a song like Alienation’s Dominate could benefit from having all three of you playing guitar live – like on that harmonized lead section, with the rhythm beefing it up underneath…
“Oh, the little solo part? I'll probably do that with an effect, so I can harmonize myself. We haven't done that one live yet. [But with] stuff like that, the guys will cover ground – because they're both good guitar players.
“Adam might be playing some rhythm if Matt's on lead vocals, and vice versa. And they can both come in and help me out, because there's places on this new record where I can't cover it all myself.”
This time around, he was more like, ‘Hit record and see what happens. Go!’ That turned into lead bits, background parts, and all that atmospheric stuff
Did you approach this record any differently, on your end of things?
“[Alienation producer] Zakk Cervini’s so used to doing records in the box – like all that Bring Me the Horizon stuff – and for us, that's a very different approach. But we didn't do it [all] that way, per se. I've been doing guitars the same way I've always done it, and we thought that's really important for Three Days Grace.
“So, I went to Mike Plotnikoff, our engineer, to do the main guitar parts. But what was cool with Zakk is there was a lot of background stuff that he had me doing on the fly. And a lot of that we kept.
“Zakk asked me at one point, ‘Barry, how do you normally formulate solos?’ I know we don’t do a lot of guitar solos, but there's a few spots on this record with lead bits, and normally I like to work it out. I like to have a plan, as opposed to just winging something. But this time around, he was more like, ‘Hit record and see what happens. Go!’ That turned into lead bits, background parts, and all that atmospheric stuff – even a lot of the clean, picky stuff in verses.”
How off-the-cuff was the solo in Deathwish? That’s the one that rips a little harder and longer on Alienation.
“We’d done a good chunk of the pre-pro in my studio here, [and] had Zakk and Drew Fulk on Zoom [when we] wrote Deathwish. I wanted to do something that was similar in time signature to Time of Dying [off 2006’s One-X].
“I was thinking, ‘Man, it’d be neat to do something along those lines, where the riff's in 6 and the drums are in 4,’ that sort of vibe. And that's how that came about. Then when we were in Nashville a little later on, it really [needed] a lead of some sort. That's just what I came up with on the fly.”
There’s an octaver-type effect on that lead. Was that pedal-based or in the box?
“In the case of that lead, that was in the box. I think we were using Archetype, and we put on a lower octaver.”
![Three Days Grace - Live at The Palace (FULL PERFORMANCE with no interviews or cutscenes) [FULL HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/NhaBIUpLFrg/maxresdefault.jpg)
What’s dominating your live rig at the moment?
“I’ve had my rig built for a long time, and it's pretty awesome. When [we] track a record, obviously I'm going to triple-or-quad big choruses to get it big sounding. On this record, I used the Diezel VH4 Channel 3, and then I layered it with a Marshall Major.
“And then effects-wise, I have everything looped and programmed on an RJM switching system, in which every pedal goes through as a true bypass – whether it's a POG or a drop thing. In [Alienation’s] Mayday, I've got that drop pedal a whole octave down.”
Are you using a POG on this record, like on In Cold Blood?
“That’s a really low tuning, which, for us, was really out of the ordinary. I'm very specific [with the] types of guitars and tones I want to capture in the studio. I knew I couldn't take a ‘56 Junior and butcher the nut on it to put on the super fat strings that I would need [for] some of these low tunings. But I tuned them as low as I could and went into a Quad Cortex. Essentially, Archetype has a great transpose.
“I know a lot of modern guys play 7-strings so they have access to that really low thing, but again, I was very specific on what kinds of tones I wanted to do, so that was our way of achieving that. And it worked pretty good!”
It looks like you’ve been playing Icemans a lot lately. Are those anywhere on the record?
“I've not used the Icemans on the recordings, but I've had one for a while, and I'm a big fan. I think they're the coolest looking guitars. They sound great, and I was a big fan of Kiss and Paul Stanley. But after recording was done, I was like, ‘I'm going to change it up a little bit [live],’ and so I talked to Ibanez. They hooked me up with a bunch of new Icemans, and I've been using them as my main thing.
“I also use my ‘76 Explorer for a few songs, still one of my faves, and then [a] double-neck [SG] for one song. They custom-shopped me a couple Icemans, too. I'm a Porsche guy, and I have one that's a GT Silver, so they painted me a GT Silver Iceman. I had this other guy custom-make me volume and tone knobs that have the Porsche logo on them.”
What are you more of a gearhead over: guitars or cars?
“I mean… both! I love learning about music gear and how to make it sound better. When I was 16, I built my own pedalboard and made my own power supply. My dad was a very hands-on guy, and he taught us to be hands-on. You give me a new piece of gear and I'll figure it out fast.
“Cars are a later-in-life thing. That’s a newer experience that I can really indulge in. I love tracking [ed. riding on a racetrack] and learning how to make the car drive better and faster… but music never goes away. I'm always in and about the studio.”
You ever listen to early mixes while you're out revving it up?
“I almost never play music while I'm driving. I just want to hear the sound of the engine, and I want to feel the road. I find [listening to music] a distraction, to be honest. A lot of my friends think I'm crazy, because they’re the opposite. They get in their cars, and that's when they crank it up. When I'm driving, I want to feel at one with the car.”
- Alienation is out now via RCA
- This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
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