Fans like everything about Three Days Grace

The new metal group's music works on a variety of levels.
By JOHN PATRICK GATTA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Music listeners who aren't paying close attention may mistake Toronto's Three Days Grace with Mississippi's 3 Doors Down. Of course, the level of acknowledgment changes once it's pointed out that TDG is responsible for "I Hate Everything About You."
The song has been a top modern rock track for more than nine months. It comes from the group's self-titled major label debut. Airplay as well as a busy concert schedule over the past year supporting Nickelback and Trapt among others plus headlining gigs has helped the quartet gain a combination of young and older fans.
Vocalist/guitarist Adam Gontier explains that there's more to the song than just its overt relationship kiss-off message. "It's just about a general feeling about the way things happen, about wasting time. Realizing, it's time to get rid of that."
An edge
He feels that the ability to interpret "Everything" in other ways as well as the different textures and approaches to the dark themes on "Three Days Grace" give his band an edge over his peers within the new metal genre.
" 'I Hate Everything About You" is pretty blunt. It's something that we knew a lot of people have felt that way at one point or another in their lives. It seemed like the right song to release.
"But, there is a lot more to this band. And if you listen to the record, you get that impression. You can understand that there's a lot more depth to the band than just the one song. It's definitely not a novelty thing. We're not out there for one song to get recognized, make money and walk away. We're in it for the long haul."
Still, it's not just a similar-sounding name that brings the two North American bands together. Both hail from small towns and prospered beyond their city limits through a combination of hard work and material that found a connection with listeners.
History
Originally from Norwood, Ontario, population approximately 1,500, Gontier and bassist Brad Walst grew up in the type of place where everyone knew everyone and their personal business. The two met drummer Neil Sanderson from nearby Peterborough in high school. Starting a band in their teens, the trio was determined to leave a place where frustration grew and the soap operas of life were laid bare.
Playing gigs anywhere they could (i.e., opening for a movie), the threesome moved to Toronto in order to make a serious attempt at a music career. They received the guidance of Canadian music veteran Gavin Brown, who ended up producing "Three Days Grace." Shortly after its release, TDG added guitarist Barry Stock to enhance the fuller sound created on the record.
Telling it like it is
Gontier, who writes the lyrics, has been upfront about life in Norwood, but it looks as if no one there is holding a grudge.
"For the most part, everybody from our hometown is very supportive of the band. The funniest thing about going home is there's a lot of people ... when you grow up and go to high school in a small town, you have a small group of friends and then there's a small group of enemies as well. Now, when we go home, it seems like all those enemies are now friends.
"What we say, what we think about on the record about a small town, I don't think anybody's really offended by that. I think everybody knows the things that happen in a small town are the things that happen in a big city except you just hear about it and you see it up close, right? It's more like people are proud of the band for being able to speak their minds and get recognized for it."