Three Days Grace’s Neil Sanderson Discusses Beginnings of Band’s New Album

Guest blogger Neil Sanderson of Three Days Grace checks in each month with an exclusive column for Loudwire. In this piece, Sanderson gives us some insight on the early work for the band's next album, their plans for documenting the studio process and he also shares some thoughts on the recent Juno Awards and Korn's guitarist Brian 'Head' Welch. Check out his latest blog contribution below:

We're in a downtown studio in Toronto right now working again with our first producer, Gavin Brown. We went back to our roots as far as the sound and the process. The sound is more raw, more aggressive than what you have heard from us recently. The process is total collaboration. All of us in the studio passing the ball around with new song ideas. We find this is how we create our best songs: being honest with each other, sharing ideas, sharing stories. Gavin was a huge part of that in the beginning and now it's back to those days where we are high-fiving with acoustic guitars in our hands.

It was 2001, if memory doesn't serve me wrong. At the time we were just hanging around Toronto and we met Gavin. We were already Big Sugar fans and had been jamming 'Heated' a lot (it's a killer LP with Brown on drums). He was producing Billy Talent at the time and they were rehearsing across the hall at our rehearsal space by the Lakeshore in T.O.

It was one of those things where we were all just passionate about playing and hanging around Toronto, seeing shows and meeting other musicians. We would always start a song idea on acoustic guitar, really stripping things down and collaborating and talking, telling stories and writing songs about personal experiences we’ve gone through and emotions we all feel.

There was just that connectivity with Gavin but after the first two records, things went insane for us and our lives got crazy and I guess we drifted and didn’t rehash the relationship until this year.  But here we are … back in the studio, feeling the vibe that we had 10 years ago. Our new single 'Painkiller' is a good representation of that sound we're moving back to -- heavier, writing from the heart, and articulating in song the real moments of our lives and the lives of the people closest to us.

Here's a video of us discussing the making of 'Painkiller' and our experience in the studio so far in 2014:

The next several months are gonna be intense!  We just announced Matt Walst as permanent lead singer, dropped a brand new song, U.S. tour dates in April, opening for Metallica in Montreal and heading to Alaska in August. I don't even bother unpacking my suitcase anymore! But our main focus is getting this record finished. We're set up in the studio permanently right now so we can come and go and get this record done and out to you, the fans. This time we're going to show the process of making this album by doing some filming from inside the studio. If you wanna know what pedal Barry [Stock] is using to get all that guitar fuzz, we'll show you. If you want to see how we mic up the drums to get the sound we want, you'll be able check that out too.

Just flew home today from the Junos, Canada's music awards show. We had a blast. One of the highlights was definitely One Republic's performance. Totally world-class! I have mad respect for Ryan Tedder. Talk about a guy who's putting up some stats right now -- he's in one of the biggest bands in the world at the moment, just produced Ellie Goulding and tons of other stuff, and is working with U2 and Elton John right now! That's pretty insane and inspiring to say the least. I love seeing creative go-getters who are able to use their talents in a million different ways and have no problem crossing musical genres at the drop of a hat. A couple new Canadian artists made an pretty big impression on me too.   The band July Talk has a fresh and unique vibe, and A Tribe Called Red is an aborignal hip-hop group that are making some waves up here.

Speaking of mad respect, something made my day in a big way today. One of our idols, and fellow Loudwire columnist Brian "Head" Welch (Korn / Love and Death) gave 3DG a very kind shout-out after hearing 'Painkiller.' That goes to show you how the music industry is and should be -- a community of cool people … a pool of vibrant creative thinkers who have a true passion for making music, and an appreciation for each others' contributions in it.  So to Head -- Thanks man!  I don't have your contact info so I figured throwing it up on Loudwire was a good way to reach you lol.   BTW … You f---ing killed it with the L&D show on Shiprocked!  sickkk.

-NS

Our thanks to Neil Sanderson for contributing his latest column to Loudwire. If you haven’t already picked up the band’s new single, ‘Painkiller,’ visit iTunes to purchase the song. Follow Three Days Grace on Facebook and Twitter.

Check Out Three Days Grace's 'Painkiller'