“It just had to be the right time.”
Adam Gontier joined Loudwire Nights on Friday (Nov. 22), along with his Three Days Grace co-frontman Matt Walst, and opened up about the journey that led him to re-joining the band that he helped form in 1997.
Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.
“I had some other stuff to deal with and eventually, here we are,” Gontier said while Walst listened. “[I’m] very, very excited, man. The music is some of the best that I’ve ever been part of. It’s just amazing.”
Walst, who joined the band in 2013 after Gontier’s departure, shared in the positivity about this new step in the career of Three Days Grace.
“It’s been awesome,” he said, confidently, to Loudwire Nights host Chuck Armstrong.
“It’s like a new life in the band. I grew up watching the band practice in my basement, throwing toy cars at them while they were practicing. To have Adam back and still be in the band, playing guitar, singing backup, singing leads — it’s just a new thing and it’s going to be so fun.”
When Did Three Days Grace Start Talking About Adam Gontier’s Return?
Both Walst and Gontier were very open about the timeline of how everything ended up happening with the latest lineup.
“I think it’s been about two-and-a-half years,” Walst said about how long Three Days Grace have been talking about Gontier coming back. “[That was] just the band talking about it and talking without him and then finally getting together and actually doing it.”
Interestingly, two-and-a-half years of talking about this pre-dates the monumental reunion of Gontier joining Three Days Grace on stage in Huntsville, Ala., in April 2023.
“I can’t remember exactly what it was, but Brad [Walst, Matt’s brother and bassist in the band] and I were chatting a little bit about it,” Gontier recalled.
“And then the guys were coming through here around the Nashville area and just asked me if I want to come out and maybe sing a couple of songs.”
Gontier took them up on the offer and then the idea of officially re-joining the band became more of a possibility. As Chuck heard this timeline take shape, he asked Walst if it was weird for his brother to be talking about Gontier coming back to front Three Days Grace.
“No, not at all,” he quickly answered.
“I talked to Brad about it. I think I talked to him about it and was like, ‘What if this happened?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’ And I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’ Three years later and here we are.”
Three Days Grace’s Plans For More New Music in 2025
With the release of “Mayday,” the first song featuring Gontier and Walst co-fronting Three Days Grace and the first song from the band since 2022’s Explosions, fans are champing at the bit for what else is to come.
Fortunately, Three Days Grace already have several live shows booked for 2025, including spots on some of the biggest festivals as well as support on the first leg of Disturbed’s spring tour celebrating their debut album, The Sickness.
“[I can’t wait to see] the reaction of the crowd,” Walst said about the band’s live shows next year. “It’s going to be fun because Adam can play guitar for some songs and sing backup, I can play guitar and sing backup … The possibilities are endless. It’s going to be crazy.”
Gontier agreed that he can’t wait to see how fans react, but also seemed to be most excited to see what happens on the stage with Walst and him sharing frontman duties.
“I’m looking forward to trading off songs here and there,” he told the Loudwire Nights audience.
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“There are so many songs that the guys have put out over the last 10 years that I haven’t been around for that I love and I want to sing. I think we might do that a couple of times, maybe I jump on one of the newer ones and Matt sings a couple of the old ones.”
Along with preparing for the live experience, Three Days Grace have also worked on many other new songs in addition to “Mayday.” So many, in fact, that fans should expect more good news relatively soon.
“We’re pretty close to finishing [a full album],” Walst said.
“There should be a new album by next year.”
What Else Did Three Days Grace’s Adam Gontier + Matt Walst Discuss on Loudwire Nights?
How they both feel about this new band lineup being permanent: “As far as we’re concerned, this is the next step for the band. We’ll just keep it going.”What it was like for Walst and Gontier to write “Mayday” and other new songs together: “We check our egos at the door. We’re just friends writing songs to be honest.”What the other new songs sound like: “[‘Mayday’] is a good representation of what we’ve been working on, I think … We know exactly what we want to do. The focus and the drive that everybody has right now is pretty incredible to see.”
Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below
Adam Gontier and Matt Walst joined Loudwire Nights on Friday, Nov. 22; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.
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Gallery Credit: Loudwire Staff
