Three Days Grace Still Feel Like ‘Outsiders’
Can you still feel like an "outsider" when you're in an extremely successful rock band? Three Days Grace -- bassist Brad Walst, drummer Neil Sanderson, guitarist Barry Stock and singer Matt Walst -- say "yes," on their new song, "I Am an Outsider," from their new album, also called Outsider. We spoke to the band about that song, "Right Left Wrong" and their upcoming tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Prophets of Rage.
Talk about “I Am an Outsider.” I think everybody in a band has been an outsider of some type.
Neil Sanderson: “I Am an Outsider” kind of set the tone for some of the themes on the album. It’s kind of [about] being tired of outside influences, trying to tell you or influence you what to believe and buy and hate and love and all that kind of stuff. And I think that song is just a confrontation, saying like, "I don’t wanna be influenced by whatever is being force-fed," and wanting to just take a great big step back and observe all the absurdity, if you will, from a distance, so you can make more sense of it.
Your band is really successful. Do you still feel like an outsider?
Brad Walst: I still feel like an outsider. I think we always kind of look forward and are not worried about what anybody thinks of us. And I think over the years that’s shown in the music. We’re all a bit introverted. I know I am, and I go home and I hide. So yeah, I think we still feel that way. I do. I know I do for sure.
Can you still walk around un-accosted?
Neil Sanderson: No. It’s a good problem to have, I suppose. The craziest is, we’ve been to Russia three times in the last three years. And for some reason they know every train we’re on, every airport we’re at, every hotel we’re staying. It’s like, "How do you know this information? I don’t even know what hotel I’m at!"
The title of “Right Left Wrong,” seems like it might be a political song, but it isn't.
Neil Sanderson: The song is the leadoff track to Outsider, and it’s the beginning of a journey. It’s basically the realization that whatever reality you’re looking at at a given moment, you’ve decided that you want to escape that. You’re not sure how to do it, where you’re going, but you just feel the need to remove yourself from the current situation.
Matt Walst: I feel like everybody at one point in time has felt like they just wanna run away from everything. And the first line of the song is, “Sometimes I just wanna run away.”
I was reading the lyrics and thinking, it’s not really political, but it sort of fits into where we are in the world today. You may have a different perspective being from Canada.
Neil Sanderson: Yeah. It’s more of an inner feeling I think, more than any sort of political symbolism. We talked about how every day you wake up and one day you feel like you’re on, you’re good, gonna wake up, put your feet on the ground and everything’s gonna be great. And then the next day you wake up and you just feel like everything is completely wrong, and you can’t explain why. I guess that’s part of the modern psyche, and I think we touched on that on not only that song, on a lot of the songs on the album.
You guys are going out on an interesting tour, with Avenged Sevenfold, Prophets of Rage and Ho99o9. That's an unusual combination of bands.
Matt Walst: Yeah, I think the Family Values tour was like that too. It had Ice Cube on it, Orgy, Rammstein, Korn, Limp Bizkit. And I think it brings out different people, but they’re all out to have a great time and have fun. I can’t wait to watch Prophets of Rage and Avenged Sevenfold.
Do you have favorite songs by either of the bands?
Neil Sanderson: Avenged Sevenfold's “Welcome to the Family.” When they kick into that, that’s just killer. They’re great guys; they’re a great band. Avenged Sevenfold’s a great band. We’re huge Rage fans; we’re huge Audioslave fans; we’re huge Cypress Hill fans, and Prophets of Rage bust all that out. So yeah. It’s gonna be really rad.
Three Days Grace's 'Outsider' album is out now. You can pick up the disc in standard or deluxe editions. Look for Three Days Grace on tour at these locations.
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