In a recent sit-down with Hubert Modławski of the Polish outlet Pełna Kulturka, Adam Gontier opened up about his highly anticipated 2024 reunion with Three Days Grace. After stepping away from the Canadian hard rock powerhouse for 11 years, the 48-year-old vocalist has officially reintegrated into the lineup, now sharing microphone duties with Matt Walst, who fronted the group for over a decade during Gontier‘s absence.
According to the singer, stepping back into the fold was a surprisingly natural process that required very little adjustment.
”It really wasn’t that challenging. We had been a band for so many years before, so first and foremost, we were really good friends before we had the band. So yeah, it was like I took about 10 years off and then came back and it was pretty seamless. It wasn’t very hard. It’s kind of like riding a bike — you just get back into it again, even if you haven’t done it in a while,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Expanding on the deep-rooted personal connections within the group, Gontier emphasized that their shared history as childhood friends is ultimately what made the modern dual-vocalist era possible.
“Well, I think there’s a lot of bands out there that aren’t friends, really, that just do it, and it’s just all about business and money and stuff,” he continued. “But for us, yeah, it’s about the friendship and the camaraderie and all that stuff. I think if we didn’t have that, this new sort of era of the band would probably be a little bit tougher to make happen. But we’re all from the same small town in Canada, we all grew up together as friends and stuff, so it’s pretty easy to get back up there on stage and perform together.”
When asked whether he had to actively repair his relationships with the rest of Three Days Grace after being away for so long, he revealed that maturity and shifting priorities naturally healed any past divides.
“You know what? I stayed in touch with Brad [Walst] on and off throughout the years. But it didn’t really take that much. I think over the past 10 years, at least for myself, I had grown up quite a bit. I had a lot of life to live and things to learn and stuff like that. And I think that sort of goes for everybody in the band. We’re a bit older now and things are a little bit different. We all have kids and we’re just grown up, so the things that were important many years ago, the things that we thought were important really weren’t. So, yeah, it’s been pretty easy to just jump back in the fold, and we hang out every day. So it’s been good. It’s been good,” he said.
The conversation also touched on the creative process behind their latest studio effort, the 2025 dual-vocal album Alienation. Despite the lineup expansion, the core writing dynamic remained entirely familiar to everyone involved.
“The way that we write songs hasn’t really changed. It’s kind of the same. We all sit in a room together with the ideas, and we try to write the best song we can. So I guess songwriting-wise, it’s kind of the same thing still. We got together at Barry‘s [Stock] place in Indiana to start the whole writing process, and we just sat down with acoustic guitars and just started writing the new album, and most of the songs came fairly quick… I don’t know, man. We’ve been very lucky and fortunate that we’re all sort of on the same page and we all want the same thing, which is just to play music, tour, and have fun doing it,” he concluded.
Alienation was officially released in August 2025 via RCA Records. Prior to the album drop, Three Days Grace played their first full-length set with Gontier back at the helm on February 25, 2025, acting as main support for Disturbed on the U.S. leg of “The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour” at the Ford Idaho Center Arena in Nampa, Idaho.
