Отправлено: 19.03.07 22:54. Заголовок: Интервью (продолжение)

Создаю тему, т.к. нашёл дофига интервьюшек! и надо их переводить!

LiveDaily Interview: Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace

After struggling for years with addiction, Three Days Grace frontman Adam Gontier is thankful for the help he received from Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Queen Street facility. He's so grateful that, during his North American tour, he is bypassing the usual afternoon acoustic radio performances to play for rehab and mental-health facilities, as well as homes for troubled children.

"The tours are normally set up where you go to radio stations during the day; you do the typical kind of acoustic thing," Gontier told LiveDaily last month, shortly after his group won a Billboard award for the single "Animal I Have Become." "This was a way for me to sort of give back to that community that turned my life around."

"It was just something that I thought I'd like to do, so I set it up. The biggest thing about it is I want to let kids know and people know that they can talk about it.'"

Gontier--who is joined in the band by drummer/vocalist Neil Sanderson, bassist Brad Walst and guitarist Barry Stock--talked to LiveDaily about his sobriety, the songwriting process for Three Days Grace's latest album, "One-X," and hanging out on MySpace.

LiveDaily: Depression, addiction, those are both "taboo" subjects to talk about. I think that's honorable that you're publicly discussing your problems.

Adam Gontier: That's the biggest thing. People don't want to talk about it, and you have to--especially if you're going through it. You really have to get it out, you know.

How long ago were you hospitalized?

A year and eight months ago.

How are you doing?

I'm doing well. I've been clean since then. I haven't touched anything. I've been doing really well.

I would say that your addiction and subsequent recovery is definitely reflected in the album.

Oh yeah, the lyrics were all sort of written while I was going through that period. It's a really personal record. It's got a lot of my, sort of, journal entries from the last couple years.

The songs "Get Out Alive" and "Time of Dying" are intensely personal..

Yep. Yep for sure. There's a lot of them. "Never Too Late" is another one that hits home as well. It's cool to be able to get up on stage every night and play the songs. It's a way to get things off my chest. It's cool because people relate to it sort of on their own level.

Have you had a lot of fans share their stories with you?

Yeah, quite a few. I spend a lot of time on the Internet, on MySpace, talking to fans and trying to stay connected to them. It's pretty amazing.

Describe the songwriting process for Three Days Grace.

It's kind of all over the place. There's not one specific style that we use. We tend to sit together with guitars and a hand drum and whoever has an idea throws an idea out there, whether it's musically or melody or something like that. Generally, the lyrics are written separate from the music. After music's been written or before it doesn't really matter. We sit together and come up with the music and lyrics. I write lyrics sometimes during the day, on the bus whenever. It's all over the place.

What was it like to work with producer Howard Benson?

He's a really great producer He's got great ears. He's done a few really good records and he really focuses on the vocals and the melodies and the harmonies. It was really great to work with a producer that was really vocal-centric.

What was the most important thing you think you learned from him?

I think the biggest thing I learned from working with him is there's so much you can do with your voice and there's so many different weird harmonies. There's things out there that a lot of singers and bands don't use. He introduced me to different melodies and harmonies and different ways of doing things.

You're touring with Nickelback and Breaking Benjamin soon. What will you do when the tour ends?

Probably still be on tour. I don't know exactly where we're going to be. Australia, maybe overseas. It all depends really. I'm sure we'll be on the road somewhere.

 Отправлено: 03.12.09 07:25. Заголовок: Three Days Grace und..

Three Days Grace under fire
By Darryl Sterdan, Sun Media

Last Updated: 23rd November 2009, 5:23pm
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Grace under fire has almost become a way of life for Adam Gontier — unfortunately.

The frontman of Toronto rockers Three Days Grace says he and his bandmates feel like they've endured a barrage of personal tragedies, illnesses and challenges in their career.

"All of us have dealt with diseases in our family and people getting cancer and people passing away," says the 31-year-old singer-guitarist. "A couple of us are going through that right now. We know everybody has problems and battles in life, but it seems like ever since we signed a record deal and hit the road, we've been dealing with those things."

If there can be an upside to these crises — which include bassist Brad Walst's son being diagnosed with cancer and Gontier's past battle with substance abuse — it's that they've given the band plenty

of inspiration. To hear the proof, look no further than their latest album Life Starts Now, another dark opus laced with grim post-grunge fare such as Bitter Taste, Break and World So Cold.

"You get in the studio, and it's a chance to write and get out a lot of feelings and emotions," Gontier explains. "And we had a lot to work with this time. We were all feeling pretty emotional and going through our own things. All that stuff — the personal issues and the family issues — it's all come out on this record."

But many of the tracks also feature something relatively new for Gontier: Light at the end of the tunnel. First single Break, for example, is about rejecting negative influences. "I felt like I

wanted it to be a bit more hopeful," he says. "The songs still came from a pretty dark place of confronting things. But I think there's definitely hope on this record. For us, it just comes down to playing the hand that you've been dealt. That's kind of what Life Starts Now

is all about, really — dealing with reality."

The reality is, while many critics scorn their music, 3DG's walloping modern rock resonates loud and clear with their fan base. Life Starts Now debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's highest-charting album to date. The disc also opened at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums list, while Break was No. 7 on the Billboard Rock Songs chart. The disc also sold 79,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week, a pretty hefty figure these days — especially for a Canadian band on its third release.

That's no accident. From the beginning, the quartet — rounded out by drummer Neil Sanderson and guitarist Barry Stock — has been focused on building and maintaining a career south of the border, says Gontier.

"When we had record labels that were interested in the band, it was important for us to sign with a label in the States. We wanted that support in the U.S. We wanted to make a career out of this. We didn't want to be a band touring Canada for four or five years."

Instead, after releasing their self-titled 2003 album and scoring a hit with the single I Hate Everything About You, they ended up touring America for years — a grinding path that eventually led to Gontier's self-medication, which he has since conquered.

"For the first two records, we got thrown into touring pretty quickly. There were personal decisions that I made, and I made some bad choices for myself. That was a really dark place. But now, any sort of fleeting thought of going back and using, or going back to that lifestyle, it's gone really quickly. All the bad things that happened are outweighed by the good things. I don't want to be there again. I don't think anything could take me back to that place, no matter how bad things get."

These days, he says, he exorcises his demons in the studio or on the stage. And given the way things have been going lately, he's eager to hit the road for the band's latest Canadian tour.

"I am really looking forward to that. There's a lot to be said for getting onstage for two hours every night and getting a lot of stuff out. It's always been cathartic for us, but even more so this time around."

 Отправлено: 20.12.09 21:13. Заголовок: When life gets diffi..

Three Days Grace grows up

Newest album shows a growing musical maturity

By Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
December 19, 2009


When life gets difficult, Adam Gontier writes his best songs. His outbursts of rage form the basis of the crunching rock anthems that seem to explode from the singer and his band, Three Days Grace. They play Scotiabank Place on Sunday.

"It's always been that way," Gontier said in a recent phone interview. "It's always been the way that I've written songs, instead of seeing a shrink or whatever. Writing songs about it seems to work, and it's always worked well for me." Who could forget the first indication of his turmoil, the bitterness expressed in the Toronto-based band's breakthrough tirade, I Hate Everything About You. Relentlessly catchy, it was a No. 1 hit in the U.S. in 2003.

Some folks thought that would be it from the hard-rocking Toronto-based quartet, and dismissed them as one-hit wonders. But over the years, they proved their mettle, becoming one of Canada's most popular meathead rock acts, perhaps second only to Nickelback.

Three albums into it, there's no diminishing the sense of urgency on the latest disc, Life Starts Now. A follow-up to One-X, which was known as Gontier's rehab record because it was inspired by his recovery from substance abuse, the new one dives into a whole new set of personal challenges, spitting them out in songs like Bitter Taste, Break and World So Cold, though there's also a couple of love songs, Lost In You and Without You, that show a growing musical maturity.

"We dealt with family members getting sick with disease, family members passing away," says Gontier. "We've had a lot going on and we've had to deal with a lot of different things. Maybe we're growing up a little bit, starting to look at life in a different way.

"We've had a lot going on and we've had to deal with a lot of different things. Maybe we're growing up a little bit, starting to look at life in a different way.

"Fortunately for us, we're able to put all those feelings and experiences into songs and on a record, and I think people relate to that because it's real." Keeping it real was also the goal with the overall sound of the new album. Motivated by the desire to sound more like a live band and less like a studio project, the band members and their L.A-based producer Howard Benson met in Vancouver, where they settled into Warehouse Studios just after AC/DC finished their Black Ice album. The studio is renowned for its live drum sound, but no doubt the AC/DC vibes helped, too.

Formed in the early 1990s in small-town Norwood, Ont., Three Days Grace started as a high-school band called Groundswell. Gontier sang, backed by two friends from school, Neil Sanderson on drums and Brad Walst on bass, along with a couple of guitarists. The current lead guitarist, Barry Stock, joined in 2003.

Thanks in large part to the songwriting ability of Gontier, who is able to churn out slab after slab of hook-laden alt-metal, the band has gained plenty of exposure on the airwaves. But with the steady decline of CD sales, the live concert experience has become even more critical to any full-time band. For Three Days Grace, that's no problem.

"We've always been focused on the live show," says Gontier. "For us, it's the most important thing. We got into this to play shows, not just to make records.

"We wanted to get on the road and play in a different town every day. We were young, that's what we wanted to do and that's never changed. It's pretty important to us." Rocking out is no less important to the fans, who are still listening to the music at top volume and pumping their fists at concerts. For a post-grunge band like Three Days Grace, to be still going strong a decade later, disproves the death- of-rock theory that was widely predicted in the late '90s.

"The record industry is in a bit of tailspin, but I don't think people are ever going to stop listening to rock music," Gontier says. "If that day comes, that all the pop stars and the pop music take over and there's no more rock, then I don't know -- I'm done. I'll have to go live in my bomb shelter. But that'll never happen."

- - -

Three Days Grace

With: The Used and Default

When and where: 7 p.m. Sunday, Scotiabank Place

Tickets: $39.50 and $44.50, plus surcharges, through Capital Tickets, www.capitaltickets.ca or by phone at 613-599-FANS (3267) or 1-877-788-FANS (3267); in person at the Sens Store at Rideau Centre and Place d'Orléans, any Ottawa Sports Experts location and at the Scotiabank Place box office.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

 Отправлено: 20.12.09 21:20. Заголовок: ну вот, кстати, ивью..

ну вот, кстати, ивью не про гастроли....только все равно ниче новенького, всё это в принципе уже знаем...

по идее, из первого предложения уже все понятно - когда жизнь становиться трудной, Гонтье пишет свои самые лучшие песни;)
что писал, пишет и будет писать о жизни, о проблемах, о человеческих отношениях...о том, что пришлось столкнуться с болезнями близких и даже смертью (только вот чей, это я не поняла). и пока люди слушают рок-музыку он будет писать;))

 Отправлено: 24.01.10 14:37. Заголовок: Новенькие интервьюшк..

Новенькие интервьюшки, пожалуйста переводим, а то давно уже не слышим о жизни группы)



Interview
Three Days Grace
Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:05:27

Three Days Grace mainman Adam Gontier talks to ARTISTdirect.com editor and Dolor author Rick Florino about why Life Starts Now, rocking with Breaking Benjamin and feeling like Rocky...


Interview: Three Days Grace
For Three Days Grace, life really starts once they hit the road.

The multi-platinum rockers recently embarked on a States-wide run with Breaking Benjamin and Flyleaf, and they couldn't be more stoked. Walking around backstage of the jaunt's first date in Peoria, vocalist and guitarist Adam Gontier smiles, "It's a busy day, trying to get everything to work right, but it's so fun."

Three Days Grace will definitely have a blast on this co-headline jaunt, especially since their latest offering, Life Starts Now, continues to grab more and more fans by the ears daily. Life Starts Now is a swirling, epic hard rock record that's raw at all the right times and poignantly vulnerable. It's everything you want from a modern rock album…

Adam Gontier sat down with Dolor author and ARTISTdirect.com editor Rick Florino to uncover the story behind Life Starts Now, talk touring with Breaking Benjamin and discuss parallels between Three Days Grace and Rock IV in this exclusive interview.

Life Starts Now definitely tells a lot of stories. Did you consciously aim to amp up that storytelling when you went into the studio?

For us, it just seemed like a natural progression. We're evolving as songwriters, and we wanted to take a bit of a different approach this time around when we went into the studio. We wanted to change it up a bit and make the music feel more raw and real. A lot of records these days are pretty layered, shiny and mechanical. We wanted to stay away from that, so we definitely took a different approach. It is what it is.

Was that change in approach more centered on the writing or recording?

It was more about the recording process. We went into the Warehouse studio in Vancouver, and there's a really great live room in there. It's a world-class studio, and the live room is really amazing. We wanted to make it sound like you're in the room with the band when you're listening to the record. As for the lyrics, it's just the next step.

Was there anything in particular that encouraged you lyrically?

Yeah, there's a lot. Over the last couple of years before we actually made this record, we all went through an awful lot in our personal lives. We dealt with family members getting ill, people passing away—it all made us look at life a little bit differently. That's what we wrote this record about.

There's a lot of reflection going on in these songs, and that resonates.

I've always written from that personal place. Different things happen in life, but it's the same as it's always been—just different situations.

The title track stands out. What's the story behind that song?

It's pretty simple and straightforward; it's just about not really giving up on life. We've been through an awful lot. For me, "Life Starts Now" is truly about not giving up.

It's a positive note to end the record on. "Break" and "Bitter Taste" show a different side of the band.

Absolutely, there's a little bit more hope on this record than there was on the previous couple of albums.

The album truly has that "live" feel. In the studio, were you really vibing well?

It was a bit different for us this time around. We wanted the music to feel very raw and real. We sat in the live room together. It was just bass, drums and guitar, man. We rocked out in the live room. We took the drum sounds from us rehearsing in the room, so it was more about us sitting in a room, vibing off each other and actually jamming rather than just laying down tracks and layering things.

Life Starts Now has a clear continuity, almost like a film. If you were to compare it to a movie, what would you compare it to?

[Laughs] That's a tough one…The Godfather. It's one of my favorite movies. I'm just going to say The Godfather because I like it [Laughs]. It's got bad language, killing, love, family—it's got everything. I like the first Godfather better than the second. Actually, I might have to change that answer. I might compare our record to Rock IV, where Rocky fights the Russian. You know what I mean?

Life Starts when you get in the ring…

Yeah, life starts when you get in the ring or when you start working out in five feet of snow in Russia.

Is there any time to work out in five feet of snow in Canada?

Oh yeah, we just did! We spent three weeks in Canada. We were in some snow and some serious cold weather.

How did the Breaking Benjamin tour come together?

We did a co-headlining tour with Breaking Benjamin about two years ago now, and it went really well. It was a really great tour. They're great guys, and they put on a great show! This time around, we wanted to hit a few cities that we didn't necessarily hit on that last tour, and there were a lot of people that wanted to see that show again. So it all came together very nicely. They're great guys, and they put on a great show, so it works really well.

Are you always writing?

I've got a book with me where I'm writing ideas down. By the time, we actually sit down as a band to put songs together and get ideas together. In most cases, I've got a bunch of lyrical ideas ready to go. It goes from there. It just depends on what kind of music we're writing that day. I've got lyrics from ten years ago that are still sitting in the book, but one day we might use them depending on where the music's going. When we sit down a record, it's really different every time.

—Rick Florino
01.20.09

 Отправлено: 24.01.10 14:47. Заголовок: LiveDaily Interview:..

LiveDaily Interview: Neil Sanderson of Three Days Grace

Published January 20, 2010



By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski / LiveDaily Contributor

Three Days Grace drummer Neil Sanderson says his group, which has sold a total of six million albums, is particularly proud of its latest effort, "Life Starts Now."

"It was a lot of fun for us to make," Sanderson said during an interview with LiveDaily. "We wanted it to sound a little more raw. We recorded it in a big, open, warehouse-type environment.
"So many bands use so many studio tricks. It becomes so overproduced, over-processed and really mechanical sounding. We wanted to get away from that--not that we've done that a lot in the past. We wanted to make a record that was really organic and really about the connection between musicians, the playability. We're huge fans of classic records, like Led Zeppelin, where it was all about just the performance and not about anything else. Capturing the moment was what made the magic for those records. We tried to do that a little bit."

Recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, "Life Stars Now" marks the Three Days Grace's reunion with producer Howard Benson who also produced the group's 2006 album, "One-X." The new set features the lead single "Break."

Sanderson--who is joined in the band by Adam Gontier (vocals, guitar), Brad Walst (bass) and Barry Stock (lead guitar)--spoke to LiveDaily about the group's arena tour with Breaking Benjamin and Flyleaf, the recording process with Benson and how the act enjoys blowing things up on stage.

LiveDaily: How's the tour going so far?

Neil Sanderson: It's been great. We've been out for awhile now. We started this tour in our own country, up here in Canada, and it's a bit of a challenge touring this time of year. We're way up north right now. There's tons of snow and it's pretty wintery, but it's pretty cool to just go out and do it. We're pumped. The reaction on the new album's been awesome.

Starting with the title, "Life Starts Now," the album seems to be a little more optimistic.

Yes and no. I think the last couple years of our lives have been probably the most traumatic. At least one band member has had to confront sickness in the family and deal with death a little bit. It's kind of been the darkest time for us. During those times, we redefined what life is. I think the title "Life Starts Now" is a reflection of that. I think you have to go through the s--- at the bottom to find something better. Maybe there's a little more hope on the record.

This is your second record with producer Howard Benson. What did you learn from him the second time around?

The biggest thing, working with him or anybody for that matter, is he understands we've been a band for a long time. We have a vision about how we want things to be as a band. He respects that and gives us lots to space to do our thing.

He really brings a lot to the table. He's a great person to bounce ideas off of. We had a specific goal on how we wanted this record to sound--more raw and live. He was totally cool with trying something new. Sonically, he's got a real ear for how to make things sound, to create a real audio landscape. Just to make things sound big and open. A lot of song structure. It's nice to have a fresh outside set of ears to bounce ideas back on.

The band, we spend so much time collaborating together, that we can work on stuff and kind of get it pretty much the way it needs to be. But to hear someone else's two cents, too, is a good step for us.

What was the songwriting process for this album? Did you write on the road, at home, in the studio?

We wrote this whole record in Toronto. We took time off when we were home in Toronto. We have a loft space in downtown Toronto that we have all of our stuff set up in. We'd go down there and really work on ideas.

We're a really collaborative band. Everybody brings their ideas in and we sift through everything and build, start with the building blocks there. We try not to over-think it. We've written a lot together and we trust each other's tastes and instincts and stuff. Until everyone's really happy and totally excited and everybody's high fiving over sounds, it's kind of a work in progress. We don't write a ton of songs. We're not a band that writes 30 songs and keeps 10. Everything that we work on, we put a lot of effort into it.

How did the tour come about with Breaking Benjamin?

We've done a lot of touring with them in the past. I think we share a lot of the same fans. Our fans like Breaking Benjamin as well. They're a great band. They're great live. The two biggest things for us: having bands with us that are cool guys to hang out with and not the whole pretentious ego thing, and the other thing is they have to be a good band live. It's a drag to listen to a record and like a record and you see the band live and they can't pull it off. They use all kinds of backing tracks or something. Bands like Breaking Benjamin, they deliver it live like a real band should. We like having those guys.

What can we expect from your live show?

We still blow things up. [Laughs] We pack as many lights as we can in the back of the tractor trailers. I think our seizure factor goes up by a factor of five every tour because we keep bringing more and more lights. The show is everything to us. We really challenge each other musically and ourselves and take pride in becoming better musicians. That's where everything started. That continues to be the best part of the day. Getting up on stage and killing it in front of people. So you get a high that nothing else can give you when you're on stage playing in front of 10,000 or whatever people.

 Отправлено: 21.03.11 07:23. Заголовок: An interview with Th..

An interview with Three Days Grace bassist Brad Walst


It would be nearly impossible to listen to a rock radio station for an hour without hearing at least one Three Days Grace song. And that is just fine with fans in Southeast Idaho, as proved by the fact that the group’s upcoming concert in Idaho Falls sold out more than a week ago.

The concert is scheduled for Monday, March 28 at the Idaho Falls Civic Auditorium, 501 S. Holms Ave. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and show starts at 7:30 p.m.

Three Days Grace, based out of Toronto, Canada, released their debut major label self-titled album in 2003 on Jive Records. The album featured the singles “Just Like You,” “I Hate Everything About You” and “Home.”

“One-X,” the band’s sophomore album, was released in 2006 and featured the songs, “Pain,” “Animal I Have Become,” “Never Too Late” and “Riot.”

Their most recent album “Life Starts Now,” was released in 2009 and has reached the number two position on the U.S. Billboard Top Rock, Alternative and Hard Rock Albums charts, and number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.

Four singles from “Life Starts Now” have hit the airwaves to date, “Break,” “World So Cold,” “Lost in You” and “The Good Life.”

The March 28 show will not be the band’s first time performing in Southeast Idaho. The group performed in Blackfoot several years ago in support of “One-X.”

Three Days Grace will be performing with My Darkest Days, which, ironically, is fronted by TDG bass player’s brother Matt Walst.

I recently had a chance to talk to Brad Walst about the band’s lyrics, song writing process, and what inspires them to do what they do.

Here is the interview:

Jenny Hopkins: Tell me about how you guys got your start. Were you all friends in high school?

Brad Walst: Ya we basically met in grade nine of high school, and we just kind of started playing covers and talents shows and high school stuff and we just always stuck together all the way through ‘til right now so we basically started in high school and in about ‘97 we moved up to Toronto, which is a big city in Canada from our small town of Norwood. We just tried to play everywhere we could and get as much exposure as we could and it just kind of went from there.

JH: So you guys are all pretty close then.

BW: Ya, everybody is basically like brothers, it’s like a second family, ya know? It’s been 17, 18 years now.

JH: Tell me about the band name.

BW: Three Days Grace, I actually heard it in college, I was taking some business class and at the time we were a three piece and we didn’t have a name yet. It was something to do with repaying a debt, and it also just kind of stands for a sense of urgency due to that repayment. Ya, so I heard it in college and it kind of fit with the three piece thing and at the time we were writing more progressive music, a little bit heavier and it seemed to really fit.

JH: So what do you guys listen to when you’re on the road? Who inspires you?

BW: I listen to everything from Radiohead to Nine Inch Nails, but we try to keep up with a lot of the new music coming out ‘cause ya know, obviously the chemistry’s changing fast and it’s good to keep up with what’s coming out and what’s happening. We listen to everything, we get up on stage and we play as loud and as hard as we can and when you get off stage you just kind of don’t want to listen to anything. If you do it’s usually something a little bit more mellow.

JH: Tell me about your song writing process. Does Adam (lead vocalist) bring in lyrics or do you guys start with the rhythm?

BW: It’s kind of all over the place. We usually just get in a room together and do some acoustics or whatever and see what everybody has. Either Adam comes with lyrics or somebody else comes with lyrics or a lyrical idea and we just kind of hash it out together, so it’s always just been doing it together. It usually comes from acoustics. We figure it you can’t play a good song on an acoustic guitar then that is basically the core of the song, so we just kind of stuck with that mentality and it seems to work for us.

JH: Do you like to wait until you come back from tour to start writing or do you write while you’re own the road?

BW: We write a lot on the road. I think it’s hard to get inspired sometimes when you are not in the same place for 24 hours a day, ya know? So it’s one of those things where we like to get home. We always have a ton of music on the road and we have a little recording studio on the bus. So we record a lot of music and then we go home. We all have cabins in the woods and stuff and we go and be around nature and hash out lyrics and stuff like that. But there are some times when you’re like n the road and say you’re having a (bad) day and you write some lyrics and stuff does make it in but for us we just try to get away from everything and focus on that separately.

JH: It seems like the theme of the music and lyrics have evolved from your first album to your third album. It started out being very angsty and now the new album, “Life Starts Now” is much more positive. What has inspired the shift?

BW: WE toured for a long time for the first two records, it was a good five years. So for us it was just a change in ourselves. When we were on the road for “One-X” a lot of stuff personally happened to us. A lot of stuff that we never had to deal with as far as like, life. You’re kind of in a bubble when you’re on tour, so when we got home from touring with “One-X” people were getting sick with just stuff we never had to deal with and we had a lot of friends die in that time. I think for us it was more just a kind of ‘carry on’ and see the more positive side of life and try to move past those negative things. For instance my son, when we got home, I had a two-year-old son and he came down with cancer and that was tough for myself and obviously we’re a family and so it did reflect on everybody and it’s been things like that you just didn’t have to think about before that. The whole idea of “Life Starts Now” is you never know what life is going to give you. So take what you’ve got and make the best of it.

JH: Do you all have families at home, are you all married with kids?

BW: Ya we are all married. Myself and Neil, the drummer both have kids. I have three boys now.

JH: How is your son doing?

BW: My oldest son is the one who has had cancer. He is doing well, we caught it early and it’s been almost two years now with nothing. It’s one of those things that you just don’t think of a kid getting sick and when you’re brought into that world it’s a harsh reality, ya know? You just have to deal with it, you’ve gotta keep fighting it and moving forward.

JH: How do you all balance time on the road and time with your family?

BW: We usually try to go no longer than a month and then go home for a week. I think after more than a month you go a little crazy. We just had a good break with like three months off so it’s time to get back to work and start playing again. It’s kind of nice to get back on the road and I’m sure that will change in a few weeks and I’ll want to go home. It’s kind of weird because being a dad it’s kind of like having two lives, two alter egos. When you’re home you’re the dad and when you’re on the road you have to flip over and be this rock star, I guess. The kids dig it.

JH: Now that you have three albums and countless singles, how do you balance your live show with all your music?

BW: We try to mix it up as much as we can. This tour is kind of cool because we brought back a lot of old songs from the first record and just try to mix it up. It is nice to have the option. Obviously people want to hear the radio songs, but sometimes you can’t play them all. I guess that is a good problem to have (laughs).

JH: Are there any particular songs that are your favorites?

BW: One that we have started playing again is “Get Out Alive” from “One-X,” I really like that one. And “world So Cold,” I like playing that one a lot. But it depends on the mood and what’s going on.

JH: What is the weirdest experience you have had on tour?

BW: That’s a tough one ‘cause there are a lot of weird things that happen. We’ve had people break into our bus, we’ve had people follow our bus for hours and hours. As we get more successful and kind of veterans at this . . . the fan thing is awesome, you love meeting fans, but then there’s always a couple fans who take it too far and like, follow your bus for five hours. One time I fell into the crowd, that was weird, I felt really kind of embarrassed. But there was a guy in a wheelchair and I felt horrible, but he loved it, he thought it was great. It’s definitely a weird lifestyle, so I would have to say there are weird things that happen everyday and you’re like, ‘wow.’ Which makes it interesting.

JH: It’s great that you guys still have the passion for touring and making new music:

BW: We love playing live. We’ll play forever, as long as we can.