ChartAttack: Do you get teased mercilessly for being on our Sexiest Musicians cover [Oct. 2004]?
Adam Gontier: Yeah, my band members are the worst for teasing me about the whole “sexy” thing. Most of my friends and family members laugh about it, but really, I know they’re all jealous.
Why did it take so long for America to tweak to “I Hate Everything About You?” Don’t they hate everything?
I think, for us, it was a good thing that “I Hate” took so long to catch on in America. These days, in this industry, it’s mainly about a label releasing a single that they figure is going to catch on. Then they spend millions of dollars to put the song on radio, promote the hell out of the artist and basically force the public into hearing the song everyday so that they end up liking the song no matter what. For us, we took more of a grassroots style approach to it. We toured our asses off in America for close to two years and built up a fan base that way. Of course, the label helped promote the song, but we worked really hard to try and build a real following of people who genuinely like the band, and not just our single on the radio and that’s the real way to do it.
What are the band’s plans for next year?
To start next year, we’re going to tour for just a couple of months, and then we’ll get back in the studio to start pre-production for the second record. We’ve got a small studio set up in the bus, so while we’re touring we’re always writing new stuff.
Can we expect a more cuddly, less angry Three Days Grace with the next record?
My songs have always come from a place of anger. Not because I’m an angry person, but more because I use music as an outlet for negative thoughts and emotions. A lot of people pay serious amounts of money just to see a shrink and tell them all their problems. For me, I sit with an acoustic guitar, a pen and a piece of paper and write a song about how I feel. It’s a strange thing because I’ve been asked so many times, “Now that you’re a rock star touring the world, you can’t be that mad at the world anymore right? So what are you going to write about?” I think no matter who you are or what you do for a living, there’s always things in your life that upset you, or move you in some way. So I think my style of writing won’t change. There’s always things that I feel need to be changed in this world, and if I can express those things through music, I will.
At any point this year, did you look at your high ranking on the Billboard charts and let out a nice “We kicked your ass Chad Kroeger”?
The only time I let out a nice “I kicked your ass Chad Kroeger” was when we were on tour together in the United States and one night I actually kicked his ass in front of a whole bunch of Nickelback fans waiting outside his bus for him. He just needed to be straightened out and shown who’s boss. I’m actually just kidding. This never happened, but keep your head up Chad!
Was having a red carpet pic of you at the MMVAs published in Flare your highlight of the year?
I wouldn’t consider being in Flare magazine a highlight. The actual highlight of my year was getting married to my beautiful wife Naomi at a friend’s cottage in Bancroft this past May.
How difficult is it to find a good smalltown bush party now that you’re internationally famous rock stars?
It’s really not that hard to find a kick ass “pit” party – as we called them – when I go home. The people from our town are really awesome people and know how to host a bash. The difficult thing is finding time to get there.
