Tour buses are small places, and two leading men can be a lot of energy to fit into a single album. With their precious thirty minutes of free time between soundcheck and VIP meet and greets, Matt Walst and Adam Gontier of Three Days Grace were unrushed and happy to talk about the band’s journey and their upcoming album “Alienation.”

Their green room is simply stocked—chewing gum, protein bars, and coffee (no bizarre high-maintenance requests here)—and their tour packing essentials list is just as uncomplicated. Adam needs his iPad and acoustic guitar, and Matt can’t survive without his PlayStation and underwear. A lot of underwear: “As many as I can fit. 20 pairs at least.” Laundry is a luxury when you’re in a new city every night.

Three Days Grace started as an iconic force of the 2000s, with their viral anthems giving a voice to addiction, angst, rage, and confusion. Original frontman Adam Gontier stepped back from the band in late 2012 as he looked for a change in his life. Matt Walst — little brother of the bassist and successful in his own right with My Darkest Days — stepped in. Now, after more than a decade, Adam is back on the front lines, sharing the mic with Matt. They’ve dropped three singles, there’s an album coming in August, and the band is already out on tour, with stops planned through the end of 2025.

Adam shared that “since [leaving the band], there’s been a lot of growing up and life to live. I needed to live and learn some things. I ended up getting remarried and had a couple kids. It feels like the right time now because the important things in life for me are pretty evident now, I think for all of us. We’ve all grown up quite a bit.”

It wasn’t just personal growth that decided the timing for Adam — there was also respect for Matt having the time to become established with the band. “Matt stood a bunch of records with the guys, and I did a bunch of records, so it seemed like a good time for us to get it together and do a deal with both of us.”

Anecdotally, live, the two singers sound pretty different. Adam leans more into a traditional rock voice — clean and radio-ready — while Matt’s voice has an edge to it, echoing a heavier metalcore vibe. But in person, those differences don’t come out at all—and as it turns out, learning to blend their voices was easy.

The studio experience, according to Adam, was a “fortunate one,” and “it very easily could have been a lot tougher than it has been. It just worked.” That synergy shows in their new singles, where their voices weave together and the core of Three Days Grace shines through with themes of losing control.

Adam describes one song, “Mayday,” as a “view on the state of the world at the moment and how it feels like things are out of control, and we don’t really know who’s in charge.” These lyrics come from a real place, with both singers citing their families and thoughts of their kids as key ways they ground themselves and find control in a constantly moving world.

In the self-described “Divorced Dad Rock” genre that Three Days Grace occupies, two lead singers is fairly rare — but when it comes to the tour, it gives the band more flexibility. Matt emphasized the benefits: they “get to have breaks between. Sometimes you get to like the third chorus or a bridge, and it’s tough, because you’ve been singing the same part with intensity the whole time, so [two singers] really helps relieve a little stress on the vocals.”

And that encore every band seems to do? With two lead singers and no need for a break before the big finale — Adam laughed and shared, “the fake encore thing’s a little weird, I guess. It seems to be part of the show now. We don’t have to do it. So we’re not.”

While there may not be an encore, be prepared for their tour to feature new music once the album drops — and yes, Matt will get the pit going with his highly specialized technique of shouting, “Get that pit going.”

From the band whose top featured song among their 16.5 million monthly Spotify listeners is “I Hate Everything About You,” you might not expect them to fall into the Canadian stereotype of being nice and mild-mannered — but apparently, the only controversial moments for the band are around pizza, a Deftones song, and NHL 25.

Playboy: It sounds like everyone is getting along, but there has to be something that gets everyone heated.

Adam Gontier: So I like pizza after every show, and some people don’t like pizza. I think that’s the closest thing that we have disagreed on. Neil doesn’t like a certain song that I’ve played over and over again. And I don’t play it anymore. It’s called “Swerve City” by Deftones.

Matt Walst: We do have some pretty heated battles in NHL 25 on the bus. We just get in each other’s faces in that game.

Playboy: I Prevail said the same thing!

Matt Walst: Maybe we have to play them. Consider this an official challenge. The Canadians will show them how it’s done.

A hockey video game challenge? They couldn’t be any more Canadian. You can pre-save their album “Alienation”, listen to their new singles, and check out their tour dates on their website. And if you think you can best them in NHL 25, send them a challenge on Instagram.