It’s certainly an interesting time for Three Days Grace. This past October, the band announced that they were reuniting with vocalist Adam Gontier, but maintaining their current singer, Matt Walst. After a few pop-up appearances, the band are now going to move forward as a five-piece act with two singers, and they’ll do so when they open up for Disturbed on a run that includes a Tuesday night show at Fiserv Forum. Ahead of the tour, we talked to drummer Neil Sanderson about the change in the lineup, how that’s affecting the dynamic of the band, and what the future might look like now that there’s another piece to the puzzle: 

OMC: So, you get the call that Disturbed is doing 25 years of “The Sickness” and they want to bring Three Days Grace on the road with them. What is the initial thought that went through the band at that point?

Sanderson: Well we're good we're good friends with them, and we've toured with them in the past. That’s always great when it’s kind of like a family when you're out there. So absolutely. The timing was great for us. This is our first sort of inkling of having five guys on stage, with two singers, so to come out and play with Disturbed in front of 15,000 people every night is great. We’re rehearsing in Las Vegas and it’s going to be great to step up there and be with Disturbed and the fans on the last tour were great to us.We don't try to compete with their pyro, though. (laughs)

OMC: Having five people in this band now, what is that dynamic? What's kind of the biggest thing that you think you’re going to have to learn from having five guys there?

Sanderson: First off, it became really exciting when we started getting creative together as a five piece. You know, it felt like a lot had not changed in terms of our writing method, where we all kind of contribute to what we have. Then we sift through the guitar riffs and the poetry and titles and the ideas and all that. Then we just really sit down and collaborate. A lot of it is done on acoustic guitar, because we believe that a great song will translate on an acoustic guitar no matter how heavy it's going to be later. It was sort of a band camp, really. We got together in southern Indiana and there was space for everybody, so we hit the ground running and wrote a few songs. 

What became really apparent in a good way was just that the dynamic between the two vocals was really something that added a new facet, a new dimension to the sound of Three Days Grace. But it really kind of feels also full circle for us. Being able to harmonize with each other, both singers play guitar. We kind of just let it naturally unfold to see what would come out. Now looking back at it, I think we've achieved something great already with this record that we're almost finished recording and can't wait to show everybody I remember seeing the guys. They were playing rock paper, scissors for who was going to sing the next line at one point.

OMC: I was going to ask if there's any negotiation on some of the older material, in terms of who gets what part, so nobody is just stuck there on stage.

Sanderson: Yeah. It's going to thicken the sound up, too. So when whoever's not taking the lead, the other can have the guitar if they want to play it. At a certain point that's all for them to figure out. All I have to do is play drums.

OMC: I'm sure a lot will get hashed out in rehearsals. Have you guys played live all together in any capacity?

Sanderson: We surprised fans one night when Adam was out at a show, when he just came up and sang like two songs with us. We did that twice where he came up and did a couple of tunes with us, which was like a surprise to the fans. The way the  band sounded just felt like it was falling into place naturally, which I feel very grateful to be in this position. It's like all forces sort of coming together in Three Days Grace’s world. I'm as excited as the fans are about it.

OMC: Does it feel like you guys are re-energized in a sense?

Sanderson: I think so. A lot of time has passed. We're all at different points of our life, but we all have a lot in common right now. We have the same common goal. We want to go out there and just blow the roof off the place. I feel like seeing eye to eye on everything is really important.

OMC: New tour, new album in the works, what does the rest of the year look like for Three Days Grace?

Sanderson: Well, we have a bunch of the big festivals in like April and May. We're on a lot of those great big American rock festivals, which will be great. Then we're going to basically headline and co-headline the rest of the year. It'll include a pretty comprehensive U.S. tour and into Canada later in the year as well. I think in between that we're going to go to Europe, too. 

OMC: So there’s a lot to look forward to there.

Sanderson. Absolutely. Can’t wait.

You can catch Three Days Grace with Disturbed and Sevendust on Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum. Tickets are available via the Fiserv Forum website.