A transit of Venus is an extremely rare astrological phenomenon. It provides the title for Ontario band Three Day’s Grace’s fourth album, but its metaphor as a brief, important moment in time is ironic considering the band’s longevity.

After their smash debut single “I Hate Everything About You” in 2003, Three Days Grace has remained one of Canada’s most commercially successful hard rock acts. Transit of Venus will not change that, and further adds more nuance and complexity to the band’s sound. We spoke with drummer / backing vocalist Neil Sanderson about its creation and what effect mainstream rock can have on its audience.

Enjoying some downtime before the album release?

It’s starting to get crazy. We got back recently from New York, we were shooting the video for “Chalk Outline.”

What’s the video concept?

We wrote the treatment ourselves. We read so many pitches from different directors but just the same stuff we’ve been getting for years. So many directors stay in their own parameters.

It’s set in New York City, [singer] Adam [Gontier] is walking around and singing to the camera while the rest of us are involved in some altercations in the background. New York-style craziness. At the end we all come together.

I first heard Three Days Grace via MuchMusic. Are videos still as valuable to you, commercially or artistically?

Yeah, just through a different channel — no longer on TV, but through the channel of YouTube. Since our first video, “I Hate Everything About You,” has over 48 million views absolutely I think making a video is still valuable. And it can still be a great art form, if you get as involved as we do. We always have our say as to what direction the video will take.

You’ve maintained strong commercial success even with the current state of the music industry. Has that given you more control over how your promote the band in recent years, or do you feel you’ve always had that?

We’ve always tried to maintain control when we can. It’s more [important] to always have the freedom to experiment musically, in particular with this record; we talked a lot about how modern rock bands mistakingly think if they add more and more layers of guitar, and just sing constantly about “bleeding” and “suffocating” then they’ve met the definition of “heavy.” We’re so tired of that. We’re still a heavy band but we wanted to go deeper, lyrically, than what’s going on out there. I think over time we’ve gotten the freedom to do that. Like Nine Inch Nails, where there’s a beauty to the “heaviness.” There’s an atmosphere created that’s not just chugging guitars. 






Every artist says their latest release is their best, so I won’t go there, but I would like to know what you think the band has done on Transit of Venus, specifically, better than on past albums. 



We tightened our sound. We lost of lot of ambience — for example, when recording the drums we hardly used any room mics. In the past, our last record in particular, it felt like you were in this big room with the drums, but we went the other direction here. The music is more intricate and complex and we wanted a more intimate sound, not a spacious one.

We definitely [anticipate] the sound of a new record before we start making it. We were writing and demoing on the road so we were already aware of what we wanted to do before we got into the studio.

Literally, a transit of Venus is a phenomenon wherein Venus visibly passes between the sun and Earth. Figuratively, it’s a rare moment that will certainly only happen once in our lifetime. Why is that concept significant to the band?

The idea of mortality, the shortness of life and not taking moments for granted is something we’ve always talked about in our music.

There’s another metaphor; scientists believe Venus used to be very similar to Earth, and maybe it could have sustained life. That didn’t happen, one [planet] lived while another one died. So just think about how fortunate you are to wake up everyday to an enriched life, while others are not so lucky.

Have you had any moments like that in recent months? Where you’ve stopped and thought “This will never happen to me again.”

I think the feeling [of momentary significance] has come through more traumatic experiences. We’ve dealt with a lot of loss in our families, and it’s those times that make you realize how temporary your life is. The song “Broken Glass” on the new album is all about that: realizing just how fragile you are.

Is writing lyrics a fully collaborative thing for the band?

It’s very collaborative. Having a message in our songs is the most important thing to us, and to our fans. Someone saying to us “This song changed my perspective on life, made me realize my problems weren’t so big” ... that’s what music means to us. We took much longer writing this record than normal but we really wanted to keep those [relatable] lyrics.

I guess that’s the best takeaway from a major label rock album: there’s no emphasis on being obtuse in the meaning or emotional impact of a song.

It’s very easy to write something so complex that only you understand it, but it’s difficult to engage with someone else. That’s the hard part. Anyone can be confusing.