By the time Three Days Grace's first single "I Hate Everything About You" spearheaded their success in 2003 the band had already been together since 1992. The group reforged itself in 1997 and changed its original name, Groundswell, to Three Days Grace. When explaining the meaning of the new name, Adam Gontier once said (per Last.fm), "If you had three days to change something in your life, could you do it?" It's this attitude of questioning that not only defined Three Days Grace's lyrics and outlook, but Gontier's life path after leaving the band in 2013.
Within two years Gontier had joined his subsequent band, Saint Asonia — a supergroup composed of members such as Staind guitarist Mike Mushok that released its first, self-titled album in July 2015. The band spawned from demos that Gontier and Mushok initially recorded together in April 2014 for fun. In 2020 Gontier said plainly on Highwire Magazine, "There's a lot more creative freedom with Saint Asonia ... We're not pigeonholed to a certain genre or having to write about things that I don't necessarily feel. That's why I started playing music and wanted to be in a band and perform."
By all accounts, this is how Gontier has been spending the bulk of his professional time over the past decade or so. In 2019 Saint Asonia released its second album, "Flawed Design," and then a combo album," Introvert/Extrovert," in 2022. By 2024 Gontier was the only founding member still in the band's touring lineup — Mushok had taken a step back from the road to focus on Staind.
