It’s safe to say the last few years have been tumultuous for 3 Doors Down. Making the decision to cut loose founding member Todd Harrell can’t have been easy, not that it was without merit. But as guitarist Chris Henderson explains, the band’s new record Us And The Night is a chance for them to “draw a line in the sand”, put the drama of the past few years behind them and move forward.
20 years making music this year. This is a really unfair question, but can you pick a few highlights from your perspective?
Wow, man. There’s so many. I think probably the biggest highlight was when our first song got played on the radio for the first time 18 years ago. That was probably the highlight of all of this.
Obviously tracks like “Here Without You” and “Kryptonite” launched you worldwide. Is that music still important to you?
Absolutely, because it’s kept us around. As the music business has changed and all these different things happen, we’ve been able to survive that environment. Those older songs helped us get through all that.
New album sounds great. Haven’t strayed too far from the sound we all fell in love with back in 2002. Was the process the same for this record or did you change some things up?
Actually we changed a lot of different things. You know, the one thing that stayed the same was the guy singing. I mean, whenever he opens his mouth, you know it’s 3 Doors Down and that’s one of those cool things about us. But definitely the writing process was a lot different. We used a lot of different elements that we wouldn’t have used five, six years ago. We approached the song writing a little differently and used more of the technology available.
About when did you start writing for this album?
About two years ago, probably. I mean, we’d already written a few songs that we weren’t necessarily writing for a record. So we had a couple of songs in the bag, but probably about two years ago it turned into writing for the new album.
Big fan of the track “Living In Your Hell”, can you give us an insight into where that came from?
At the end of the day, it’s really about the person you end up with that promises you everything. They promise you’re going to be happy and once you let your guard down, they basically change and you end up living in their hell. We feel like there’s a lot of people out there who’ve experienced this in relationships.
“I Don’t Wanna Know” breaks the mould a bit. Where did the inspiration for that sound come from?
It was kinda inspired by a drum loop that we put up. We were just trying to get something down so we could listen back to the guitar riffs. So this drum loop turned the guitar riff into a sort of latin feel and we just went with it, which is all part of song development.
Most of you guys are natives of the South. Country music had to have been a big influence on you in the early years. What made you want to be a rock band instead?
You know, I don’t really know man. Just the environment we grew up in, I guess. I mean, some of us played country for a while. But I think in the end, it was a love of rock that pulled us in. I mean, you end up finding your own way, you know?
Without being disrespectful, I’ll just say it’s been a tough few years for the band. Does the release of this album enable you to put it behind you and get on with the business of making music?
Absolutely, it does. That’s really important to us. To let people know that we’re not those things. That’s not what we’re about and it’s never been what we’re about. We drew a line in the sand. With this record, this is the new band.
Tell us more about the Better Life Foundation.
It’s a foundation we started 13 years ago as a way to try and give back to our local community. The money we raised through the foundation we used to help women’s and children’s charities all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where we’re from. It was such a success that we were able to branch out into other charities and do some national stuff. Over the years, it’s grown into a national charity and now we’re doing international stuff as well. We’re buying some beds for an orphanage at the moment. We specialise in being a dollar in, dollar out charity. We don’t just give people money to what they want with. We actually buy supplies and deliver them directly to where they’re needed. We don’t wanna see people’s donations eaten up with administration or anything like that.
Any plans to head Down Under with the new record?
We hope so man, it’s been a really long time since we’ve been there. I think 2007 was the last time we were there. So we’re trying to get there as soon as we can. I hope we can get down there, maybe October or November.
Us And The Night is available now on Spotify and Apple Music.
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