3 Doors Down to play Gallo Center

Brad Arnold, the singer for rock band 3 Doors Down, says that when the group headed into the studio to work on its upcoming album, it wanted to make a more accessible pop disc than its dark 2000 records that produced such hits as “When I’m Gone,” “Not My Time” and “Away From the Sun.”

Instead the group found itself with a collection of songs “heavier than, I think, anything that we’ve made in a long time. We say we used to try to make rock records and they’d wind up sounding a little poppy. This time we tried to write a pop record and wound up with a metal album,” Arnold says with a laugh.

“Not every song, but we got a couple different guys in the band, so a couple of different flavors were introduced. There are definitely some reflective songs, and I don’t ever want to write a song that doesn’t have a meaning to it, but at the same time, some of these aren’t, maybe, quite so deep.

“And they’re a little more fun, and they’re just enjoyable songs to listen to. They’re going to be fun songs to play live.”

The new disc, “Us and The Night,” is finished for a fall release. The band plays a show Sunday, Aug. 30, at the Gallo Center for the Arts.

In a phone call from his home outside Nashville, Tenn., Arnold can’t contain his enthusiasm about the new disc.

“I’m really excited about this record, man,” he says. “It really turned out good. I mean, there’s some cool songs on that. I was saying to somebody the other day, it’s like, I know we put out a lot of albums that had hits on them and songs that people like the stuff, but I really think people are going to enjoy this one because it’s got some cool songs on it.

“It’s just songs that make you want to just nod your head and stomp your foot.”

Arnold say he thinks the heavier bent might have been a reaction to the acoustic tour the band played for the better part of a year, which stripped down its greatest hits to their bare essentials.

“I always have said that you tend to write what you long to play live,” Arnold says. “When we were out there playing acoustic songs, I remember we love playing acoustic, but we just kind of stand there doing your thing.

“So I think that kind of fueled the fire of writing heavier songs – not Slipknot heavy, but some heavier tracks and some songs I think people can rock with and have some fun listening to.”

Arnold also credits some of the new sound to the fact that 3 Doors Down has two new members since its last disc, 2011’s “Time of My Life.”

Chet Roberts took over rhythm guitar in 2012 when founding lead guitarist Matt Roberts had to quit the band for health reasons, and former rhythm guitarist Chris Henderson took over lead. Justin Biltonen took over for founding bassist Todd Harrell, who was dismissed from the group after being charged with vehicular homicide.

“Those guys – they’ve stepped in and done really great,” Arnold says. “I’ve enjoyed having them and it’s great additions; they’re great guys.”

Roberts was the band’s guitar tech for years, and quickly stepped in when Roberts left, then won the permanent spot.

“Chet is an incredibly talented musician,” Arnold says. “He’s one of those guys you can hand him an instrument that he’s never played before and come back in an hour and he’ll be writing a song on it. He’s that guy, you know?” Biltonen had been a friend of the band for years, he says.

“They brought their ideas in and fresh sounds and I think we kind of re-evaluated where we were coming from as well,” Arnold says. “We tried to do some different stuff.

“I think the lead songs will definitely catch people by surprise. I mean, not like, ‘Oh my god, what were they thinking?’ And not too far out in left field. But some of them, when they first come on, you have to listen to them maybe two or three seconds before you hear, ‘Oh yeah, that’s 3 Doors Down.’ ”

Arnold points to the disc’s likely first single, “The Broken,” which he says is “kind of a song to the youth.

“It’s kind of a call out to be active in the world,” he says. “You know – if you’re not happy with what’s going on in the world, then change it. It’s just a call out to be a part of things, and to let your voice be heard. And the youth own the world, and it’s up to them to either change it or keep throwing it in.”

Despite the new disc veering away from the acoustic tour’s vibe, Arnold says he enjoyed doing that because it returned to their essence the songs that gave the band seven platinum singles in eight years – even multiple-platinum hits such as “Kryptonite” and “Here Without You.”

“I think it gave the listener a chance to absorb the songs,” he says. “And it gave us also a chance to go back and play those songs as they were written. Because not every single song of ours ever, but most of our songs, we’ve always written them acoustic – even if they were kind of heavy, we went back and made them heavy later.

“I really believe in that. I think if you can’t boil a song down – and maybe not every single song – but in most cases, if you can’t boil a song down and play it acoustically, you just got too much junk going on it and you need to kind of re-evaluate what you’re doing.”

This story was originally published August 26, 2015 at 3:47 PM with the headline "3 Doors Down to play Gallo Center."