Adam Gontier and Naomi Faith Brewer grew up in Norwood, Ontario, a rural township of roughly 4,000 residents east of Peterborough. The pair began dating in high school during the mid-1990s, the same period Gontier formed Groundswell with bandmates Neil Sanderson and Brad Walst. When Groundswell rebranded as Three Days Grace in 1997 and moved toward a major-label record deal with Jive Records, Brewer remained Gontier's primary constant outside the music industry machine.
The couple married in May 2004. By that point, the band's self-titled debut album had generated massive chart momentum with singles like "I Hate Everything About You" and "Just Like You." Yet commercial success brought grueling road schedules and intense emotional friction. For a young couple thrust from rural Ontario into international touring, the transition created deep strains that would soon define the band's most critically acclaimed output.
