Don't plan on being sober.

It's a piece of advice I offer to pretty much anyone heading to town for the Stampede (that, and watch out for splatter).

It's also not a problem for most, especially musicians.

"That's my motto right from the get-go so I'll be all right," laughs Three Days Grace drummer Neil Sanderson, who will be on the grounds with his band tonight at the Coca-Cola Stage, as well as appearing at Stage 13 in Camrose on Saturday.

Sanderson may have been joking, but it is hard to imagine him and his two bandmates not toasting their good fortune on an hourly basis.

After more than a decade together -- previously under the band name Groundswell -- T.O.-based Three Days Grace have hit the jackpot with the release of their self-titled major label debut on the Jive record label.

"This is what we've been aiming for for a long time," Sanderson says.

"We've paid our dues and we've put a lot of time into this.

"But when it does happen it's so surreal."

While it may be a good word to describe the wooing by and their signing to the label that gave us Backstreet Boys and Britney -- not to mention subsequently meeting the label's biggest star Justin Timberlake -- "surreal" is hardly the way you'd describe the band's music.

It's moody modern rock with a heavy, oppressive feel to it that's also born out in the angst-ridden, relationship lyrics that were informed by the band members growing up outside Toronto -- Sanderson was raised in Peterborough, while vocalist Adam Gontier and bassist Brad Walst both hail from Norwood, which has a population of 1,500.

"We write from a certain perspective," says Sanderson of songs such as the first single I Hate Everything About You and others such as Home and Scared.

"Music has always been an outlet for this band and that's part of the reason why the lyrical content is the way that it is.

"I think, too, growing up in a small town you get a chance to see things at face value in terms of how people are living their lives and the cause and effect of what people are doing everyday."

And what did the small-town boys think after meeting their very uptown label mate Mr. Timberlake?

"Dude, he's totally down to earth," says Sanderson genuinely.

"No attitude, totally approachable guy."