Video Premiere: SAINT ASONIA's 'Better Place'

"Better Place", the first video from SAINT ASONIA, the new act featuring ex-THREE DAYS GRACE frontman Adam Gontier and STAIND guitarist Mike Mushok, can be seen below. The clip was filmed in Los Angeles with director Paul Brown, who has previously worked with MARILYN MANSON, THREE DAYS GRACE, EVANESCENCE, SLIPKNOT, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and MÖTLEY CRÜE, among others.

Speaking about the video shoot, Gontier told Styles and Kaytie of the 92.7 QLZ radio station: "It was a great experience. I'm pretty proud of it myself. I co-directed the video with the director Paul Brown. And Paul is someone that I've worked with in the past, and he does great, great stuff. I wrote the treatment and got a chance to co-direct the video, which is something I have always wanted to do. I'm really, really proud of it."

Gontier also spoke about his decision to take on directorial duties for the video himself. He explained: "When you put a single out, you get treatments from a lot of different directors, and we had a few treatments come in, but at the same time, I felt like, just being so close to the song and what it means to me, I felt like maybe I could write something that works best for the song, and it turned out that we gave that a shot and it worked. So it was a really, really cool experience. I learned a lot and hopefully I'll get a chance to do it again in the future."

Regarding the "Better Place" video concept, Gontier said: "It's basically looking out at a few different people in different situations in their lives where they just finally, sort of, stop getting stepped on and end up in a better place. There's a few different ways that people will interpret the video, but it's a really, really cool idea and it's something that I don't think has really ever been done. So, yeah, I'm excited for people to see it and [to see] their reaction, for sure."

"Better Place" is taken from SAINT ASONIA's self-titled debut album, which is being released today (Friday, July 31) via RCA.

Produced by Johnny K. (SEVENDUST, DISTURBED, MEGADETH),the majority of "Saint Asonia" was co-written by Gontier and Mushok.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, SAINT ASONIA started out as just Gontier and Mushok writing music together with no plans beyond that. But Gontier told The Pulse Of Radio that the moment arrived when they knew SAINT ASONIA could be a band. "When we got into the studio to record a couple of songs, we recorded three songs, and when they were done, I think that was probably the moment where we were like, 'Okay, so we've just recorded three songs, they turned out really good, we have another 10, let's do this,'" he said. "Obviously, Mike being basically on hiatus from STAIND for who knows how long, it just seemed to make sense."

SAINT ASONIA also includes STUCK MOJO and DARK NEW DAY bassist Corey Lowery and FINGER ELEVEN drummer Rich Beddoe.

The group played its first live show at Rock On The Range in Columbus, Ohio in May.

Gontier has kept a low profile since leaving THREE DAYS GRACE in December 2012. The band replaced him with Matt Walst and recently released a new album called "Human".

Mushok's band, STAIND, has not released new music since 2011 and has no plans to return to the studio. Mushok played briefly in 2013 with ex-METALLICA bassist Jason Newsted in his self-named band.

Beddoe exited FINGER ELEVEN in late 2013.

Lowery's resume includes stints with STUCK MOJO, SWITCHED, STEREOMUD, DARK NEW DAY and most recently EYE EMPIRE.

Band photo credit: Travis Shinn