Staying sober in the music industry - better for the music

"Musicians don't drink like normal people," Canadian singer-songwriter Damhnait Doyle wrote in a Toronto Star op-ed earlier this year. "You drink before gigs, during gigs, after gigs, on your day off, on a travel day, at the airport bar, the hotel bar, in the bus, the back of the van, when the show sucks, when the show is off the hook, when your song is on the radio, when no one's playing your single. Alcohol is both the journey and the destination". The article inspired Exclaim to talk to several artists - Hollerado drummer Jake Boyd, singer-songwriter and Single Mothers frontman Drew Thomson, PONY bandleader Sam Bielanski and singer-songwriter Ansley Simpson - about how they got sober and what has changed since they stopped drinking. Generally, all of them say their playing got better.