Singer Conrad Sewell opens up on why he wants to remain sober and focus on positivity
CONRAD Sewell has put a ban on backstage booze for his upcoming gigs. The chart-topping singer is making changes in his life, revealing what he has done which led to the release of two new singles.
Confidential
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CONRAD Sewell has put a ban on backstage booze for his upcoming gigs. The chart-topping singer is making changes in his life and to mark that has put out the new singles Healing Hands and Come Clean.
“We’ve just taken all the alcohol off of my tour rider,” Sewell told Confidential.
“There’s no booze and I am keeping positive people around me. I have cut a lot of bullsh*t out of my life.
“I now keep (around me) a very small circle of positive people that believe in me. In those moments of weakness, when I want to go out and rage just because I am bored, they remind me what the focus is.”
Healing Hands and Come Clean sit as sister tracks and were released concurrently with Sewell’s revelation that he has been battling alcohol for the past couple of years.
The realisation came when he blacked out in the back of a car in December 2015 en route to perform at New York’s Madison Square Garden in what should have been a career highlight.
Now sober, the 30-year-old Start Again singer is fixing past wrongs.
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“I was thinking about all the times that I’ve screwed up in my relationships … where I’ve drunk myself into oblivion and not come home at the right time,” he said of the tracks.
Sewell performed Healing Hands live on The Voice on Sunday as the track came in at
No. 2 on the iTunes chart.
Again, his sobriety was front of mind. “After things like The Voice, I am so used to celebrating with drinks,” he said.
“Usually after a night like that I’d go out and I’d get f … d up with the boys.
“Instead we were there with two of my best mates with no alcohol in sight; there was chocolate instead. It is a sacrifice but it is what it takes to be great, I think. I have to take care of my voice now.”
Sewell’s Come Clean east coast tour kicks off at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory on September 6 with shows also in Brisbane and Melbourne.
He will then tour the United States, where he has been based for the past couple of years.
“Vocally it is night and day,” he said of the improvement in his voice after giving up alcohol.
“I can sing in the morning again. It batters your instrument when you rage that much.”
The future, he said, is looking bright with his new album Ghosts & Heartaches slated for release later this year.
“I want to focus on putting music out that I believe in and just growing it in the right way … having people connect with it and not worrying about what anyone else is doing,” he said.
“I hope the future is playing stadiums and just touching as many people as I can with my music. That is all I’ve ever wanted — to share my music with the world.”