Sean Dalton's music career has taken him across the country and around the world, but he's ended up in small town Nova Scotia and life couldn't be better for the former drummer of The Trews.
These days, he's earning a living offering drum lessons in Antigonish. He also lobster fishes and is still making music.
"I enjoy everything I do right now," he said.
Between 2002 and 2015, Dalton was the drummer in the successful Canadian rock band The Trews, toured across Canada and the U.S., and even played shows as far away as Australia, Dubai and Japan. Besides headlining tours, the band opened shows for legendary artists like The Rolling Stones, Guns N' Roses and Kiss.
However, a seemingly endless touring schedule filled with many sleepless nights began to take its toll on Dalton's health. The 35-year-old says he was drinking too much and recalls a conversation with a doctor who asked him if he drank more than three to four drinks in a week.
"I was looking at him and I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' That would be a light night. That would be, 'Oh, I'm proud of myself, I only had four beers tonight,'" said Dalton.
Leaving school for life on the road
Being in The Trews was pretty much the only life Dalton knew. He was in his fourth year of university in 2002 when the other band members told him the band needed a new drummer and asked him if he'd like to join the group.
Dalton says he joined the group because he knew the other three members were "super driven" to be musicians, so he left school to hit the road.
The group soon moved to Ontario, built up a dedicated following and released its first full-length album in 2003, House of Ill Fame, which spawned the hit song "Not Ready to Go."
From there, it was onwards and upwards for the band.
Lack of sleep
However, the daily grind of life on the road was tough. Dalton says a typical night on a cross-country tour would start with playing a two-hour show beginning at around 11 p.m. Once the show was done, with the adrenaline still flowing through his system, he wasn't ready for bed. After some drinks, he might finally be ready for bed at 3 a.m. at the earliest and would go to bed on the tour bus.
"I couldn't sleep on the bus," he said, noting that at around 4 a.m. or 5 a.m., the rumble of the bus would begin as the bus would head to the next city.
Once they reached their destination, he would spend the day looking for things to do. There'd be a sound check at around 5 p.m. and then the band would hit the stage later that evening. The whole situation would then repeat itself.
"I think I just got bad at touring. You know, late nights and booze. That lifestyle became a lot for me," he said.
Leaving the band
A desire to get away from life on the road, coupled with family problems, led him to leave the band in Jan. 2015. At that time he was living in Toronto and a few months later, he decided to move to Antigonish, which is where his mom is from and where The Trews were originally based.
While he had money in the bank to help with the transition, he didn't know what he was going to do. He just knew he needed some time away to clear his head.
"I didn't have a plan B," he said.
Since relocating to Antigonish, he's started a business called Dalton's Drum Academy and gives lessons out of his apartment for three or four hours a day every day to students who range in age from five to 68.
Dalton loves teaching kids and seeing the joy that music brings to their face when they accomplish something.
"It's a great feeling to make somebody feel better and I had kind of forgotten that," he said.
He's even spent time lobster fishing.
"It cleaned my head out completely, just being out in the sun every day, working hard. At the end of the day, just putting your feet up and just being like, 'Wow, that was a good hard day's work,'" said Dalton.
Loving life in Antigonish
Dalton plans to do some more lobster fishing in the coming months. He's also still making music and has even done some acting.
He loves living in Antigonish and says he's never bored. There's a lot of talented musicians there and he likes seeing productions at a local theatre.
He's happy where he is now and looks back on his time in The Trews with fondness.
"It's not all doom and gloom. A lot of it was the best time of my life. It was exactly what I wanted to do at the time," he said.
