This ‘I Love Not Drinking’ Song Is a Sober Anthem for Dry January
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Eric Hirshberg and Aloe Blacc team up to sing about the joys of not drinking
Josh S. Rose
Eric Hirshberg and Aloe Blacc.Eric Hirshberg’s “I Love Not Drinking” is not your typical sobriety song.
Released to coincide with Dry January — the month where people attempt to not drink for 31 days — the song celebrates all the pleasurable things associated with life without alcohol.
“The name of this song started as an answer to the question, ‘Why aren’t you drinking?’ ” Hirshberg, 55, tells PEOPLE. “I started saying, ‘Because I love not drinking,’ and that answer sort of stopped people in their tracks because they realized it was a positive choice. All of the language around stopping drinking is negative. ‘I quit drinking.’ ‘I gave up drinking.’ I wanted a positive phrase because it is very positive for me.”
The song, which incorporates bar sounds such as cocktail shakers shaking and beer glasses clinking, features Grammy-nominated artist Aloe Blacc.
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Hirshberg adds that the song has already resonated with listeners who are on different health journeys.
“Some have been very emotional from people who have clearly struggled with addiction who appreciate a song that’s sort of an anthem for them,” the singer-songwriter says. “Others have been from people like me who just like life better without alcohol in it. And some have been from people who are sort of ‘sober curious’ and are thinking about making a change. I tried to write it carefully so as not to be judgmental.”
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Instead of drinking, Hirshberg likes to surf, draw, box, work out, write music and spend time with his wife, two sons and friends.
“Those are the things that make me most happy and alcohol just seemed to get in the way of most of them,” he says.
In the chorus, Hirshberg and fellow dad Blacc sing, “I love not drinking / I love not thinking about how I’m gonna get home / Or what I said / Or if this is my bed / I love not drinking / I love not thinking, ‘Did I just say that out loud?’ / Or, ‘Where am I right now?’ / Or, ‘My kids would be so proud,’ sarcastically.”
“I Love Not Drinking” is the latest single — following “Good Morning” and “Half Way Home” — from Hirshbeg’s second album Second Hand Smoke, which comes out Feb. 2.
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