LIZ STRINGER

Award-winning Aussie singer-songwriter Liz Stringer returns to the motherland, from her base in London, with her national To Survive Tour – created to highlight issues related to Australia's housing crisis whilst raising funds for grassroots support organisations. 

Tierney White caught up with her to chat about why the cause is so close to her heart and some of the issues impacting our Aussie musos today.

Liz, thanks for the yarn. Can you tell us a bit about the To Survive Tour, what inspired you to raise awareness and funds for the housing crisis? 
It's been an issue that I've felt passionately about for a long time. I just think we live in such a rich country, the divide between people that have a lot and people who don't have a lot is getting worse and worse. 

In 2021, I did a fundraiser for Wombat Housing Support Services, and we raised a lot of money … rather than taking a percentage out of my ticket sales, which would have been a relatively small amount … We put QR codes up in the venue, and on the night, we got the audience to donate personally, just on their phones, and people were encouraged to donate whatever they could. It was everything from five bucks to 1,000 bucks being donated that night. There were about 750 people there, and we raised $12,000, which is massive. That went a long way for Wombat. It really made an impact. 

And all these organisations are really small. They don't have a lot of government funding or big private sector funding. They're really running on volunteer work and on donations … and there are so many people in housing stress, and that's getting worse and worse … every part of the country has their own specific set of issues, but ultimately, the fact that housing is becoming less and less affordable and people that used to be able to rent or live in a certain area are getting pushed out, it's just an untenable situation. 

The idea was, as a way to sort of keep the issue at the surface, using my platform as a musician. I have access to a lot of people who come to my shows, and people who are very like-minded and care about their communities. So, I just thought it was easy for me to do this. Even if we raise a couple of grand here and there, that amount of money just goes a really long way to these small organisations, and so I thought this would be a good way to kind of generate some support, financial and kind of, you know, emotional support for these groups that just work so hard. 

In the NT, we have Katherine Women's Crisis Centre locked in, and Orange Sky Laundry in Alice Springs and Darwin. 

Amazing, Liz. What a thing to be able to do. What do you hope your audiences take away from the tour? 
I mean, I think a couple of major things, and one is that they understand what's going on in their specific area. I think that the housing crisis can be spoken about in a really kind of big national way, but actually to know in my community, in my city, in my town, these are what the issues are, and then also for them to meet this community group and understand what it is that they're doing, because so many of these groups are sort of under the radar and you wouldn't really know about them unless you needed their services, but they're quite literally keeping people alive.

Orange Sky allows people to have clean clothes, to have a feed, and even a chat. Stuff like that is so important to people's sense of dignity and pride, and I want people to meet this organisation and to see what they're doing, and then to consider supporting them in an ongoing way in some fashion … They're the two things that I really hope happen. 

It’s Ausmusic Month in November, which is a great opportunity for us punters to support our Aussie musos. You’re a seasoned artist, with several albums under your belt. What are some of the challenges faced by Aussie musos today, do you reckon? 
I think it's increasingly difficult, and I feel lucky, in a sense, that when I started releasing records in 2006, people were buying physical copies, streaming didn't exist, you know, it was a really different financial model as well. Social media wasn't a thing either, so I think the game has changed so much. 

It's really difficult for artists to make a living, you know, which is, again, kind of ridiculous. Like, you couple that with the fact that that rents are going through the roof, that cost of living's gotten more expensive, and also because people have less expendable income, they're not going to shows as much. It's like a bit of a perfect storm of all these factors that mean that it is really difficult, particularly for new musicians, to kind of get any foothold financially. 

I've been really lucky to be able to do this full time for over 10 years, and part of that is that I do a lot of session work and I've played in other bands, I’ve diversified a little bit, but I've also been able to live from my own music because I was sort of able to start building this fan base in a time before all of this sh-t started happening, you know? 

So, yeah, I think there are massive challenges. 

Totally. How do you take care of your mental health, when on tour and just being a musician in general? 
I don't know that I'm particularly good at it [laughs]. I stopped drinking nine years ago, that was a massive game changer for me, for my mental health. And I also, I run, and I do make sure I try and get enough sleep, and look after myself physically, which helps my head a lot. I'm quite an anxious person and have had issues with depression and anxiety forever, which is not unusual for creative types. So, yeah, I think it’s really simple things like making sure you get enough sleep, eating as well as you can. 

It's really easy on the road to fall into like just eating, you know, potato cakes from the servo after gigs! [laughs]. And, if you are a drinker, then just keep an eye on the booze consumption because it makes you physically more tired and can bring on anxiety … Most people are living fairly hand to mouth, and I think that … looking after yourself in a sort of day-to-day way is important to me. It helps me, yeah. 

What advice would you give to creatives that feel they’re pushing sh-t uphill, because it's not an easy slog? 
No, it's really not. I think those things that we just spoke about are really important, and just remembering to plug out of the whole thing every now and then, like, get off social media. Go and do something else that you're interested in … I think it's important to just step away from it, go outside, spend time with your friends, write a song, just get out for a bit … and just remember why you make music and, you know, why that's joyful to you and concentrating on that, and realising that you just can't control what happens outside of yourself.

Liz Stringer - The To Survive Tour 

With Bubalo & Jami Ashenden 
WHEN FRI 31 OCT | 8:30PM DINNER + SHOW | 6.30PM AT THE WATERTANK CAFÉ 
COST $45 | $70 DINNER + SHOW 

With Alice Cotton
WHEN SAT 1 NOV | 6.30PM 
AT GYRACC 
COST $37-$57 

With Alice Cotton 
WHEN WED 5 NOV | 7PM 
AT DARWIN RAILWAY CLUB 
COST $51 

INFO lizstringer.com