TALK to anyone who is passionate about running and they'll tell you there's something deeply satisfying about pushing your body to its limit. It becomes addictive.
Melbourne singer-songwriter Liz Stringer is one who's been bitten by the running bug.
"I've done three or four half marathons," Stringer says. "Every time I finish a half marathon I think; how the f--k does anyone do a full marathon?"
Stringer, by her own admission, used to love a drink too much. Like many people, she believed in the myth of the tortured artist whose creativity is fuelled by the bottle.
Stringer has been sober for five years and counting. Running has become a alternate and positive outlet to channel her energy and emotions.
"Running has become very important," she says. "I really had to learn when I got sober to relax and be in my body and how to process energy.
"Running, and exercise in general, has been really important. I think that's pretty common as people transfer that zealousness of how they drank into other more positive stuff, and that certainly happened for me."
In stark contrast to the tortured artist mythology, giving up alcohol has sparked Stringer's creativity. Last year she released her sixth studio album First Time Really Feeling, undoubtedly the finest record of her acclaimed career.
Written back in 2018 in the early stages of Stringer's sobriety, it's an album of recovery, self-discovery and a reconciliation with her hometown of Melbourne.
Key songs Dangerous, The Metrologist and the title track saw Stringer push her indie-folk toward a more anthemic heartland rock direction, reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen and The War On Drugs.
Double J critics rated it the 14th best album of 2021. However due to COVID, Stringer has had limited opportunities to perform the material live.
"In one way people have engaged differently to the record too, as it was such an insular time," she says.
"In that sense, I've had a lot of messages from people talking about how they spent a lot of time with the album in isolation in that very personal quieter time.
"I consider myself trying to be a more positive person than I used to be, I think it played such an important role in people's lives because of the need to connect and all that stuff when the pandemic was at its height.
"I don't regret putting it out when I did in any way. I think it's the sort of album that will have a longer life."
Like green shoots in the snow, the Australia's live music industry is slowly springing back to life after the long COVID hibernation.
"You can feel it among the music community that people's spirits are lifting a bit," Stringer says.
Stringer is touring the country with rock royalty Midnight Oil on their farewell tour as a backing vocalist - which included a show at Newcastle Entertainment Centre on Wednesday night.
On Sunday she'll return to the Hunter Valley for Dashville Skyline.
Stringer is naturally ecstatic to be back working as a touring musician, but admits a return to the road and the rock'n'roll lifestyle presents challenges to her new-found sobriety.
"I used to love a party and I still do, I just don't do it in the same way I used to," she says. "Speaking from my own experience spending all that time in lockdown I was very contained in where I could go and it sheltered me from some of the more challenging parts of being a sober person in general.
"Being a musician, a lot of that was removed. The people I tour with now are much milder than they used to be. But being back in the world and socialising and remembering how we all kind of exist together, it certainly presents challenges for me in sobriety."
I used to love a party, and I still do, I just don't do it in the same way I used to.
- Liz Stringer
Prior to COVID Stringer was living in the Canadian city of Toronto and her permanent residency was approved while she was touring Australia with Jen Cloher and Mia Dyson.
The pandemic altered those plans and led to Stringer resettling in her native Melbourne with her brother and his family.
It proved a positive change in repairing her frayed relationship with Melbourne, which she addresses in the First Time Really Feeling tracks Victoria and Little Fears, Little Loves.
"Part of the reason I felt I had to leave Melbourne was I was newly sober at that point and I'd changed my life so massively and I was finding that difficult to do here," she says. "Now I'm five years sober, I've settled into it and I've been able to reimagine my relationship with the city even though COVID has made it difficult to love sometimes.
"But I would have not wanted to be anywhere else for this experience. Melbourne is my home and it's the place I, by far, know the best."
Stringer wrote her next album last year during lockdown and hopes to record and release it later this year. Then a return to Canada beckons.
"I also love moving," she says. "As much as I love it [Canada], I still don't know where I'm going to end up. I'm very open to what happens from now on."
