Singer songwriter Liz Martin has gone through a number of phases during the Covid-19 lockdowns. She started positive enough and then admits she went into a “massive slump”. But now –as she tells Lachlan Colquhoun –she has come out the other side, with thanks to recent live gigs streamed on the Surry Hills Live platform.

When Liz Martin and her band finished their set on the Surry Hills Live platform recently, one of the band members put down their instrument and said simply: “That feels better.”

Martin couldn’t have said it better herself. Living by herself in a studio flat 30 metres square works fine when you can get out and socialise and play, but its another thing at a time of social distancing rules and when lockdown stops band practice, let alone a live gig.“

I was so disturbed at the beginning of lockdown and just couldn’t focus on anything, I was just reading all the news and was really distracted and couldn’t settle at all,”

she says. “But I have to say though that Iam lucky in that I live in an artists’ co-operative in the inner-west, and there are 35 of there in a truly amazing space with a central garden area”.

“So while we were all in lockdown with all the restrictions we were at least able to have chit chat as we hung out our clothes on the line.That at least made it a little less weird.”

The lockdown also made rehearsing impossible. Viewers probably wouldn’t have noticed it, but the Surry Hills Live gig was the first time the band had seen each other in three months. They showed up at the studio, had a quick sound check, and then went live to play to the online audience.

“Luckily we have played a lot together in the last few years, so it all fell together quite easily,” says Martin.

“And everyone was super keen to play after all this time.”

As gigging musicians, lockdown has been like suffering withdrawal –both creatively and financially. But even as the economy moves back to normality Martin sees the online format as something which might be here to stay. Read the full story here.