Human Behaviour

Catching yet another leak sprung in the ceiling thanks to Melbourne's current convincing impression of a Biblical event, one begins to fantasise about acting like one of Noah's feathered collection and flying north for the winter. The west coast sounds nice. Broome, maybe – weather forecast says 27 degrees and full sunshine. It's a wonder more musicians don't get themselves out of the Big Soak right about now and take to the toasty tour circuit. 

This scribe's dead envious of Liz Stringer, for example, who is currently touring northern WA to promote her new album, Warm In The Darkness, which was released in April. Envious enough to give her a call, hoping to live vicariously through her tales of cocktails on the balcony and the small matter of her new album. “We're about to go to soundcheck” Stringer says, distractedly. “It's been pretty good. Some places we've been really lucky, and some places are quieter than I thought they might be. It's the start of winter, so maybe people are hibernating a bit.”

Stringer has been putting the mileage in, playing some of the lesser-known places in the Kimberleys on her tour of the north as part of the Five Rivers Music initiative to bring music to those rarely reached towns in WA. She's no stranger to playing farflung places, or to flying north for winter.

“I've done a lot of tours of small towns. I've been touring Darwin for years. This tour through the Kimberleys has been organised by friends of mine, Five Rivers Music. They had the idea to start putting on shows in this region, because there are punters out here who are really into live music, and rarely get to see any.”

And it's not just community spirit, she's quick to admit. “To me it makes so much sense to play up there, it's such a beautiful part of Australia. It's not worth it to come for the money, let's put it that way,” she laughs dryly.

Stringer will wend her way back down south next, returning to her home state for a soirée or two with the hometown crowd. Dedicated fans will have already noticed the differences between previous acoustic album, Tides Of Time, and Warm In The Darkness, recorded with a full band – a bigger, maybe even more pop, album although the introspective perspicacity of Stringer's lyrics remain. Hence the album title.

“Warm In The Darkness seemed like a good title. It's a song, but it also seemed like a cool analogy for the music,” Stringer explains. “These songs are more 'up'; not that it's about lighter stuff, but there's a warm, poppy, happier sound to these songs, even though we made it in winter. It's like bright colours on a dark background.” 

The new album brings together songs Stringer has written over the last few years which, until now, didn't have a home. “The oldest song on the album is four years old, maybe even five,” she recollects. “I was waiting for an album, or a time, that put these songs together. I picked the songs on the last album because they were best served by an acoustic and stripped-back sound. These songs are best represented using a big sound, a big band. They're songs we've been playing live for a few years, sitting on the sidelines waiting to be recorded – [songs] that I always wanted to record.”

Despite the time lag between songs, Stringer hopes there's a greater cohesion to the new album. “I think, lyrically, I'm writing better with every album – which is what you'd want to hope – and more consistently. On earlier albums, some songs weren't so consistent. But it's interesting to listen back - they're a pretty amazing time capsule.”

Time capsule, but not documentary; so no songs about beachside cocktails coming up then. “I don't write many songs about myself,” she admits. “It can come from a conversation or just being on tour meeting people at pubs – usually some element of the human condition.”