Three things with Amanda Palmer: ‘Putting a cold stone around my warm neck, I remember what I endured’

Singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer, wearing her pounamu: ‘I’ve never worn much jewellery, but these stones feel more like merit badges than ornaments.’ Photograph: Duncan Innes

Amanda Palmer is a New Yorker by birth but spent two-and-a-half years as an accidental New Zealander. The musician visited in early 2020 to play four shows, for what was meant to be an eight-day stay. Then the pandemic escalated, the borders shut and she found herself marooned in New Zealand until 2022, together with her son, Ash. In that time, her marriage (to author Neil Gaiman) ended and her career as performer was halted by lockdowns. It was, she says, a very lonely and difficult period.

But now Palmer is sharing music written during that time, with a new EP called New Zealand Survival Songs. She is also returning to the antipodes for a run of tour dates in Australia and New Zealand beginning in late January.