FEATURE:
One Heart and Two Legs
IN THIS PHOTO: Margaret Glaspy/PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz
Why Margaret Glaspy’s Between-Tours Ultramarathon Got Me Thinking About Holistic and Physical Releases for Artists
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I have produced a few features…
PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz/ATO Records
that talk about artists’ mental health. It can be very strenuous when on tour. A lot of ways to cope with stress and the anxieties of touring do not work. Others are a bit hit and miss. Whilst exercise and getting out as much as possible can be very beneficial, something U.S. artist Margaret Glaspy said in a recent interview that caught my eye. Maybe an extreme way of relieving tension or setting a goal between tours, she decided to enter a twenty-nine-mile run: an ultramarathon. When speaking with Rolling Stone recently, we learned more about the reasoning behind this incredible undertaking:
“Margaret Glaspy was 17 miles into the race when she entered the pain cave.
It was always a question of when, not if, she would experience it. Her body was already jetlagged when she started, thanks to an international flight two days before. Tropical Storm Ophelia had been pummeling her with wind and rain throughout the entire race. (The message on the race’s website seems almost sadistic in hindsight: “Hopefully we are going to have a nice fall day!”) The course, which blended technical single-track trails, rolling hills, and double-wide gravel roads, could either be her best friend or hated enemy, depending on the terrain. None of it was a clear path, she realized. It was all boulders and roots — a lot of ways to fall.
But now, after around four hours of running in the Squatchayanda Trail Festival in New Jersey last month, Glaspy entered the pain cave, a visualization technique popularized by ultramarathoner Courtney Dauwalter to describe how to mentally power through the part of a race where your rational, logical, craving-for-calories body is begging you to stop.
It was Glaspy’s first ultramarathon — defined as any race past the marathon distance of 26.2 miles — and consequently, her first cave. She pushed through it against her better judgment and ran 12 more miles, only stopping at 29 miles because it started to get dark. She thought about running more, but there was still an entire U.S. tour to think of.
For many people, the idea of running an ultramarathon even in the best training conditions is a mentally questionable decision. The training for a 50-miler, 100K, 100-miler or beyond can be long, grueling, monotonous, painful, and all-consuming. Tell a person you’re doing a marathon and they’ll reply, “Good for you!” Tell them you’re doing an ultra and prepare for a bemused “Why?” There’s strength work, foam rolling, speed work, mental training, stretching, more foam rolling, prep races, yoga, nutrition and hydration planning, and even more foam rolling. Ten-milers become “fun runs” compared to Saturdays, which are usually 20- to 25-milers for months on end. Social engagements are planned and cancelled. Families’ patience is tested. And sleep is the most idyllic part of the week.
It’s a big commitment for anyone. Glaspy — the California-raised, New York-based singer-songwriter, who just released her superb third album, Echo the Diamond — chose to take it on between UK and U.S. tours. “I would say I’m not a masochist,” she tells Rolling Stone at the start of her U.S. leg. “It was not some challenge of, ‘Let’s see if I can go on tour and then run as much as I can.’ It was more like, ‘I just have these few months where I can train for this the best that I can. I have this little window.’ So I just did it.”
When Glaspy’s mother, also a distance runner, was in her mid-twenties, she had run parts of the Western States course, one of the most acclaimed and punishing ultramarathons in the country, to stay in shape. “When I was growing up, there was always a running energy in the air,” Glaspy says. “We woke up one day and there was a poster of Jackie Joyner-Kersee on the wall. There was this tone set: ‘You will run, and it will be a part of your life.’”
Glaspy herself ran casually in her teens and twenties, attending Berklee College of Music before releasing her debut EP, Homeschool ,when she was 23 and signing to ATO Records two years later. Emotions and Math, her debut LP recorded in “only three or four days,” arrived in 2016 to critical acclaim. “I make records almost the way that jazz musicians do in the sense that it’s just like, I like to play it down and then done,” says Glaspy, who remembers Miles Davis and John Coltrane on steady rotation in her parents’ home. “I don’t really like going back and pondering about it. It just is what it is as soon as you play it.” Her sophomore album, 2020’s Devotion, found Glaspy expanding both her fanbase and palette, mixing electronic flourishes and keyboards with her candid lyrics.
But as her musical career ascended, it was only “in the last couple of years” that she had a realization: She needed to run longer. 5K races turned into half-marathons, which morphed into a desire to push herself for even longer distances. “I started to promote this new record and it just took over and I just said, ‘All right, I’m gonna do this,’” she says. “Going from 13 to 29 miles is a big jump, but in being a fan of the sport, it’s absolutely nothing.”
It raises the question: Why not go from a half-marathon to a marathon like most people?
“I didn’t really relate to marathon culture; I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around why it was fun,” she says. “It was like, go big or go home, which is usually the case with me.”
Soon she set on the idea of a 50-mile run. “It’s such a beautiful thing to do and to find an activity and a community that is completely separate from music, and just dive headfirst into it was such a treat for me,” she says. She chatted with ultramarathoner Addie Bracy, who would become one of her biggest running inspirations. “I asked her, ‘Am I crazy to try and run 50 miles?’ But she was like, ‘No, just go do it”.
PHOTO CREDIT: jasmin chew/Pexels
Maybe artists do not have to go to the same lengths, though there is something holistic and channelling about what Margaret Glaspy did. Taking on such a physical challenge and the preparation or that. With there being limited resources for artists in terms of support and therapy, there will be many who are struggling when it comes to touring. A lot of that is because of financial losses, though there is also a sense of drain and struggle being on the road and in such close quarters for so long. Many might feel that doing an ultramarathon might exacerbate any fatigue and strain. I do feel that physical challenges and something that commits an artist to the land, nature, the physical and enduring can be of massive help. I know many artists exercise regularly, though something singular and epic like a marathon/ultramarathon takes things to a new level. How about beyond that?! Like exercise and something physical demanding, enjoying nature and doing something similar and less strenuous has mental health benefits too. I do feel we need to hear about artists’ ways of unwinding or concentrating their mind. Charities and organisations are helpful when it comes to offer support and guidance. Every artist might have their own way of finding some sort of balance and calm. I am reading a new book by Camilla Nord called The Balanced Brain. It talks about the science of mental health. She discusses how there is this link between mental health and pleasure and pain. Everyone with mental health struggles has their own tolerance and threshold for pain. Doing something slightly painful or disconformable can boost mood and release stress. I think that the combination of pleasure and pain one might get from an ultramarathon would provide some benefits to mental health.
PHOTO CREDIT: Vladislav Murashko/Pexels
I am just amazed by the revelation you get in some interviews. Margaret Glaspy’s ultramarathon before embarking on a U.S. tour. At a time when so many artists are struggling with mental health and many are burning out, I wonder if there will be more exploration from the music industry regarding ways in which artists can use a range of methods and activities to boost and balance their mental health. Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual provides resource for those in the music industry regarding mental health and what they can do. It is a brilliant book. I think that more routes need to explored regarding a growing mental health crisis in music. Not that exercise, new routines or challenges is going to be the answer for all those in the industry. It is just that there is this point where charities and help is out there and I think it can supplemented with other avenues. CLASH recently wrote about the growing concern of the mental health of those in the music industry:
“Over the past few years the general population have been faced with an increasing number of mental health challenges. Everything from the aftermath of COVID-19 and Brexit, to the climate and cost of living crises have added to the stressors of everyday life. However, research shows that those working in the music industry are more prone to mental health problems, and are up to three times more likely to suffer from clinical depression.
Joe Hastings, head of Music Minds Matter – the sister charity of Help Musicians, providing free 24/7 mental health support for this working in the UK music industry – reports a 200% increase in those seeking support over the past two years. Even prior to the pandemic, a 2019 study by Swedish platform Record Union highlighted that 73% of independent musicians struggle with mental illness, which rises to 80% when considering only those between the ages of 18-25.
PHOTO CREDIT: Mental Health America (MHA)/Pexels
This may seem surprising to those on the outside looking in. The romanticisation of working in music often means that the struggles of those within it can be overlooked or misunderstood. A 2022 independent survey carried out by Music Support reveals that 84% of people looking for help within the music industry would prefer help from someone with industry experience.
George Levers, head of service development and delivery at Music Support, is on the front lines, supporting people with addiction and mental health challenges. She leads the charity’s helpline and email service, which is predominantly run by people who have lived experience of both working in the music industry and their own mental health challenges.
“When somebody calls our helpline, we understand the industry that they’re coming from. And that’s really important to musicians and people that come from the music industry,” she explains. “I’ve had people that called and said, ‘I’ve had some therapy, but to be honest with you the therapist spent more time talking about how amazing it must be to work in the music industry, than actually what was going on for me.’”
IN THIS PHOTO: Tamsin Embleton’s Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual is invaluable reference and reading/PHOTO CREDIT: Luke Curtis
There are a vast range of compounding factors that increase the risk of mental health challenges to those working in the music industry: work overload, work underload, pressure to gain and maintain success, racism, sexism, homophobia, discrimination, performance anxiety, band dynamics, pressure from labels, lack of autonomy, social media toxicity and job insecurity, to name only a few.
“It can be complicated, but common contributing factors include poor working conditions, lack of recognition and unstable working patterns, all of which are likely to make it more difficult for people working in music to manage their mental health and wellbeing,” says Hastings. “Compounding these issues over recent times are external pressures such as the pandemic, Brexit regulations and the cost-of-living crisis, all of which have put the music industry under incredible strain, and those working within it.”
In the aftermath of the pandemic, challenges to the touring sector in particular, have multiplied. “When COVID happened the music industry was decimated,” says Levers. “People found other jobs, and when the music industry opened its doors again, it went from famine to feast. The people that were left needed to make up that income again, and so they went back into the touring life and became utterly exhausted and overwhelmed”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Gabe Garza/Pexels
As awareness of the music industry’s mental health challenges proliferates, so does the ever expanding range of charities and initiatives seeking to help. There are the aforementioned organisations (Help Musicians, Music Support, Music Industry Therapist Collective and Music Managers Forum), peer support groups such as The Back Lounge run by tour manager Suzi Green, and it’s always worth speaking to your local GP. All of these encourage people in the music industry to reach out whenever things begin to feel too much, and will endeavour to offer support, or signpost to a service that can
“Reaching out and asking for help – I know that sounds really obvious, but that’s really difficult for a lot of people, especially for men. And that’s why we try to reduce the stigma around mental health and addiction,” says Levers. “A massive thing for human beings is connection. If we’re not connected to people that’s when our mental health starts deteriorating.”
Directory
Helplines
Music Minds Matter (Open 24/7) // Website
0808 802 8008
Music Support (Open Monday-Friday, 9:00am-17:00pm, except for Bank Holidays) // Website
0800 030 6789
Samaritans (Open 24/7) // Website
116 123
Organisations
Help Musicians // Website
Music Industry Therapist Collective // Website
Music Managers Forum // Website
PRS Members Fund // Website
Royal Society of Musicians // Website
Musicians Union // Website
The Back Lounge // Website
Back Up Tech // Website
Stage Hand // Website”.
For Margaret Glaspy and her ultramarathon, there was that idea of a new community. Something that was a bit fun but required a lot of work. It may seem like an impossible and arduous labour, yet it sounds like it was refreshing and revitalising in many ways. From spending more time in nature and the outdoors to taking on physical activities, or even finding a new crowd or project that will engage the mind away from music and provide some assistance is essential. When so many folk in the industry are struggling with mental health problems, any inspirations, positive stories or curious ideas that could be of assistance should be highlighted and discussed more widely. There is so much that grabbed and intrigued me when it came to…
MARGARET Glaspy’s ultramarathon challenge.