SOME days are better than others – huge strides forward, only to be snapped back. For some, a bout of Covid-19 was a minor inconvenience and others will definitely have found it a bit rough, to say the least.

And then there are those who battle a different condition altogether: the entrenched and torrid duel with 'Long-Covid'.

Songwriter Tamara Schlesinger, known as MALKA, has been grappling with the long-term effects of coronavirus since contracting the illness more than a year ago.

It has played havoc with both her physical well-being and her mental health, and may well last beyond the pandemic itself.

"I have never fully recovered," the artist tells The Weekender. "I had Covid over a year ago and I have a lot of recurring symptoms.

"I am breathless, deeply fatigued, unable to exercise properly and I also have some neurological issues with dizziness and brain fog. Everyone is different and the symptoms seem to vary a lot in each person.

"It has deeply affected me. It is hard not to feel very low when you can't play with your children some days or even walk them to school due to being so deeply exhausted or achey.

"I don't feel like the same person I was," she continues. "Before this, I had been training as a gymnast again for my music video and I was as fit as I had been in years. To go from that to hardly managing to cook meals some days is awful.

"There are days when I feel good, even weeks, and then it hits again – that can be the most depressing part, when you feel that you are better, but you get hit by it again.

"I have also struggled to concentrate on my music, so I am creating at a much slower pace than usual. I would probably have written a full album during lockdown with my previous energy and concentration levels.

"I am learning to live with it, but also trying all kinds of things to try and recover from it too."

For Schlesinger, the pandemic has not only robbed her of her vitality but has trampled her plans to tour her latest album. No sooner had she released I'm Not Your Soldier, that lockdown struck and the live music industry collapsed overnight.

She says: "The album which I had spend years of work on has really just disappeared into a big hole.

"I have struggled with the energy to try and promote it, but also it all felt a bit shallow at the start of the pandemic to remind everyone about an album when we were all just trying to survive."

Schlesinger lost her father-in-law to Covid and soon came face-to-face with the disease herself and its long-term impact.

Lockdown bore some light in that she had more time to concentrate on new music, even if it was cruelly coupled with a sheer lack of energy and concentration.

She says: "Writing and creating music is my total escape, which is why I think I have found it particularly hard when I can't do it.

"But for me, during lockdown, it has been like going to a totally different world. It really has been therapeutic to have that place to disappear into for a few hours and I am glad that for the most part I have been able to do that over the last year or so."

During lockdown, Schlesinger was able launch Hen Hoose – a female and non-binary collaborative songwriting project. She was also able to improve her producing credentials and released two tracks: Moving Together and, most recently, Alive.

Alive was a product of lockdown, in more than way, with elements of trying to return to normal and cast off the shackles of the pandemic.

Schlesinger ruminates: "I suppose there is that need to escape and feel myself again. That combination of suffering from long Covid and the restrictions we are all struggling with have come together into this song.

"I also watched West World and I felt a real affinity to the lead character, with that need to feel and see so much more than the confines of one space."

She adds: "I really do hope that Alive resonates with people, especially if they have been suffering during lockdown whether from illness or just that need to reset the clocks or escape.

"I am sure that there are lots of other artists struggling along with long Covid, too. I haven't seen much about it if they are though.

"I think that it is important to raise awareness in whatever way we can, it is a pretty debilitating thing to live with and the more knowledge there is the more we can support each other."

MALKA – Alive is available now.