BY ZOE DOUGLAS-KINGHORN, LEAD WRITER
Eddie Ayres is a storyteller.
From presenting on ABC Classic FM to making music as an orchestral player – and teaching music in the war zones of Afghanistan – the string player has travelled the world to share his passion for stories.
In 2014 and 2017 respectively, Eddie wrote Cadence – a musical memoir that charted his bicycle journey from England to Hong Kong; and Danger Music – Eddie’s transformational experience at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Eddie’s most recent project is a children’s book called Sonam and the Silence.
We had a chat with Eddie about writing, change, and music before his appearance at national non-fiction festival Word for Word.
Hi Eddie, thanks for the chat. How has writing non-fiction has shaped your experience as an author?
I always enjoyed telling stories and hearing stories – I think they’re incredibly important for our society. It’s wonderful to tell stories to children. Through fiction, we can tell great truths, or at least try to. I guess storytelling is a good way of finding your own truth.
As a storyteller across broadcasting to music to non-fiction, can you speak a little on how each medium has shaped your writing journey?
I would say radio has been the most influential on my writing. I think it’s good to write in a way that you might speak, so with my writing I always read it out loud to see how it comes out, and go from there. But then in turn, when I’m writing for radio, I also think about how I can make something as descriptive as I can without using too many words.
Do you have a playlist while you’re writing, or do you prefer to write in silence?
I usually write in silence, but I might listen to music while warming my brain up. (Or procrastinating, whichever way you look at it!)
How do you balance your music and writing practice?
Balancing them is difficult. Unfortunately, I’ve had to not do so much practice over the past year or so. I’m looking forward to doing more [music]. I try and have some musicality in my writing and clarity in my playing, so they help each other.
Have you used stories when teaching the young musicians at Afghanistan National Institute of Music?
I often use stories when I’m teaching, and I use a lot of metaphors.
I thought [the students] were remarkable. They would just defy so many societal expectations to come to the school.
Tell us about your children’s book Sonam and the Silence.
It’s set in Afghanistan, based loosely on a montage of different stories that I heard while I was living there.
The story is about a young girl called Sonam who’s living in the end of Taliban times. She hears music for the first time and realises, this is what is banned. She tries to find the source, and comes across an old man in a garden playing a rubab (a lute-like instrument). She receives lessons from him, but her mother finds out and bans her from ever seeing him again.
Her mother takes [the] instrument from Sonam, who then thinks it’s been destroyed. When she goes back to old man’s house, after the Western forces have come and he’s gone, the pomegranate tree under which they had lessons has one fruit – it’s withered, but she intends to plant a seed to grow her own tree. As she digs, she finds her friend’s rubab.
She tries to remember the music that the old man taught her. She can’t initially, but feels the old man around her and remembers him, and she realises the music will live inside her heart.
Did you find writing for children a very different process after writing your memoirs, Danger Music and Cadence?
Not really! I teach a lot of young people, so I know young people can take on big ideas – it just depends how you present them.
What are you most looking forward to as part of Word for Word?
I’m looking forward to my last book event [for] Danger Music, which I wrote two years ago now and have been doing publicity for over a year.
As much as I’m grateful to be able to tell this story, I think it’s important to move on. I’m going back to ABC Classic FM and staying on Radio National, doing the arts show.
Music can be a particularly hard career to navigate, due to the structural precarity placed on artists, and the stresses of performing your deepest self in a competitive environment. What advice do you have for non-binary musicians?
I think it’s wonderful to be a musician. It has been a kind of shelter for me, a very important part of my life; if I hadn’t had music, life would’ve been much harder.
Keep doing your practice. At times during my life, I’ve let go of my practice and I always regret that, and love practising again.
Music can provide a great deal of stability in your life. As a non-binary person, it’s a very important thing to have to move on to – even if, you know, things come up and surprise you. Hold onto your music.
Is there anything else you’d like to add for young musicians or writers who may be reading?
Do your practice – then make sure you have a drink at the same time.
You can hear Eddie at the Word for Word festival in Geelong, November 18.
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