Name: Sara Eslami
Nationality: Iranian
Occupation: Tar player
Recent release: Sara Eslami joins Avadhut Kasinadhuni and Mohamad Zatari for the Mohamad Zatari Trio's Istehlal. The album is out January 27th via Zehra.
Recommendations: Endless Vision – an album by Hossein ALIZADEH & Djivan GASPARYAN. Where is the friend’s home, a film by director Abbas KIYAROSTAMI.

[Read our Avadhut Kasinadhuni interview]
[Read our Mohamad Zatari interview]

To keep reading, we recommend our Mohamad Zatari interview.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I was around 12 when I started listening to the Traditional Music of Iran, Traditional Music Legend Mohammadreza Shajarian, and at once I discovered the passion for music within myself.

But I lived in a small town in Western Iran, Boroderd, in a traditional family which at the time did not allow their daughter to learn music and pursue music professionally.

It would take until I was 19 for me to acquire an instrument for myself and to go to music lessons.
 
When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

When I listen to music, images flash before my eyes and sometimes those images have as many stories as picking up a pen and writing like a writer.

If I want to compose a song, I have a story and I want the piece to be a story.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

I feel that many things have changed in my mind to become an artist. I would say the most important thing is that I've become a person who always looks for beauty in almost everything. I've also become acutely aware of details and  my sense of sight and hearing have improved through becoming an artist.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

The land where I grew up was full of events that forced me to speak about them. Throughout my youth I was full of images and each and every one of them had the ability to become a piece.

As I mentioned earlier, my greatest interest or taste in music might have been influenced by one of the deepest events of my childhood. One example is the sound of the war warning alarm during the Iran – Iraq war, which is kind of music: monophonous, simple, without harmony, sharp and penetrating.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

I would say peace, equality and freedom.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

Personally, I have great respect for originality, because in my perspective, the path to innovation goes through originality.

And regarding perfection and timelessness, perfection doesn't mean anything in my opinion. It can differ from person to person. But timelessness is a thing, there is some music that has been admired in all periods of history.

Since there are a variety of different types of folk music in Iran, I believe it can develop very well and become an innovative music.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

The most important instruments and tool of my musical development was the fact that I grew up in a place where music was forbidden. I think you can now imagine how good that was as an encouragement and a promising strategy.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

I wake up every day to the sound of my one year old daughter. Hoping for a cup of coffee. If everything goes well we go out together to greet people and get good energy from people and sun.

It's a long way with hands-free music. I listen to my favorite music and sometimes I whisper and ideas come to my mind and I sing them and record them on my phone. We turn on music and dance with my little girl.

I wish I had a job to not better answer this question, but my office is my home.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

As I mentioned before, storytelling is very important to me. Due to the limitation of women in Iran in different areas of society, I chose a poem by one of Iran's contemporary poets and started to compose a piece based on that.

Then I played with Retimes parallel to my inner restlessness and then selected notes in different moods based on traditional Iranian music.

I whispered until I could achieve my goals that I decided to compose this particular piece.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

Since I always prefer to listen to music alone, creating music is also a private activity for me.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

When music comes from my heart, it can affect the world the way I want it.

About the role of music in society: Music can increase collective consciousness, reduce violence and soften the atmosphere of society, and connect human societies together.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

I have no idea about others, but as for me, when it comes to any of the topics or any of those feelings that you mentioned, or any other feeling for that matter, there is nothing I can do except listen to the music.
 
How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?

I can't separate music from science,

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Yes, I do. I live my dreams with my music.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our eardrums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it is able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

In my opinion only through the combination of love and science can it happen.