Hi friends, and welcome back to a unique mixed-media Showcase, as we visit with musician Adriana Barton, author of the bestselling book Wired for Music. I had the pleasure of connecting with Adriana through the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia. As a musician myself, I was not only drawn to Adriana’s intriguing book but eager to visit with its musical author as well.
Let’s start with her bio:
Adriana Barton is a journalist, author and former staff reporter at Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. Her writing on health, science, visual arts, architecture, music and pop culture has appeared in numerous publications including Boston Globe, Western Living, Reader’s Digest books and San Francisco Bay Guardian. Her personal essay “Growing Up Hippie” was published in American Voices: Culture and Community alongside writings by Margaret Atwood and Garrison Keillor. Adriana studied the cello for 17 years with teachers including international solo artist Antonio Lysy and Stephen Geber, former principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Book research and journalism assignments have taken her to Syria, Jordan, India, Zimbabwe and Brazil. She lives in Vancouver with her husband and son.
(Bill) Hi Adriana, welcome to our special Showcase, celebrating your music and prose. (Hey, I feel like a maestro!) Now that we know a bit of your story through your bio, tell us, what inspired you to start writing?
(Adriana) Thanks Bill. At the age of 22, injured and jobless, I walked away from seventeen years of professional studies in the cello. Though I knew nothing about pop music, somehow I landed a job as a receptionist at a radio station known as “Montreal’s home of rock and roll.” I met a handsome reporter my age in the newsroom. His job looked better than mine. Within months, I applied to a graduate journalism program at Concordia University. My feature-writing instructor, Linda Kay, got her start at the Chicago Tribune as one of the first female sportswriters in North America. Her exacting yet inspired teaching instilled in me a love for narrative non-fiction. With her encouragement, I knew I was meant to write, not host on air. I’ve been writing ever since.
(B) A great introduction to a new craft. What prompted you to create Wired for Music?
(A) When my son entered kindergarten, I had been working at The Globe and Mail for nearly ten years as a health reporter and copy-editor. I was ready for a new challenge. (How about a PhD?) I spent several months putting together an application for the department of ethnomusicology at the University of British Columbia. When I was offered a spot, a friend with a doctorate in anthropology recommended that I read a selection of PhD theses that had come out of the program, and then ask myself if I wanted to spend the next five years working on a similar project? Brilliant advice. I ended up turning down the spot, unsure of what was next. Later that year, Greystone Books invited me for coffee and asked if I had any book ideas. A music-related book was the obvious choice.
(B) What was that process like?
(A) Wired for Music turned out very differently from the PhD thesis I’d pitched (thank goodness)! The original idea was to explore the parallels between neuroscience findings on the health benefits of music and age-old uses of music as medicine in cultures worldwide (far too academic for a popular science book). At the urging of my publisher and early readers, I took a different approach, weaving together threads of history, neuroscience, medical discoveries and travel experiences with my story as a failed cellist who eventually found my way to music in a healthier way. To tell the truth, writing such a complex book took a lot longer than I expected. Books combining research with memoir have inherent structural challenges—and I was determined that mine would not be a slog to read. Fortunately, the many revisions were worth it. Readers tell me the blend of science and story in my book is one of the things they like most.
(B) I agree. It’s a facet that makes it unique. Where were you when you wrote Wired for Music?
(A) It depends on what you mean by “write” (smiley face)! During my year-long sabbatical from the Globe, starting a couple of months after I got the book deal, I began each morning jotting down random thoughts about music, from early childhood memories to observations from our family’s travels. We visited fifteen countries that year, including Spain, Italy, Ireland, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Just before we returned to Vancouver, I took a buyout from the Globe and started working on the book full time. Six months later, the pandemic hit. My husband moved his office home, and the only quiet spot to write was a corner in our bedroom. The bulk of the book was written there (not by choice)!
(B) I can imagine! No doubt a lot of folks can relate, making-do at that time. Do you have any other personal stories you’d like to share with readers?
(A) I have never written to an author to give feedback on a book, so I’ve been really touched by the many emails people have sent to me. Some readers mentioned they got in the habit of pausing between passages to listen to the music I mentioned. This way of interacting with my book delights me, partly because it wasn’t planned. Readers have also written about their own pain points with music. Some are similar to mine, but others stem from a deep-rooted conviction that they are unmusical (a common belief in Canada and the U.S., even though true cognitive difficulties processing music affect just 2 per cent of us). On the flipside, one reader emailed saying he took up the violin at age 70! I told him he is living proof of the main message in my book: as a species, we are exquisitely wired for music. And it’s never too late to get more curious about the many ways melodies and rhythms can enrich our lives.
Thanks, Bill, for offering me the chance to talk about my book. And congratulations on your bestseller A Season on Vancouver Island!
(B) My pleasure, Adriana, and cheers for the unprompted product-plug! (A sure-fire way to a writer’s heart!)
And with that, I’ll set down my baton and ask our cellist and author to take one more bow.
So, happy reading, and see you next time!
Bill.
Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of A Season on Vancouver Island, theGone Viking travelogues, andA Perfect Day for a Walk: The History, Cultures, and Communities of Vancouver, on Foot(Arsenal Pulp Press, Fall 2024). Recipient of a Fellowship at London’s Royal Geographical Society for his expeditions, Bill’s a frequent presenter and contributor to magazines, universities, podcasts, TV and radio. When not trekking with a small pack and journal, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, where he lives near the sea on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land.
