New experience

I can’t remember the exact date, but I think I came to Starling Sessions maybe three months ago. I sing with them. They teach us some songs, international songs from the world. I've learned Chinese, French songs, Ukrainian songs, Italian songs. 

We meet at 7pm, then people should come and there's snacks. It's at the Old Fire Station. First, I think John or Lauren calls it: warming up. First, you warm up your voice. Maybe they will tell you the sentence of the songs. They will sing the melody, so it will be easier to sing, especially when it's our first experience of studying songs, like, formally, with the music language. 

It's quite different, but it gives me to understand a little bit about music, how music works. Because, normally you heard music, and just, you don't know how it's composed, how people study before they put it on the internet or something, how it's put together. Yeah, it feels different because we just normally hear music.

It's a bit weird, because my voice is very bad when I sing, but I like it! I like the experience, it's a new thing. Normally, you sing when you are in the shower, or maybe when you eat or something. But here it's formal, like, you sit with band members.

There's symbols which Lauren and John write on the board, music symbols. The musician can understand it. We don't understand it. And you Google it: what is this symbol? We explore things, so I like it. I will Google about music, about different music research, something like that, how it's different from our country, how the beats are different. I Google in my phone so when I go to the Starlings, you know, so it will be, not more obvious, but understandable.

I do not play instruments, but I'm exploring. I told Lauren that I want to learn drums, so maybe she can check the possibility. Yeah, I love drums. Every time I watch YouTube videos like playing drums, I don't understand the symbols, what they are doing, but I love the drums, how the drum sounds. There's an Italian song, I like that song because I like the beats, the rhythm, in the way, how they sing it. The beats, I like the beats. For example, when I hear music, I hear the whole music, but specifically, I hear the drums. And every time, when I sit down, if there's a table in front of me, I’m like, drumming. And I feel happy, and free from something else.

I listen to Amharic songs because I speak Amharic. But internationally, I love Linkin Park. Their songs talk about my life. I'm from Eritrea, and I came to the UK around ten months ago. I was born in Eritrea, and I fled to Ethiopia. So I had both cultures, both Ethiopian and Eritrean.

You know, we live in the hotel because we are asylum seekers, so we don't have anything to do. And there's nothing we can do to have fun. I need something to make me have fun, to have something to do. So when we come to Starlings, we find some kind of tasks to do, like to play songs. So that's very important for us, because you'll be, you get depressed in the hotel because you don't have anything to do.

So it's our first time, me and my friends, we were like six people. First, it was weird because it's the first time meeting a group of people from different nationalities. It's a lot of people from a lot of countries. Multinational, I think it’s multinational.

Lauren, John and other group members come to us. They introduce us with peoples. They'll talk to you and ask how your week was going. They provide us taxi to come from the hotel and back. The peoples try to show you instruments, like, you can be free to touch anything, experience and explore anything. I tried the guitar. And it was my first time touching the guitar, trying to play guitar.

They don't want us to feel abandoned. They don't want us to feel we are new to the group. They want us to think that we are the same as the whole group. It's a good environment.

It will help you a lot, because, first you improve your language, your English language. Then, I want to, every time, I want to explore new things. And you learn how to spend time with peoples, to talk with peoples, even if it's in music, but you learn how to spend time with peoples, how to communicate, how to interact with peoples different from your nationality, from your ethnic background. 

In the future I have, I would love to share my culture with music. I plan to teach a song. I love an artist, her name is Aster Aweke. She's an Ethiopian singer, so maybe I will prepare Aster Aweke songs. She sings a lot of songs, but maybe I will teach one about love, because love is universal, everybody will understand about it.

I think Ethiopian music is unique. They have a different melody from the world. We have our own writings. We have our own numbers. In the culture, there are more than eighty ethnicities. So, everyone has their own culture, their own music. It's diverse. So, if I can pick one music and teach the group, all my friends in Starling Sessions, it will be a good thing for them.

But first I need to, in my opinion, I need to learn how the music works, so I plan to study about it. And John and Lauren told me they will teach me about it. I have the chance to know a little bit about music, how peoples work in the studios, or how they study music, how it works. That's a new experience.

I get the chance to show people from the world, from different countries, about my culture, about my country. 

And I have fun, every time I go to Starlings. I don’t feel alone. I feel good.