Saguaro Land: This Arizona instrument maker can create didgeridoos from agave stalks

Saguaro Land is a series from The Show looking at the Sonoran Desert — the lushest, hottest desert in the world that happens to be our home.

In the newest installment, The Show learned about using the desert to make music.

Years ago, Kyle Bert was given a didgeridoo for Christmas. It’s a long, thin wind instrument made out of wood, with a mouthpiece and a bell.

Bert had no idea how to play it, but had fallen in love with the sound. Unfortunately, his dog broke the didgeridoo. So, Bert decided to try to figure out how to make them. He found out agave stalks can be used, and actually have a really good sound.

That was all more than two decades ago. Bert, who grew up in Tucson, is the owner of Desert Mountain Didgeridoos. He estimates he’s made around 700 instruments in the 25 years he’s been doing it. He joined The Show, with some didgeridoos, to chat about what makes the agave stalk so good for this instrument.

Full conversation

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

KYLE BERT: So yeah, agave is interesting because it's, like bamboo, it's it, you know, it's not a wood until it cures and, but a lot of times in some of the research I've done, it makes sense a lot of tone woods that grew up in more moisture environments, like, like swamp, like swamp ash and stuff is great for guitars.

But agave, you know, has the middle … then it when it dries over time, and I wait about two years at least, but it hardens into, I mean, it's a hardwood. You can't put your nail in it, which is, you know, the definition of a hardwood. So it has this light structure. But it's hardwood, so it has a taper to it. So as you've seen, the big, you know, the agaves with the huge, you know, bottoms with all the leaves.

BRODIE: Yeah.

BERT: And it's, you know, related to the lily family, a succulent, not a cactus. So it shoots it up, and then it dies. But yeah, all that. And then basically, when you pull those leaves off that bell is part of the, you know, is also part of the wood. So they just taper, have great taper, and the resonance is incredible.

BRODIE: What is your process for trying to find just the right stock?  Because my understanding is, you go out and you sort of scout them out, but you don't just take anything?

BERT: No. So I'm really selective and really environmentally, you know, conscious. I make sure that the plant is well, so the plant dies when it shoots the stock. And so I wait till all the seeds are gone, which is, you know, about a year and a half. And I make sure I shake before and, but I'm really selective, because I, you know, I knock on them and see what the resonance is in each one.

And I also, yeah, I get really, the really old, old ones, and they just have better sound. And they're usually, those are the thicker ones that make it and so they're a little bit, have just a little bit richer sound, too. So yeah, very selective. If I go out for a whole day, I might come back with, you know, five, five or six. So yeah, and it's a lot of, it's very strenuous work. So it's, you want to pick the right ones.

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

BRODIE: Well how long does it take you to actually make them into the instruments once you have the stocks?

BERT: So it's very much like ceramics. So they have all the different steps. So I, you know, I bring them home and I cut them to the length I want, because I kind of think about what key I want. And so once you have the length and you bore them out, then you resin them, and then you, you, you do all the different steps. There's so many just, like, carving mouthpieces and stuff. So, like ceramics, there's all those steps. Like, if you added it up, it might be 15 to 20 hours, but it might take three weeks.

BRODIE: So you mentioned that there are different keys. Like, how do you there are no valves, there are no like, there's like, a traditional, like many instruments like you have, you know, you can cover a hole, or you can press a valve down or something, or a key to change the notes, but you don't have that. 

You have a stock with a mouthpiece and an opening at the other end. Like, how do you manipulate the key? And how do you sort of manipulate how you play it?

BERT: Yeah, so that's, I think one really, like, cool thing about it is that it's because it is one key. It's you. It's more about imagination and, like, breathing different rhythms. So, yeah, once you get the drone, you can kind of layer on top of it. You can, you can add vocals. You can, you know, a lot of, you know, imitate birds or just even singing with the didgeridoo. Anything that you add or anything you do that's a little bit different will come out differently at the end. So it's basically, yeah, there's no rules.

BRODIE: Yeah. Is there a long tradition of people using agave stocks to make didgeridoos? Or is this something that's reasonably new?

BERT: It’s fairly new. I feel like it's probably in the past 30 years, really, 35. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's, you know, it's such an ancient instrument, but agave is relatively new to that. And then it's, now, it's kind of known as one of the best woods in the world for it. So it's kind of sought after in a lot of different, you know, countries and stuff that don't have agave, obviously.

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

BRODIE: Yeah. So what do they do? Do they have to plant agaves in places where they're not native, or they're not necessarily supposed to grow?

BERT: Well, I have a lot of, like, a lot of them, I just send to places that, like, you know, Germany. I just sent several there. But it's because they can't, I mean, there's no way an agave could grow there. So it's more that they just, like, purchase instruments from far away. Like, I'll send, I've sent many to Europe and to Japan and to different areas that don't have agaves.

So, and that's one of the cool parts, is that you think it's like the sea that started in the desert, and now it's all the way over in Germany or Switzerland or Japan and stuff. And that's a really cool part about making them.

BRODIE: So can we hear one of these?

BERT: Oh, sure, yeah, yeah. So the C is, kind of, is, it's one of my favorite keys, and one I've kept a lot of, and it's kind of, it's a nice key because it's kind of in between key, like there's so many, I mean, I have really high pitched ones to so low that it's, it's, I mean, it's, it's almost like a different instrument at that point.

But, but C's, I think, one of the best keys for a beginner and, and so, yeah, it's just one that I, and this one I made 25 years ago with and that was, it was probably one of the, my first 15 ever made. And I kept it because I love the sound of it. I still love the sound of it. It's still one of the ones I play the most.

BRODIE: All right, let’s take a listen. 

[Didgeridoo being played]

Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ

BRODIE: So you mentioned a couple times how much you love the sound of the didgeridoo. What is it about the sound that speaks to you so much?

BERT: I think you know, when I was growing up, I heard at the Fourth Avenue Street Fair in Tucson, I was in seventh grade. And I just remember just, I was mesmerized by and I remember listening to the player for so long, and I just, I remember telling my friends that I was gonna play a didgeridoo and banjo when I grew up. And I think they were both like, well…

BRODIE: You probably got some weird looks.

BERT:  Yeah, seventh grade. Yeah. But, but yeah. It just felt, it felt really like, I don't know, it was, it felt like nature. I was such a nature, I'm such a nature person. And it just felt really, I don't know, it just resonated with who I was, and I just, I always wanted to play it.

BRODIE: It’s interesting because you met and you mentioned how, like, it starts as a little seed in the desert, then it gets spread all over the world. In a sense, like, you're kind of spreading a piece of the Sonoran Desert to all over the world.

BERT: Yeah, I think that. I think about that a lot when I send them off. And just like, how, well, how, you know, difficult is to survive in the desert and going from a seed, like, of all the like, you know, the ones that they spread like, only you know, how many actually make it and then actually make it to flower again and then, and then spread their seeds, and then die, and then turn to wood, and then it's an instrument that goes all over. So it's like, keeps living on in a different form, which I love to think about, that as a flower, you know, becoming an instrument that, like, you know, still lives on. So it's kind of cool to think about.

BRODIE: Is there something about the sound of the didgeridoo that evokes the desert for you?

BERT: It, you know, it does feel like a desert. I don't know, it makes sense that like agave would sound so good, because it does feel like the desert. I think, like, maybe that's one of the reasons that resonated with, I don't know. It just feels like wide open spaces are just like this hunt, a little bit of this hunt kind of like, yeah, it's hard to describe, but yeah, it does. It reminds me of the desert.

BRODIE: How long do you think you're gonna keep doing this?

BERT: You know, I guess till I can, can't do it anymore. I feel like I'm still young at 46 so I've just, I feel like I still get all these ideas, and I now kind of want to make, I don't know, like, create different. I've been trying to work with some I've been making some abugabi drums and just some different instruments like it.

Just have some more fun. I've been doing some kind of, like, fusion ones, where I put two stocks together so they have different big bells and smaller mouth pieces. Just some, just keep experimenting. So I think I'll do it the rest of my life, or I know I will, in some aspects I don't know when I'm 70s, like how much more harvesting might be a little bit more difficult.

BRODIE: Yeah.

BERT: But, um, yeah, woodworking in general, this is so good for me. I’ll be doing it as much as I can until I can’t.