Eric Arn is an American guitar player who has been living in Vienna for 20 years. He plays electric and acoustic guitar, and collaborates with local and international musicians. For the last couple of years, Arn has seemed to concentrate more on solo acoustic guitar, with his music developing in a more detailed and minimal way of playing. His latest album »fixe Idee« came out in May 2025.
skug: With »fixe Idee« you got a new record out. How do you work? Do you start with the idea »I want to make a new record«?
Eric Arn: I’ve never just decided to sit down and write or record an album. I’m constantly making and recording music in more different directions, with different constellations (including solo) as the opportunities come and as the feeling takes me. When I realize that I have a few things in hand which would fit together on an album, I then start to focus on what else I may have or can create that will also fit, and eventually somehow it creates a whole all together. It’s a pretty mysterious process to me, to be honest, in that until the last steps most of it is more subconscious. Only when looking back on my last few solo albums does the trend towards simplifying the processes and focusing on one instrument become clear. It’s resulted in this record being purely fingerstyle steel-string acoustic guitar, just getting lost in the details and possibilities of that. I expect the next one will be something quite different.
How do you look at making music? Is it something that’s part of your daily life or should it be something that you create a special moment for?
I’d love to have the time, freedom and energy to keep a constant intensive daily practice going, but my life in this society unfortunately doesn’t allow that. I’m always on the lookout for any hours I can find or steal for that special activity that allows clearing the mind of all the prosaic daily clutter and complete focus on exploration, discovery, and creation. For me, it takes a minimum level of energy and something of the right frame of mind, too, so I can’t always get into the right mental space for it. I don’t claim to be a craftsman who gets it done at all times, under any conditions. At least that’s my defence of not being more productive.
Is the music on »fixe Idee« the result of improvisation or do you see it as compositions?
My typical modus operandi is to begin with searching extended improvisations, eventually recording ideas that seem to return multiple times, and then refinement into compositions. This sort of thing I do whenever I can make the time. It’s only after I finalize an album that I can look back at recording dates and see how long I was working on it. Usually, I’m just working.
If you make music for as long as you do, do you have music made by others in mind when you play? Or did you become your own reference?
I don’t try to model what I do on anybody else’s work. I listen to lots of music, and I’m sure many influences work themselves in, but that’s a subconscious process. I just try to stay out of the way of the flow.
Do you have certain habits that help you to create music?
My most typical habits are the mentioned extended improvisation to unlock new ideas, and occasionally asking myself, »what kind of a piece have I not created yet?«, to help avoid repetition.
What does the album title »fixe Idee« refer to?
A »fixe Idee« is an idea that occupies the soul incessantly and dominates all other ideas. A point of obsession. That’s what it has felt like at times to find myself working so much on just fingerstyle steel-string guitar. Finding variation and opportunities in the (endless) minutiae to be found down that particular rabbit hole.
Do you have to combine making music with a day job and family? And does this work well for you or is it a struggle sometimes?
It’s a struggle always. The lack of time to work more, more deeply, and I expect better, on music creation is a source of frustration. But so far this stuff doesn’t have the »commercial potential« to feed and house me, and I don’t have interest in trying to cater to a market. So, I spend a lot of my time earning that daily bread in other ways. Then at least I have complete freedom when I do get to make the music.
Is playing music something physical, like a muscle you have to keep trained? Or is it something mental that you need to do to feel good? Is it creative, a place to live out your fantasies? Or rather intellectual, a place where you can explore your ideas? Or is it just a combination of all these?
It’s absolutely all of those, when it’s working correctly, a true all-encompassing »peak experience«. I enjoy finding ways to let the intuitive, latent energies flow rather than trying to analyse the process in a rational, verbal mode. It’s worth the effort it takes to get there, and often there is the rewarding output as well.
Something I want to check: were you part of Jandek’s band when he played Vienna?
Yes, I played bass back in 2009 with Didi Kern on drums.
How was that experience?
It was a great experience. We met in the afternoon for instructions and soundcheck. We basically had to improvise along with him, based on one of the keywords he gave at the start of each song. He also sang lyrics that he had written onsite in Vienna. It was a fun, challenging show to play, and went to some noisier places than I would have expected. The Corwood rep was also quite open and personable behind the scenes. It was a blast to hang out with him and drink Sturm after the show. When the double-CD of that night was released in 2023, it was a very pleasant reminder.
The album release-party and cosy concert for Eric Arn’s »fixe Idee« will take place at Sissysound Record Store, Vienna, on Saturday, May 31st, 2025, 5 pm.
