I guess the best place to start would be at the beginning: When did you start playing guitar and are you self taught or did you actually take lessons?

I first started playing when I was 14, I believe. I was in high school and I had a guitar that my brother had tried to learn and had given up so I started fooling around with it. I took lessons for a little while to learn the basics but quickly got tired of that and took what I learned and went into a garage cover band and learned a few more things there and that led to joining the Crystalized Movements, where I REALLY learned how to play the guitar (laughs)!

Was Crystalized Movements your first band?

After the high school cover band, yeah.

When you left, had you laid down any of the tracks that were getting ready for that third album?

We were rehearsing that stuff and I was hoping to record it before I left town, but it didn’t work out that way. I had gotten accepted into graduate school out in California and I had to go and it was just around the time we were getting ready to record.

OK, so it was your education that led to you leaving the band?

Yeah, that and moving out to California. It was weird how a lot of things happened at once. It was a little acrimonious at the time over how everything was handled, but over time everything's been smoothed out and we're still friends and I was moving to the West coast anyway.

Had Primordial Undermind started before you left or did it come together out in California?

I had been in California about six months and got the itch to perform again so I started to write some songs on my own and decided to form a band. We started Primordial in June of 1989.

So this is your tenth anniversary?

Yeah, hard to believe, but it’s true!

Are you the only constant through the past ten years?

Just about. I met up with Brian Craft in 1990-91. He’s been with us for most of the time. Other than that, people have come and played for a couple of years and then moved on…or I move, which makes it necessary to find new people. We did the Primordial in L.A. from ‘89-’95 and then we moved to Boston in ‘96-’97 and we’ve been in San Francisco since then. In fact, I’m gonna move again in about a month to Austin, Texas.

Will you be continuing the band after you relocate?

Absolutely!

When you were in L.A., you hooked up with The Outsideinside. How'd that come about?

Yeah, not long after I started Primordial, I found a flyer looking for someone who liked Middle Eastern music, spicy food and loud guitars. I responded to it and it was Lee Josephs and we did The Outsideinside thing for a while.

Six Point Six is the name of The Outsideinside album with the title track co-written by someone named Eric Arn. Were you considered a member of the band or were you just a guest performer?

No, I was a member of the band for almost three years I think. I wasn’t the leader by any means. I was the hired gun lead guitar wank-off person! But besides that album was a 10” we did the year before on Hell Yeah! that was even better. I really enjoyed doing that one.

Did the Primordial Undermind’s debut LP (on the September Gurls label out of Germany) come out while you were in that band?

No. I just got a letter in the mail from them saying they had heard some of the Primordial Undermind’s earlier 7”s and asked if I wanted to do a record. That just came out of the blue because they heard some earlier releases.

We spoke next about how the Internet has contributed to the growth and success of indie bands and made it easier to communicate with fans and Eric added,

The Internet’s been a wonderful thing for us. I’ve kept in touch with all of the labels we’ve been on through the Internet, about 50% of the tour we set up through the Internet, we sell our records over the Internet…. It’s been a really big help!

Speaking of connecting with people over the Internet, is it true that Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond actually played bass on your debut release?

Yes. The very first thing we recorded as Primordial Undermind was an album’s worth of demos that we recorded with Nick over in London at the end of 1989. I had gotten in touch with him and we became pen pals from me seeing his early albums and he being a Crystalized Movements fan. I had made some demos and I sent them to him and he seemed to know what he was doing and we tried to figure out a way he could produce us. I flew to London and we recorded nine songs with Nick playing bass and his drummer, Martin Crowley playing drums. One of them ["Swimming the Ultramaroon"] ended up appearing on a compilation release on Baby Huey [the "If I could hear you I would hit you" 7" EP] and another one we put on a tape that we put out on Shrimper [And All Tall Monsters Stand].

Yeah. I originally thought of making an album out of them, but I basically had a problem with my vocals and my mixing on them. [Laughs] I probably didn’t let Nick do enough. I had some ideas of my own of what I could have done with them, but I wasn’t happy enough to release it as an album. But I still have some of them here that never saw the light of day, so who knows?

After the September Gurls album, your last two releases, You and Me and the Continuum and Universe I’ve Got have come out on Tony Dale’s Camera Obscura label from Australia. Did they come about as a result of meeting Tony at your Terrastock performance (in Providence, Rhode Island, USA in 1997) or had you been in touch with him before that?

No, he saw us play at Terrastock and that’s where we met. He liked what he saw and I gave him a tape that I was passing around that was basically that second album and he liked it so he put it out! He picked up a lot of acts at the first Terrastock! He met Abunai! there and he saw the Alchemysts play and he was pretty much just picking and choosing from what he saw at that festival.

The All Music Guide to Rock's review of “You and Me…” raved about your “white noise shards of guitar,” and also felt that burying your vocals in the mix contributed favorably to their overall appreciation of the album. Was that intentional?

Half and half, I guess. I didn’t want it to be like pop music where the vocals are clearly in front and everything else was in the background. I wanted it to be like another instrument, like another guitar or a keyboard or something else. I wanted it to be a part of the music and not separate from the music. On the other hand, I’d certainly like people to be able to hear the words. I mean, we spent a lot of time writing them, so we’re not trying to hide them or bury them, I just don’t want them to be the only focal point.

In comparing the two releases, the new one, Universe I’ve Got sounds a little fuller sonically; a little more polished, not as raw. I was wondering if the addition of another player on violin perhaps contributed to that?

Well, it certainly made it a bigger sound. The more people there are, the more sound there’s gonna be if you mix it right. So, definitely that helps. But I don’t agree with you that it’s more polished. It was a different way of writing songs. In the past, the person who wrote the song, whether it was me or Dan Stankowski, brought it to the band. In this case, most of the songs on the album evolved out of jams. This new lineup jammed together (literally) months before we even thought about making a song. Fortunately, one of the guys who was in the band at the time taped it all. So, when we started listening to the tapes we started finding things we liked and we turned them into songs.

I'd like to ask you about your appearances at the first two Terrastock festivals. It gave you the opportunity to see and hear a lot of the new bands….

Definitely. It was the first time I saw a lot of those bands. Going into it we were a little nervous. We didn't know if it was gonna be a Tolkein convention¾if it was gonna be a little "Hobbit-y." I was talking to some of my friends in Boston who were gonna play and we all decided we would just go and see what it's like. But once we got there, we were just blown away by the vibe of the whole thing. It was the top floor of this old warehouse/mill kind of place and there were about 600 "heads" packed into there with gorgeous music going on and it was just wonderful.

Is that was the first time you played in a festival type setting like that?

We have done a couple of things before like that and that is the way we prefer to play¾a party setting is better and a party with a lot of bands is even better! When we were out in L.A., I used to organize a few of those things. I did the "Midsummer's Nightmare" in 1992 and "La Festival Torticolis" a few years in a row in Pasadena and we did three shows in a loft that was called "Deep Heaven" when we were in Boston. We had a lot of bands¾we had Bardo Pond come up from Philly, Tono Bungay from Brooklyn [N.Y.], we had Un and Brother JT, and Major Stars from Boston. So we've done a few of those and we definitely prefer that kind of setting. I started organizing them with some of the guys in Abunai! and a friend, Dan Finn who's in a band called Lockgroove [who would play at Terrastock V in Boston in 2002.]

You were based in San Francisco when the second festival was held there in 1998. Did you notice any difference from the first one, being one of the "home town" bands?

San Francisco Terrastock was pretty interesting. We got everyone from the Boston lineup: Brian, myself and our rhythm section and a guy who had played keyboards with us on occasion flew out and Dan Stankowski who played bass with us in L.A. picked up a guitar and he came up and played. So we had about a 6 member version for Terrastock II. It was like my dream band¾we had everyone on stage at once!

Was that pretty much a continuation of the party atmosphere?

The novelty of the first one was really kind of special. The second one was GREAT, but it had a little different kind of feel. It was a little more professional¾a little more smoothly run [with Kathy Harr from Book 'em Danno! and Windy Chien from Aquarius Records]. It had catering with nice little sandwiches and everybody pretty much played on time. Also, we had the chance to catch Roy Montgomery and Alastair Galbraith who came over from New Zealand and a couple of the Ghost guys were there [Masaki Batoh and Michio Kurihara] and the Pelt set was absolutely mind boggling! But it wasn't the same "I can't believe this is happening¾look at all these people around me" kind of vibe as the first one.

On the new CD, the last track, "Dervish" is based on a theme from the "fondly remembered UFO Dictators." Who exactly were they? I assume it's not the two bands that one would immediately think of?

No, this was a band called the UFO Dictators that we had out in Pomona in '93-'94. One of the first people I met when I moved out here was Bill Chen, who's a DJ at KSPC in Claremont for 15 years now and he is the man behind the Baby Huey label who put out our first appearance on their first comp, Baby Huey 001 and our first single was on Baby Huey. So he had a project that I had to be in on and we had a project called Oar that was guitar improv and he had this band called UFO Dictators that was just an incredible vision of excess. I believe there was five guitars, bass and drums.

Sort of like Plan 9?

Kind of, except way less planned [laughs]. It was much more anarchic than that. We managed to put on a few shows and one of the songs we did had that theme in it and it just stuck in my head for years. Primordial Undermind started to just jam on it and created that song out of that melody.

Now, the sound of Crystalized Movements and Primordial Undermind is similar enough that I could envision this being a great double bill for someone who is into this style of music. Did you and Wayne play at all together at Terrastock?

No, but I have played with him once since I left Crystalized. We did an in-store at his Twisted Village record shop when we were in Boston. We coaxed Wayne into digging out his guitar and we did a version of the old Crystalized Movements chestnut "Communal Storybook." But other than that we haven't played together. He has some very specific ideas about what he wants to do with his bands and there's not a whole lot of room for extra people to come in. But we've remained good friends and we've shared the same bill with Major Stars several times, but we've never jammed together except for that one time.

I want to get some of the chronologies of the bands down right. Was You and Me and the Continuum recorded when you were in San Francisco?

Half of it was recorded in San Dimas right before I moved to Boston and the other half was recorded on the trip back to L.A. while I was living in Boston. It was released at the time I was moving out of Boston out to San Francisco.

Universe I've Got was recorded while you were based in San Francisco?

Yes, we wanted to stick with Durkee [Studios]. We've done everything we ever recorded with Bob [Durkee]. We recorded one single in another studio in L.A that didn't come out nearly as good, so we prefer to work with Bob. He understands what we do and he can make it sound like we want.

Now the credit on the record says fBE Durkeetone, but didn't you tell me once that Durkeetone doesn't really exist?

Bob likes to call his studio fBE, which stands for Fart Blossom Enterprises, which old punk and hardcore fans from the 80s might remember as his punk and hardcore label. He put out a lot of compilations and memorable albums from Justice League and Corrosion of Conformity and his band, Pillsbury Hardcore. We just thought he had to jazz it up a little so we put his name on our albums like Durkeetone or Electric Durkeeland. He hasn't really adopted these yet, but we're trying to convince him [laughs]!

What bands do you enjoy listening to when you're not working on your own project? Do you listen to a lot of the so-called "Terrastock Nation" bands or are your tastes more into the older psychedelic stuff?

It's pretty much both of those. I'm looking at my record collection right now. It's divided between old and new psych, free jazz and 20^th century classical music. Some of the bands that played at Terrastock are some of my favorites: Major Stars, Azusa Plane and others.

Now for fans looking for your first release on September Gurls, Yet More Wonders of the Invisible World, would that be distributed here or would they have to find that on the Internet?

That's a little hard to find. I loved working with them, but one of the reasons we stopped working with them is that their distribution in the US is virtually nonexistent, which is one of the reasons we decided to go with Camera Obscura [which has US distribution and is relatively easy to find.] But fans can definitely order that from some places on the Internet.

[Addendum]: In late October, 2001, Eric released his fourth album, Beings of Game P-U, featuring next-door neighbor, Tom Carter from Charalambides on guitar. A bit of a departure from previous releases (for one thing, it's totally instrumental; it's also his first recording outside of Durkee Studio¾it was recorded in Tom's living room), "Beings" opens with the 16 minute epic "Uva Urtana," an ocean of tonal bliss which envelops the listener in a free-form improvisational onslaught that continues throughout the remaining lengthy tracks. "Filament," in particular, combines the ferocity of Can with tinges of West Coast acid guitar rock a la Quicksilver Messenger Service all wrapped up in a loose Grateful Dead vibe.

I asked Eric about these new sessions and if they marked a new beginning to the Primordial Undermind sound and how much his move to Austin influenced the recording.

We rehearsed and recorded the album in Tom's living room, without the benefit of a vocal PA. I had been thinking of overdubbing vocals later, but when I finally got to listen to a rough mix months later (another saga in itself) I felt there was not much room left for vocals, and basically no need for them. So I just mixed it as it was with no overdubs. Spontaneity and serendipity played large parts in making this album. We hadn't even intended on "Uva Urtana" being a serious recording for the album, but once I heard it, it was so obvious.

Did the album arise out of playing with the "locals" in Austin since you moved there, or did you compose the LP ahead of time and search out the right players to make it happen?

I try not to decide too much ahead of time what things will sound like, but instead to let the folks involved and the setting determine the overall feel. It's just the music that particular group of people wanted to make at that place and time. All the music was composed in Austin, split between ideas I roughed out and ideas originating in full band improvisations as indicated by the writing credits. The music is the result of the players (a cast that has since changed even more) and not my choosing them specifically to do anything in particular. Hearing all the things other people add without my instruction is one of the biggest thrills for me in making this music.

Last time we spoke, you had just returned from "The Rolling Psychedelic Circus Tour." Now that you've completed your first tour with the new material, could you compare the two.

I'm happy to say the tour went very well. We did 17 shows out and up the West Coast then back home through the Midwest. We got great responses, even in some unexpected places. A couple of people kept tour diaries which may see the light of day somewhere soon. [For highlights from Eric's diary of the "Psychedelic Circus" tour, see Swedish fanzine, Broken Face #9.] The band is in fine shape now, so we're hoping to complete recording on the next album Thin Shells of Revolution within a few weeks.

Best of luck with it. Did you put a permanent band together for the tour (or for future recordings) or are you gonna keep it fast and bulbous for the foreseeable future?

You can contact Eric via Camera Obscura.