Interview, Eivind Aarset on classic rock influences and 'Phantasmagoria'

Working his way from being an in-demand session musician to creating his own experimental, ambient-influenced jazz music, electric guitarist Eivind Aarset’s most recent album Phantasmagoria, or A Different Kind of Journey sees him pulling more from his rock roots for an equally atmospheric and grooving record - it even landed as one of our Jazz Recordings of the Week last month. Calling us from his home in the countryside just outside of Oslo, Eivind and I spoke about his early work as a session musician, the impetus for his solo career, and what he does to keep inspired after over 20 years releasing music.

Could you talk a little about where you started with playing music? Were you playing in bands as a teenager?

I have a couple of older cousins who were in bands when I was younger. They were about ten years older than me, and were real role models, I would say. I remember visiting them with their rooms full of amps and guitars, it was very inspiring. It was around that time that I also started listening to Jimi Hendrix; from the moment I heard him, it changed my life. I wanted to play just like him - which is impossible really, especially when you’re only 11 years old! That was my starting point.

I also had friends in school who were interested in music, and in particular one very gifted friend who was able to teach me a lot of stuff; he was very quick to pick up on what was happening on the records we were listening to, and he’d show me how to do it.

So your earliest influences were artists like Jimi Hendrix, and I read that you were also listening to a lot of rock bands like Deep Purple at the time. You eventually toured with a metal band for some time as well - does that kind of mentality still make its way into your music?

Oh, yes. I like the special power and energy you feel when you have a distorted guitar in your hands, it feels great. I use it in a very different way now than when I was playing in bands like that, but it’s still with me, absolutely.

As early as your first album you were incorporating a lot of electronic sounds as well: where does that influence come from?

After I toured with that metal band I worked as a session musician for about ten years; I did a lot of recording studio gigs and toured with pop artists, and met a lot of people who ended up influencing me during that time, too. I particularly always enjoyed being in the studio and around all the electronic equipment they had… it was a very gradual development. At that time I was also listening to players like David Torn, as well as Daniel Lanois’ work with Brian Eno. At the beginning of the ‘90s, too, that was when club music really started to kick off and there was a lot of interesting electronic music coming out of that. There’s a very influential album for me that Brian Eno released in 1992 called Nerve Net, which has a big club influence on it, but was also very interesting to me harmonically and musically.

You also have a bit of a reputation for getting very ‘un-guitarlike’ sounds from your instrument, does that come from this electronic influence too?

I found that over the years, I like to sort of ‘collect’ sounds, and expand my musical vocabulary. If by coincidence I discover a new sound, I try to keep it and remember how to recreate it - play around it, feel out what I can do with it musically. Sometimes I hear something, or I have an idea, and try to do it but don’t succeed, but then I’ll end up with something else which also gets added to my repertoire of sounds.

So you’d been an active session musician for some time by the time you released your debut Electronique Noire in 1998, what was it that made you think to release your own music?

Besides playing with other people and helping them to realise their visions, my hobby was composing music at home, but I never thought that I should actually release any of it. It’s thanks to Bugge Wesseltoft (founder of Jazzland Recordings), actually - he told me one day “I’m going to start a record label, and I want you to make a record on it”, and just like that we did it. That was a really important moment: I don’t think I would have released anything had Bugge not asked me to do it.

On Phantasmagoria you’re playing in a quartet, who are they? Do you have a long history with your bandmates?

Audun Erlien (bass guitar) I met back in the ‘80s, so we’ve had a really long working relationship. Welte Holte (drums/percussion) has been with me since… not since my first record, but when I started touring that material, at the time he was just fresh from a music conservatory. At that time I was trying to look for new people I hadn’t met or worked with before, and I was very happy to meet Welte - his opinions on music are very clear, and he’s been a very influential presence in the band.

In the beginning we were using drum machines live to get the sound we wanted, but they really destroyed the dynamic of the show because we’d be playing so loud on stage. So Welte suggested bringing in Erland Dahlen, an old friend of his, to play live drums. That really expanded the dynamic and sound palette of a whole band.

The song titles on Phantasmagoria are all quite evocative - is there a narrative that they follow, or are they mainly there to suit the mood of the song? Is it significant that they all, including the album itself, have two titles?

I think song titles are really difficult; the ones on Phantasmagoria have a connection to the feeling of the tune. I was playing around with different titles, and sent the alternatives to the cover designer, Ian Anderson, to get a second opinion. I asked which he thought I should choose, but he loved the look of using both titles, and convinced me to use this as a concept for the record.

Photo: Antonio Baiano

Phantasmagoria being your 9th album, and your debut being over 20 years old, what keeps you inspired to write and record new music?

I play all the time, so sometimes ideas just pop out which end up becoming a tune. I might have a thought before I start the album about what kinds of elements I want to have - I want each album to have its own character, rather than just repeating the things that worked last time. I always like to do something new, but still I have my ways, so I usually end up sounding like myself anyway! In terms of inspiration… I improvise a lot, and if something surfaces that attracts me, I stick with it and try to expand on it.

As far as your guitar playing goes on Phantasmagoria, some of it is more ‘traditional’ than what you’re typically known for, was that also something that came from improvising?

I was very conscious of this when I made my first solo record. When you’re a session musician you have to know a lot of references, things that you’ll probably be asked to play. I’d had plenty of time to practice that style of playing, but I decided that I didn’t want that for my debut. Funnily enough, a lot of people who liked my session work in Norway didn’t like the album very much! Nowadays, though, I allow myself to bring back those influences, those references from rock bands like Hendrix, Pink Floyd - I feel like I have more distance from it, and because of that I feel like those influences are filtered ‘through’ me rather than just sounding like an obvious copy of someone else’s playing.

Have you had much of a chance to play the material from your new album live?

Yeah, we did a release concert, which I was really happy with.During the pandemic I spent a lot of time in my studio, so the record has a lot of little details and different things going on, and I wasn’t sure how well it would translate into a live format. It worked out really well though, so I’m happy that we have some touring coming up, especially next year.

Check out Eivind's latest album, Phantasmagoria, or A Different Kind of Journey, which was our Jazz Recording of the Week last month...

Browse all Eivind Aarset releases here...