We recently connected with Eric Wurzelbacher and have shared our conversation below.

Eric, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Looking back, I believe a lot of it came with how I grew up. My parents were self-employed and me and my siblings had a very free environment to grow in. This cultivated creativity and free thinking which, in retrospect, actually made school kind of difficult for me. From a young age I never felt like a fit in the system; I don’t mean this to say I was special. I actually felt quite the opposite for many years- school made me feel quite incompetent a lot of times. However, I excelled in music class and things that I had the most agency over. I tended to do well at things that I had a lot of control over. With playing a musical instrument, it’s a lot of self- discipline and exploration. Making my way through grade school and college, I just inherently knew 9-5 job was not going to be fulfilling for me. There’s a lot of fear that comes with the instability, but I can confidently say at this point I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else than what I’m doing now. I’m writing my own music, performing, teaching a few students, and living the life I want to live. It’s all about the journey.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a Cincinnati-based saxophonist, composer, and music teacher. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to play music all over the world and make a living primarily focused on what I love (this is slowly evolving process… haha). I’ve released 4 albums as a leader and been a part of many other recording projects as a side man. My music has been described as a “foot- tapping mix of hard-bop impro and rock” by the Jazz Journal UK. My two biggest influences in music are most likely jazz and rock (although depending on the day, I love to listen to just about anything).

I would say really early on, my older brother was probably the first big influence on me moving towards pursuing a career in music. He was playing Bach and Beethoven since I was basically born (he’s 4 years older than me and started playing piano when he was 5). My parents also were constantly playing music in the house from all kinds of different artists. I started playing saxophone when I began middle school and seemed to have an immediately attraction and ability to it. I was typically in the higher half of most of my classes academically, but never really excelled in anything until I began playing music. The face that I could take this instrument with me everyday and work on it at my own pace (and it was fun making noises), I just absolutely loved. Playing the saxophone has really been my rock and form of meditation since I was a kid. Everyday I’m grateful that I found it.

Music has given me other opportunities to grow besides just playing. I’ve been teaching private lessons and masterclasses in school for over a decade, which has been a huge growing opportunity for me personally. If you really want to know how to do something, try teaching it…

Having said all that, I continue to mainly focus on performing and writing new music. These two things are what bring me the most joy and energy. If I’ve learned anything in life, it’s to follow that energy and intuition about things that excite you; you’ll never go wrong that way.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I definitely has some objective goals (such as obtaining a booking agent that I can trust, touring more, playing more festivals, and playing in front of larger audiences that really care about the music), however I try my best to keep these desires at bay. These are all important thing in the progression of your career as a performing musician, but it cannot be the only thing you think about, otherwise you will get off track. Let me explain… working only towards very specific goals in a creative field will force you to do things that go against the essence of you as an artist; everything becomes a means to an end. When you finally reach that “goal”, that’s become your whole identity and now what do you do? Who are you as an artist? I try my best to live life to its fullest, enjoy, experience everything/ everyone that I can while still having these goals in the back of my head and making as many obvious steps towards those goals without them consuming my being entirely.

In whatever form it happens in, my goal is to continue to connect and heal people through music. There is no other feeling that compares to that.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

In the grand scheme of the world, I want to make it very clear first that I feel incredibly grateful to even be able to call myself an “artist”. The majority world has no time to focus on such an ethereal topic. This does not diminish the importance of art – in fact, if you have the ability, privilege, and desire to create art, you should do so as much as you possibly can. The times that I have written a song and performed in front of an audience who were locked in and felt something that can’t be described in words, so much so that they came up to me after the show and felt obligated to thank me for performing- that’s where it’s at for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ericwurzelbacher.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericwurzelbacher/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ericwurzelbacher.music
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EWurzelbac57133
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQhJDFM4bQGpBqiQEBia_Ig