NEVERMIND, IT'S AN INTERVIEW transcription
TRACK 1
['Breed', from Nevermind, plays in the background].

Dave Grohl: "Here, say 'hi' really loud. Ready? On three. Ready? Go!"

Lisa Grohl: "Hey!"

Dave Grohl: "That's my sister (laughs). Er, that was pre-recorded for this interview CD."

Kurt Cobain: I punctured every speaker in the cabinet, and there were, er, 12 speakers to puncture. Really, I can't think of anything better to do than to puncture speakers, that's my favourite piece of equipment to destroy. It's a lot of fun."

['Stay Away', from Nevermind, plays in the background].

Dave Grohl: 'I had Kurt's guitar cabinet, like, I was smashing it, picking it, these things are heavy, smashing it onto my bass drum, trying just to completely crack and destroy the bass drum and it wouldn't do it. I was wailing on it with guitars, I was throwing it off the risers, high as I could. Drums are hard to break."

['School', from "Bleach ", plays in the background].

Kurt Cobain: 'Well, at first I wanted to be in a rock band when I was really young, and I decided about third grade I wanted to be a stuntman. So... oh heck yeah, Evel Knievel was a big influence on that. I'd jump my bikes, and I took all the bedding and pillows out of our house, and put it on the deck, and got up on top of the roof, and would jump off. Yeah, I took a thin piece of metal one time, and duct-taped it to my chest, and put a bunch of firecrackers on it and lit it on fire."

['Mr Moustache, from "Bleach ", plays in the background].

Chris Novoselic: "Buzz Osbourne, guitar player from the Melvins, he, like, discovered punk rock, and er, he was tuming people on to it. I heard it, and er, it sounded live to me, and er, I borrowed the record Generic Flipper, and I listened to it, and it was just, like it was a revelation. I was like, 'Wow!" It was just heavy, it was art. I was affected and I've never been the same since. It was like a breakthrough."

['Sifting', from "Bleach ", plays in the background].

Kurt Cobain: I was er, 15 when I got my first guitar. My mother had just gotten married, and this was in the first year of her marriage. My stepfather went out on her, and er, she got so irate that she took all my stepfather's guns, er, various guns, pistols, rifles and stuff, walked down to the river, and threw them in. And then I hired this kid to fish a couple of them out, and I sold them, and then I got my first guitar with the money."

['In Bloom', from Nevermind, plays in the background].

Kurt Cobain: "Uh, yeah, I took lessons for a week. I learned how to play Back In Black by AC/DC, and it's pretty much the 'Louie Louie' chords, so that's all I needed to know. I never did pay the guitar teacher for that week either. I still owe him money. But that's it, you know, I just started writing songs on my own. Once you know the power chord, you don't need to know anything else."

Chris Novoselic: "Aberdeen's basically just small town America. It's about one hundred miles Southwest of Seattle. It's on the Pacific Ocean. Its main industry is logging, and forest products. There's really no roads going through there. lt's knd of off the beaten path, off the beaten track, and er, things just kind of... change comes slowly to Aberdeen. Everything revolves around the logging industry there, it's all logging; if the logging stopped, there would be a ghost town."

Kurt St. Thomas: 'Aberdeen, Washington, 1987, Nirvana was formed between singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain, and bassist Chris Novoselic. Chris explains the birth of the band...'

['Spank Thru', from Sub Pop 200, plays in the background].

Chris Novoselic: "A little social group came together, and we just kind of hung out, you know, talked about things. And then, one thing led to another, Kurt did a tape with Dale Crover from the Melvins, and one of the songs on it was 'Spank Thru', and he turned me on to it, and I really liked it, it kind of got me excited. So I go, "Hey man, let's start a band." We scrounged up a drummer, and we started practicing. Took it very seriously too."

Kurt St. Thomas: 'The band recorded their first demo tape with Dale Crover of the Melvins...'

[Floyd the Barber', from "Bleach ", plays in the background].

Chris Novoselic: He played on our first demo, and a couple of those songs made it over to the "Bleach" LP: Floyd the Barber' and Paper Cuts'. We jammed for about a week, put some songs together, and made this tape."

Kurt St. Thomas: 'Kurt and Chris then enrolled Chad Channing to become Nirvana's first full-time drummer...'

['Scoff , from "Bleach ", plays in the background].

Chris Novoselic: "Chad wanted to express himself in a way that really didn't get with the band. Chad really compromised his style to suit the band. I don't think he was happy doing that and, er, it was a good departure, you know. It worked well for everyone."

[Love Buzz', from the Love Buzz'/'Big Cheese' single, plays in the background].

Kurt St. Thomas: 'In December of 1988, Sub Pop records released a limited one thousand copies of Nirvana's first single 'Love Buzz', a Shocking Blue cover, with the B-side, 'Big Cheese'. Months later, in June of '89, the first Nirvana album, "Bleach", was released. Kurt, Chris, and Chad recorded the album for $600, with producer Jack Endino. Jason Everman is also listed on guitar, but he didn't actually appear on the album, only on the tour. Kurt on 'Beach"...'

Kurt Cobain: "Bleach " just seemed to be really one-dimensional. It just has the same format. All the songs are slow, and grungy, and they're tuned down to really low notes, and I screamed a lot and... but at the same time that we were recording, we had a lot more songs, like 'About A Girl', in fact, 'Polly' was written at that same time too. It,'s just that we chose to put more abrasive songs on the "Bleach " album ['About A GirI', live, from Seattle, 31 October 1991, plays in the background] so, it really wasn't a matter of evolving, within just a year, you know. We've always liked pop music, and we've always had a few songs like that'

['About A Girl' continues to play in the background].

Kurt St. Thomas: 'That's 'About A Girl' recorded live, Halloween night, 1991, in the city where Nirvana now calls home, Seattle, Washington. After the release of "Bleach", the band went on its first national tour, and they were gearing up to record their second album. Chris explains...'

Chris Novoselic: "We went to Madison, Wisconsin, to record a record with Butch Vig, in the spring of 1990. We laid down about, 6, 7 songs, which was like, 'Lithium', 'In Bloom', er..."

Kurt St. Thomas: ''Polly'...'

Chris Novoselic: "...Polly', oh, 'Dive', B-side of 'Sliver' made it out, er, 'Stay Away'. Anyway we went there in the Spring to record a record, right. Right after we finished recording the record we went on this, er, 8-week tour of the US, starting in Madison, and we got as far as New York, and everything was geared up to, you know, put out this second Nirvana record, and we were going to record maybe a few more songs in Seattle..."

Kurt St. Thomas: 'This was going to be on Sub Pop right?'

Chris Novoselic: 'This was going to be Sub Pop. This was going to be our second record right, and this was supposed to come out, probably September of 1990. And well, once we got off that tour, that's when we lost Chad, so there's uncertainty with that. We didn't want to release it, if we did anything we wanted to do it with a new drummer. Sub Pop was doing some wheeling and dealing, they were going to sign a licensing deal with a big label ['Dive', frorn the 'Sliver/Dive' single, plays in the background] and that kind of, er, scared us, and there were so many variables to consider, that it wasn't wise to put out a record at all. We went and we toured the UK, and uh, we went and uh, toured uh, Western Canada, and eh, next thing you know, we were talking to labels ourselves. So that was just like: 'We can! "'

Kurt St. Thomas: 'With Chad leaving the band, Kurt and Chris then enrolled friend, and Mudhoney drummer, Dan Peters, but Dan only lasted one gig...'

Chris Novoselic: "Well yeah, it was a great gig too, it was at the Motor Sports Garage in SeattIe, there was about 1500 people there, or, no, there was a lot more people there. There was a lot of people there, and er, we'd just recorded the 'Sliver' single with him, a couple of weeks before, and he looked like he was going to be in our band. And that was just another case of compromising his style for our band, you know, he was going to go out and buy a bigger drum set and, you know, you can really hear his style, it's just Mudboney, you know, those snare rolls and... well, that was when the future of er, Mudhoney, was uncertain. Steve wanted to go to school, and there was all this... it was just like, 'are Mudhoney going break up?' and Dan saw opportunity to join our band, it was a certain thing. So like, yeah, we Iove Dan as a person, and we love his drumming. WelI, it iust goes back to the... it was uncertain... ['Sliver', from the 'Sliver/Dive' single, plays in the background] ... and if Dan were to have joined our band, it would've been certain that Mudhoney was finished, and we didn't want to be responsible for that."

Kurt St. Thomas: 'Enter Dave Grohl, not just another drummer.'

Kurt Cobain: "He's the most well adjusted boy l've ever met. He's totally easy to get along with, everyone Ioves him, he plays drums better than any drummer l've ever heard. I mean, he blows away Jon Bonham. lf I had... if, you know, if I had the choice of like, bringing Jon Bonham back to life, or to choose of any drummer of any band I could even think of, they wouIdn't be better than Dave. He's great."

Chris Novoselic: "He's great, yeah. He's the backbone of the band."

Kurt St. Thomas: 'Dave was playing in the Washington DC band, Scream, when things fell apart. Dave expIains...'

Dave GrohI: "In 1990, we were on tour, doing a tour of America, and we were halfway through the tour, in Los Angeles..."

Chris Novoselic: 'Their tour made it as far as Los Angeles, and their bass player flew the coup."

Dave Grohl: 'Ve got stranded there. There wasn't really much to do, and I called my friend Buzz, Osbourne, who er, is a singer for the Melvins. We'd known each other for a while..."

Kurt St. Thomas: Mutual friend of Kurt and Chris.'

Dave Grohl: 'Yeah. He's actually the one who introduced them to each other, and he ended up introducing me to the band. And he just said that, er, they were looking for a drummer, and that they saw Scream play in San Francisco, and they thought I was really good. Blah blah blah, no romantic story."

Chris Novoselic: "We were just blown away by the whole band, especially the drummer. The drummer was really good"

Dave Grohl: I called them up"

Chris Novoselic: "He called up and we're like, 'Yeah, man, come on up.

Dave Grohl: "The strangest ['Aneurysm', live, from Seattle, 31 October 1991, plays in the background] thing about it was moving up to the Northwest, no money, an' nothing. I mean, I didn't... I still only have like, a bag of clothes and my drums. l've bought a bed, a couple of months ago, so, uh, I have a room with this futon on the floor. But I mean, I don't have anything, so I didn't really have to move, and er, just... you know, moving up, leaving your best friends in the world."

Kurt Cobain: 'Yeah, it was weirder for him probably because he's kind of homesick, you know."

Dave Grohl: "I mean, I didn't know Chris or Kurt, and I ended up living on Kurt's couch for 8 months and just- "

Kurt Cobain: "He just packed up his stuff and came to Washington State."

Dave Grohl: I had every misconception that everyone else had, you know'

Kurt St. Thomas: 'Sure.'

Dave Grohl: "All I thought Seattle was, was like, flannel shirts, and, uh, blurry Charles Peterson photos, you know."

Kurt Cobain: 'Ve were living in this littIe cracker box hell-hole of an apartment, and l'm quite a slob, as you can see."

Dave Grohl: If you had someone you did not know come and move into your apartment, and er, you were sort of like... you felt this responsibility to like, 'OK, well, we must get along.'"

Kurt Cobain: 'It was kind of hard for two people to live in this really small apartment with one bedroom, and just garbage all over the floor. A lot of corn dog sticks Iying around."

Dave Grohl: "Whatever, in like, a month or two, we were out in the backyard shooting stuff with BB guns, and breaking windows at the lottery building across the street. It was fun, it was great, that apartment was great"

Kurt Cobain: 'It was nice, because Dave tums out to be just as much of a slob as me." ['Aneurysm' continues playing until the song finishes].
TRACK 2
Kurt St. Thomas: 'Welcome back to Nevermind, It's An Interview. With Nirvana's line-up now set, Kurt, Chris and Dave began rehearsing... '

Dave Grohl: -We'd been, uhm, practicing in this really weird practice space. This man built a studio in his - in this like, barn, in his backyard, but it wasn't a barn, it was this thing that had a studio in it, and then upstairs his brother lived up there, and he was in this really bad, like, Howard Johnson's lounge band. Everything was carpeted with this like, brown shag carpet, and he even had stage lights in there, and they had a massive PA, that he just did not know how to use, and he'd turn it on, and - 'Shhhh' - there's just this huge hiss. And we were practicing a lot, and we were writing a lot of material. We'd write them, they were great for like two weeks: 'Oh my God, this is the best song ever!' - and we'd forget them. And so then we decided, 'OK, well start putting them on cassette.' And so we started recording them onto these boom-box things, and we'd lose the cassettes and... you know, we wrote so much material, that we just like, forgot about, and every once in a while well just like, pull one out, and turn it around."

Kurt St. Thomas: 'While the band was writing and rehearsing, the major labels started taking interest'

['Lithium', from Nevermind, plays in the background.]

Chris Novoselic: 'They were wining and dining us, and there were some labels that we were impressed by, but er, we thought DGC would be the best for us."

Kurt St. Thomas: 'Was one of the main reasons because of Sonic Youth?'

Chris Novoselic: "Yeah, we knew Sonic Youth were happy on there, and we've always loved and respected Sonic Youth, so... and there's like all these rumours, that we got like, a million dollars, or 700... it was actually... even in Spin magazine, it was printed that, that we got 750,000 dollars, and we didn't even get a quarter of that. What we did, was, instead of going for the big dough, we went for the strong contract'

Kurt St. Thomas: 'Which enables you, like, more freedom?'

Chris Novoselic: "More freedom, uhh, more percentage points on the record, and there's a lot of clauses in there that are in our favour. Now if our record would have bombed, we would have kicked ourselves in the butt and said, 'Man, we should'a took the cash!' But we were not in it for the money, we were in it for, you know: 'Let's put out a record and let's do this thing right.'"

[Even In His Youth', from the 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' single, plays in the background].

Kurt Cobain: 'I really don't know what the definition of selling out is anymore; I guess I really don't care. We haven't compromised, our record label lefs us do anything we want. We think on the same level. There's nothing that we've done, that could be considered a 'sell-out' at all, at least not in my eyes. A lot of people were calling us 'sell-out', they forget that, you know, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols were on major labels, so was the Clash, and they all... all those bands were trying to become big stars, they didn't even deny it. God, the Ramones even had a movie out after them, you know, to help support them."

Chris Novoselic: "You know, I think that if you make money, and you start voting Republican - because you'Il get tax breaks, and they're the party of the rich - I mean, that's sold-out'

Kurt St. Thomas: 'In early 1991 Nirvana entered the studio with producer Butch Vig...'

Chris Novoselic: 'Yeah, we worked with him in the springtime, when we, when we did that demo, that I mentioned earlier. He was just easy to work with, laid back, and uh, really attentive to what's going on. He works hard, but he doesn't work the band hard."

Dave Grohl: 'It was about time that the band recorded something, finally; it had been so long."

Kurt Cobain: 'It's called Sound City, and the board and the room are really old. The board is from the early 70's."

Chris Novoselic: "All the dinosaurs have recorded there, uh, Fleetwood Mac, uhh, Cheap Trick."

Kurt Cobain: 'There's nothing more disgusting than the late 80's or early 90's slick sound, you know. You just can't escape it, no matter how retro and old you try to be, or what kind of old equipment you use, you still can't help but sound new."

Chris Novoselic: "We got a warm sound out of that place."

Dave Grohl: It had been two years since 'Bleach, it had been a while since the band had gone in and recorded a full LP, so it was more of like, wow, ok, we're in the studio, let's just get this done. Let's just do it. "'

Chris Novoselic: "We made the record we wanted to make. We didn't have any... we didn't want to make the Number One record. We didn't want to make some big hit record, it's... you know that record, it would have been the same record if it was on Sub Pop."

['Drain You', live, from Seattle, 31 October 1991, plays].

Kurt St. Thomas: 'That's 'Drain You', recorded live. Kurt and Dave talk about writing songs...'

Kurt Cobain: "lt's usually done on an acoustic guitar, sitting around in my underwear, just picking out riffs, pieces of songs."

Dave Grohl: "Maybe Kurt will come in with a melody, uh, a guitar riff, and uh, show it to us.',

Kurt Cobain: "We go to practice, and then we play the song over and over again."

Dave Grohl: 'Ve just jam. There's no real formula."

Kurt Cobain: "Chris and Dave have a big part in deciding on how long a song should be, and how many parts it should have. So, I don't like to be considered as the whole songwriter, but I do come up with the basis of it. I come up with the singing style during practice and I write the Iyrics usually minutes before we record."

['Something In The Way', from Nevermind, plays].

Kurt Cobain: "That song really wasn't even written until a week before we went into the studio. And, er, I knew I wanted cello on it. But after all the music was recorded for it, we'd kind of forgotten about putting a cello on it, and we had one more day in the studio, and we decided, 'Oh, jeez, we should try to hire a cellist,' you know, and put something in. And we were at a party, and we were asking some of our friends if they had any friends who play cello, and it just so happened that one of our best friends in LA, plays cello, so, we took him into the studio on the last day and said, 'Here, play something', and he came up with something right away. It just fell like dominoes, it was really easy."

['Come As You Are', from Nevernind, plays].

Kurt Cobain: "The lines in the song are really contradictory, you know, one after another. They are kind of a rebuttal to each line, and they're just kind of confusing I guess. lt's just about people, and er, what they're expected to act like."

[Polly', from Nevermind, plays].

Kurt Cobain: "Just because I say 'I' in a song doesn't necessarily mean it's me. A lot of people have a problem with that. It's just the way I write usually, take on someone else's personality or character. I'd rather just use someone else's example, because... I don't know, my life is kind of boring, and so, you know, I just take stories from things l've read, and off the television, and in stories l've heard, maybe even some friends."

Kurt Cobain: "Obviously I don't like rednecks. I don't like macho men. ['In Bloom', from Nevennind, begins to play]. I mean, I don't like abusive people, and, uh, I guess that's what that song is about. lt's an attack on them."

Kurt Cobain: 'This friend of mine and I ['Smells Like Teen Spirit, from Nevermind, begins to play] were goofing around in my house one night, and we were kind of drunk, and we were writing graffiti all over the walls of my house, and she wrote 'Kurt smells like teen spirit'. And earlier on, we were kind of having this discussion on revolution, and teen revolution and stuff like that, and I took that as a compliment. I thought that she was saying that I was a person who... who could inspire. I just thought that was a nice little title. And it turns out she just meant that I smelt like the deodorant! I didn't even know that deodorant existed, until after the song was written."

Dave Grohl: "My father said this to me: I know why you guys have sold so many records - the video shows a bunch of kids trashing a gymnasium.' You know. And I mean, that sort of works, like er, 'Nirvana - spokesmen of the lost generation. They're telling you to go out and destroy your local gynmasium.' I don't really... I don't see it that way, I mean, like... I don't want to hold a responsibility of being a spokesman for anything! I can barely hold my own. I guess it's flattering, and I guess it's great that it acts like sort of... gives people a feeling of sort of, like breaking out, and uh, telling anyone and anything just to f*ck [bleeped] off."

['On A Plain', live, from Seattle, 31 October 1991, plays].

Kurt St. Thomas: 'That's 'On A Plain', recorded live. Kurt talks about the artwork on Nevermind.'

['Stay Away', from Nevermind, plays].

Kurt Cobain: "One day, Dave and I were sitting around watching a documentary on babies being born underwater. And er, I thought that was a really neat image, so we thought, 'Let's put that on the album cover', and then when we got back a picture of a baby underwater, we thought... I thought it would look nice for a fishhook with a dollar bill on it. And so, the image was born."

Kurt Cobain: [Referring to the picture on the back of Nevermind] it's just a rubber monkey, that l've had for years. And I took that picture. It was in a Bohemian photography stage, you know, taking a bunch of weird, arty pictures, and that's one of them. It's a collage that I made many years ago. I... I got these pictures of beef, from a supermarket poster, and cut them out, and made a mountain of beef and then put Dante's people being thrown into hell climbing all over it. And er, that's pretty much it. Yeah, there's also, if you look real close, there's a picture of KISS, in the back, standing on a slab of beef'

['Endless, Nameless', live, from Seattle, 31 October 1991, plays].

Kurt St. Thomas: '13 minutes and 51 seconds after the beginning of track 12, the band put a secret song on the Nevermind CD. This mystery song didn't make the first pressing though. Dave explains...'

Dave Grohl: "When we got our first CD, and popped it in, we listened to it, 'Oh, oh, let's check to see if that track is there', and it wasn't there! The reason for it, I think the original reason was because 'Something In The Way' is sort of like your slower, whatever, song, it's the last song on the record, most likely to be listened to by like someone who would have like a carousel CD player, and so, OK, why not like, screw up their little carousel deal! I was talking to a friend who works in a record store, and he said uh, a person came in with the CD, and said, 'You know, this thing's screwed up. After the last song, there's like, this 10 minutes of dead space, then this total noise song.' He wanted his money back! And the person at that store said, 'Well, I think maybe, it was like a joke of the band's - you know, put it on after,' and he goes, 'Well I don't think it's very funny.' You know, and he wanted his money back. It was just like..."

Kurt St. Thomas: 'In a moment we'll find out what's ahead for Nirvana when Nevermind, lt's An Interview continues.'
TRACK 3
Kurt St. Thomas: 'Welcome back to Nevermind, lt's An Interview. Inspiration comes in many forms and for Nirvana, it came in the form of an obscure Scottish band called the Vaselines.'

['Molly Lips', from the single, plays in the background].

Chris Novoselic: "Kurt and I were totally into the Vaselines. I mean, they were my favourite band. They still are one of my favourite bands."

Kurt Cobain: "Definitely our Number One favourite band."

Chris Novoselic: "We finally got to play with them. They reformed, to play with us when we played Edinburgh, Scotland, in, er, early winter of 1990. So we met Eugene, and kind of kept a rap going with them. Then we heard Captain America, the band. We heard the tape, we were totally blown away."

Kurt Cobain: "Yeah, that's his new band, Captain America. They're really good."

Chris Novoselic: "Eugene's a great songwriter, so, yeah, Captain America's gotta go on tour with us."

['Molly Lips' continues to play to the finish].

Chris Novoselic: "Since our record has done so well, we can open up doors for other bands, from where we come from ['Stain', from the Blew EP, begins playing in the background] like Sonic Youth or Mudhoney, or the Melvins, or L7, or Dinosaur Jr... I can just go on and on and on and on."

Kurt Cobain: I guess the best part would be, being in the position to take other bands, whom you like a lot, on tour with you. lt's definitely a nice thing to be able to do. We took Shonen Knife, a three-piece, all-girl Japanese band on tour with us in England, and they've been a favourite of ours for years, and no one really knows who they are in England, or anywhere in Europe. We've taken the Melvins on tour with us, and in the future, we hope to take Hole, and Jesus Lizard, and a bunch of other bands who we like. ['Stain' finishes] But nothing really exciting happens on tour. People think that the 'rock star life' is so exciting and it's... you know, you play a show, you usually get into the town by the time it's dark, and you soundcheck, and you don't get to see the city, you play the show and then you leave the next morning. You know, you go to the hotel room, and you leave, and do the same thing over and over again. It's kind of boring, in a way, I mean... still, I can't think of anything else I'd rather do, but... it's not as exciting as anyone thinks. But it's getting harder for me to jump out in the audience now, because the crowds are bigger and some of the people... ['School', live, from Seattle, 31 October 1991, begins to play in the background] ... don't realise that... I don't know what they realise actually, because they're putting their hands in my pockets and trying to steal my money and my wallet, and they're hitting me really hard and scratching me, so it's... I don't know, after a while l'm probably not going to be able to do that anymore. And that's too bad, because it's a fun little bonding thing to do with the audience."

['School' continues playing to the finish].

Kurt St. Thomas: That's 'School', from the album "Bleach", recorded live. Nirvana says their next album will be different, perhaps even more like 'Bleach"...'

Chris Novoselic: "Well... [Big Cheese', from "Bleach", plays in the background] ... our next record's going to be different, it's going to be way different'

Dave Grohl: "Well, I wouldn't want to put out two of the same record."

Kurt Cobain: 'We'd like to record every song differently."

Chris Novoselic: 'These are just ideas that we have. You know... I know, I know it's going to be a, a record of extremities."

Dave Grohl: I think we had our shot at doing the er, big studio, high-tech Hollywood thing, whatever. You know I mean, that studio to us was like, pretty like... techno. I don't know, maybe we'll do the next record on 8-track."

Kurt Cobain: "It will be recorded on 8-track."

Dave Grohl: "You can get more low amp frequencies out of an 8-track."

Kurt Cobain: "Go back to the "Bleach " sound..."

Dave Grohl: "Back to that sort of... more along the lines of "Bleach"

Kurt Cobain: "Because I really liked the production of "Bleach", and I... I don't know, I felt kind of weird straying so far away from it'

Dave Grohl: "Ve've got this far, with this record."

Kurt Cobain: "There's definitely going to be some more abrasive songs on our next record."

Dave Grohl: "You know, we're going to do something... just totally test the limits."

Chris Novoselic: "Really raw and abrasive, to very er, pretty and candyish."

Dave Grohl: "All the radio listeners, or the MTV watchers, or whoever, just like... really test them, and shove something totally aggro in their face, and, and see if they can handle that'

[Big Cheese' continues playing to the end].

Kurt Cobain: "Almost anything that's musical, is pop music, as far as l'm concerned. As long as it's good, and it's catchy, it's pop. And you know, a lot of punk rock is pop. ['Been A Son', from the Blew EP, plays in the background] I think the only time that punk rock strayed away from pop... was when hardcore came around, you know, and there was a lot... you know, real dirgey stuff also, like the crossover metal thing. And I really can't consider a lot of that music."

Dave Grohl: "You know, maybe one percent... of the people who are listening to Nevermind, that ever bought Nevermind, maybe not one percent, but I'm just saying that this, uhh, a small minority of people who are listening to our record now, know about punk rock. A lot of people don't know about punk rock. They think about punk rock and they think of that Quincy episode where the guy threw the brick off the building, and..."

Kurt Cobain: 'I guess - I don't know, I just don't agree with old punk rock ethos, of like, you have to starve to be an artist. It's bullsh*t [bleeped]."

['Been A Son' continues playing to the end].

Kurt Cobain: "We don't like to think of ourselves as a political band, because... you know, you tend to become too anal, and it becomes ridiculous if you shove it down people's throats, you know? We just ask people to be aware a littIe bit, and I think the songs kind of reflect that'

Chris Novoselic: "It's just another issue, another topic, like we could talk about racism, we could talk about feminism, nationalism. I don't really subscribe to that way of thought at all"

Kurt Cobain: "There's just so much corruption going on with the Govemment, and the Reagan years have definitely set us back, to where the average teenager feels kind. of lost, and there isn't much hope. They're still, at least, aware of the mistakes that our parent's generation has made. And I just think that it'll take a little bit of time for kids to start doing the duties that they're supposed to do, which is challenge things, like corruption."

Dave Grohl: 'The way American's money is budgeted by our government, it leaves nothing to the education system. Teachers are dealing with the future, you know, teachers are dealing with kids growing up, who are goíng to take care of me or you, someday. Just the education system in general, in a lot of places, is really screwed."

Chris Novoselic: 'You know, it's great to get information like that, so you can er, form your own ideas. I'd be neat if like, you know, the 60's had a like, Abby Hoffman, or er, John Sinclair, you know... Timothy Leary, to an extent. And they were spokespeople, and they were shaking things up, and nowadays, there's not really anybody."

['Territorial Pissings', from Nevermind, plays].

Kurt St. Thomas: "'Territorial Pissings' from the multiplatinum release Nevermind. Since its release, the album has topped the Billboard charts, and the first single 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' has become a top-ten hit. The success of Nevermind has taken a lot of people by surprise - including the band.'

Kurt Cobain: "I'll never get over the shock, and that's kind of good."

Dave Grohl: "It was, uh, sort of a really, whatever... organic thing, there wasn't any massive hype."

Kurt Cobain: "I mean, there is definitely no big million dollar investment, in... in promotion behind this record at all, it's totally organic, and it just happened."

Chris Novoselic: "You know, whatever has happened is... was surely out of our control, and I'm glad it's happened, you know, it's nice to sell that many records, it's nice to turn on people to something different. People telling me, 'Oh, yeah, you guys' record. I think you guys are going to go platinum!' And we're like, 'Oh man, come on, you know, if we get a gold record out of this, that'll be amazing.

Kurt Cobain: "It's not my fault. I never wanted the fame involved. It's... that's a totally different story. I think Paul Stanley once said something like... ['Smells Like Teen Spirit', from Nevermind, plays in the background] ... 'Only thing that money gives you is relief of not having to worry about money.' Only thing I'd really like to do with it, is to invest in some bands that I like. I... I don't want to start my own record label. God, I know I couldn't do that. But l'd like to give some money to some labels who are putting out great music, help in that way. And er, probably going to buy a house. Hopefully we can have a recording studio too, a little 8-track recording studio, so we can make good demos. And that's pretty much the plans... and just get some new shoes."

[The CD closes out with 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'].
©1992 the david geffen company
notes and transcription from: nirvana interviews, edited by sarah lymkiln