Nirvana's Krist Novoselic Talks Kurt Cobain

Kurt was like he was counterculture but then he also really wanted to be really famous like he was like a windmill and he would just say one thing and then he would like change his mind on it and then I would like even point it out and say do you know what he just said he he'd laugh because he knew I'd he knew he was busted like you just contradicted yourself right but you hear it in the lyrics too like he could just kind of go and I don't know you know they made the documentary on him that was good the documentary was a good insight into like where he which one where his mind the um Montage of hack I remember Montage of heck the tape he made my brother remembers it too we could quote from that we listened to that so many I mean the little the little samples he was this avant-garde artist and he used to make these collages collages of like seconds it was craziness he was a great painter a great musician a sculptor like I have this pipe that he made out of clay and it's this like withering Spirit tortured Spirit person of course it's all this weird and dark and twisted and just like wow and then all of a sudden you're like on the cover like all these magazines it's like you guys it's like you guys got shot out of a cannon we got shot out of a cannon and like we're like on a wall I had a wall or something it's like what is this world we're in and then he had his own thing he had to deal with that drug takes in and that's that's what tore him down he just couldn't it was too powerful just should have never happened Kim then you guys have this massive record [Music] super unknown record that came out and it's Melancholy this is a Melancholy Melancholy a little bit psychedelic definitely in this business [Music] Leslie what part are you playing on here what's that what part are you playing on here what part yes we're trying to figure out I've been asked that a lot recently and you scream I think it's really weird I remember learning the arpeggio Parts but I remember not feeling comfortable playing it because it was atypical the way I played I remember I think I remember tracking it but I think I remember saying to Chris what did you just do this it show and I'll come in on the I'll come in with the heavy guitar that's me there and I also had a resistance to it it seemed it sounded like a bunch of fairies dancing you know on something it I remember hearing that I'm thinking I think that's too delicate it's like it's the right hand of the piano it's like you know it was it was too tinkly and I was like and Chris played on played it hard on this demo so I'm learning it and I'm like I do I love arpeggios all our early stuff is writing arpeggios and these are like little arpeggio triplets and I'm like I can't do it like this the Leslie and really clean sound it was too just too delicate you know I'm gonna break this I can't do this and all right to this day I can't remember uh according to Adam Casper I'm on that I'm on the intro of the tracking um but I think Chris I think I said why don't you play this and I'll play the the distorted guitar and come in on the uh on the verses so I can hear me on the uh on the uh on the courses and the bridges and stuff because I changed a few things that Chris had written um uh I I moved some of the chords around to make them sound a little bit more Sunset like and you play this insane solo on there and then the weird solo and and and part of yeah and then there's the second solo but it's not really a solo it's me sort of accenting the the vocals um so I know this for a fact though that slide at the beginning that's Chris neither of us knew how to play slide and and uh I was able I was I was able to mute the strings other than the ones that I'm sliding on I could just I can mute them with my right hand uh Chris couldn't do either so he took all the strings off except for the one string so it's just it's in one string and this one e because uh that's when the difficulties of playing slide is to make sure that you're not sounding the whole damn thing um I was able to do that by right hand and not the left and and so I know that I remember that I remember watching him would just take one string of the guitar and just play that when he wrote that song did he come in and play the demo for you guys yes and it was it was it's almost exact same response for for that we had with this multi-teen Spirit we played that and Matt just Matt heard it and he said oh yeah that that's that's a hit and it was obvious to everyone that this this thing that's it was obvious to me and still there's that resistance it's like loud guitars you know Distortion craziness you know and you hear that oh yeah hero came in but we're rehearsing probably in a vast and the hero heard a demo that uh that we were doing to that and he started laughing I said Echoes of bed pointing at the cassette and saying that about Smells Like Teen Spirit and was hero saying that's your hit that's your hit the hero who's also very you know alternative and cynical and and smart guy and now he's laughing and looking at us that's it that's your hit and and Ben started laughing goes oh my God I can't believe we're doing something this candy but but he's like you know it's like he knew that that this is great this is a great song But same thing that laughing like we're doing this this is an interesting song because of all the changes that it has yeah more than the typical indie rock song oh my God this is so sophisticated the arrangement is very sophisticated the arrangement but the chord progression is so sophisticated it keeps changing Keys now this is a thing that the two bands share and I always am preaching this about your bands is how sophisticated your music was even though you have this punk rock ethosis these these influences indie rock things like that these songs like lithium for example or drain you they have all these chord changes really sophisticated melodies the melody just Smells Like Teen Spirit is very sophisticated the notes that Kurt goes to over the chord progressions this song so many of your songs have very sophisticated rhythms they have sophisticated chord changes all the weird tunings but this song is just it's crazy it's all over the place and yet it's so melodic and that's the thing that both bands share is this these these sophisticated songs you don't even realize how complex they are unless you actually sit down and analyze it's not gratuitous Prague though no in service to the soil always in service that's that's what that verse arpeggio part I still can't believe it that he wrote that on guitar it sounds like something someone will write on piano right and and that's the things that most of us we'd write on guitar except for hero run on bass um so it was always a guitar riff there's a occasionally Chris would have a melody in his head or he'd Envision you know you know much of a song usually when driving driving around humming something I think and I'm not sure I don't remember our conversations about this because there's so many different conversations we'd have about about songs and and our memories change you know it's like what is it that you emphasize in your memory about writing a song or learning a song but that doesn't sound like something that would have been initiated on guitar like many of our riffs are but with Chris he'd often initiate things from vocal Melody and then he'd figure out what the chords were to go around it which is yeah which is a lot tougher to do yeah but um he was able to do that because he knew where the melody was and hear that and then he and you'd pick up the guitar and figure out if it if the guitar was changing the melody he had in his head then then he knew that wasn't working so now did he realize what did he think about that song well he didn't comment on it he you know he he would do writing I mean he'd play you a demo would he say hey check out this song would he no because he didn't want to influence you know our opinions and he wouldn't let our opinions you know wouldn't let it get him down like if we didn't like something he's like okay because he's becoming much more prolific so if you only had one or two songs and we're like well we're not really into that we don't really feel like playing it it might bum him out but if he's he kind of learned this from Andy Wood um who was a roommate of his for a while Andy the singer from other Love Boat yeah and Andy told him Chris was wondering how Andy would just put out so much material he was constantly writing and and recording songs and a lot of them were terrible but Andy didn't care it's like just write up this document I'm just sketch this demo and he explained that to Chris it's like it's okay the band is gonna like everything you know and and and I'm not gonna like everything but I just he would write it he'd record it and Chris picked that up from him it was probably the smartest things Chris did he became super prolific you know that's that's when he did you know Andy passed away and he and he started writing out his ass and then you know Temple the dog and and and uh and then things like rusty cage and so he wouldn't let that get him down anymore he kind of learned that from from Andy's like they like it cool they like it if they don't like it cool there's other songs it's fine he trusted our judgment for the most part and and wouldn't let it inhibit him he would just keep keep writing it's like they don't want to do it we won't do it it's fine it's not our thing okay so what would Kurt think about what did Kurt think about Smells Like Teen Spirit oh don't ask him he'd be like oh that I don't know I can't talk for Kurt I mean he he's made statements about that or there the way the record was Mixed or whatever that I I don't agree with I think the record sounds great record sounds amazing we came in we recorded we were gonna mix with Butch and then Butch wanted to take a few days off to rest his ears but then the recording went over a few days and so he had to start mixing right away and so we went into this mixing studio and then the Gary Gersh who signed us to get in he he really didn't think that they he didn't really like the mixes and you can hear the Butch's mixes like on the yeah box set that's right for with the lights out you know if anybody want is interested and so then Gary recommended that we try another mixer and it was Andy Wallace so like wow who's Andy Wallace like will he mix Slayer I was actually more asking about what he thought of it as a song and what he thought of these things as songs just like I asked about Chris Smells Like Teen Spirit yeah you know we were into that Dynamic just loud you know you come in all right let's just kind of come in with a base you know in the drums and just kind of build it up and then build it up and then you know throw it boom find the lights out you know what I mean it's just like that's we it seemed to work and we like that you know and we heard other like Pixies would do that and Surfer Rosa that they'd have that kind of thing and you know we almost liked it and it was kind of pavlovian with the live audiences in those days too you know when you'd hit that chorus everybody would just crowd yeah it just the dog would salivate they were just crowds would go nuts you know well there's a video of the first time we played that song at the okay hotel and it was just a mad house and they'd never heard the song before yeah they never heard the song before people are just like flipping out so there's something about that Dynamic you know you got Dave got that kick drum going and Kurt so intense you know and just kind of Bang Bang it just kind of all came together you know I try to keep the base steady just keep it steady try to be Dependable you know kind of

Channel: Rick Beato 2

Views: 754,852

Keywords: krist novoselic, dave grohl, kurt cobain, smells like teen spirit, krist novoselic interview, kurt cobain songs, Nirvana, songwriting

Id: 64E4br5iWcE

Length: 13min 11sec (791 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 01 2023