rdn32

Yes, it’s a Nirvana interview

Nirvana don’t exist any more and neither does Kurt! Am I sounding blunt? Well, I quite like Nirvana, erm, sometimes, and they make an interesting (nay, humorous) debating point. We thought we might take advantage of Kurt’s death like most other people seem to be (I love those t-shirts ‘Dead. Nevermind.’!) and print an unused interview Robin did in 1989 at Nottingham Poly to sell some fanzines. It’s quite interesting in retrospect that Nirvana really didn’t expect ‘Nevermind’ to be the way it was. So here’s the transcript.

Robin: You know The Melvins were meant to be on this tour…

Kurt: (mumbling and drugged) Well, we wanted them to be on the tour but it was set up without … us knowing about it, by the agency. Should I be saying that shit?

Dave: Yeah, you can say that.

Chris: Say whatever comes to your mind Kurt, don’t be intimidated by some tall dutchmen.

(laughter)

K: So we were going to come over, we were planning on touring Europe with The Melvins, but all of a sudden we were just sent to do this small little ass-retentive tour.

R: So you gonna be coming back then?

K: Yeah we’re going to be coming back and we’re going to be coming back with The Melvins.

R: Is that split EP with The Melvins going to happen?

K: Never heard about that … We’re going to do a split EP with every band in existence… We’re gonna do a split EP with bands that don’t even exist.

R: Have you recorded the new album yet? [Nevermind]

K: No, not yet. We’re gonna get all these EPs out first… We have a whole albums worth of material.

R: What’s the new material like?

K: It’s like… like… exactly how Chris will explain.

C: It’s dynamic!

D: We’re going back to our roots.

K: We’re being punk rockers and things.

C: It’s going to be along the lines of Bleach but no spooky scary songs.

K: But it’s not going to be a drastic change. We don’t want to alienate anyone. And if it does alienate anyone then they’re just the exact bastards we don’t want in our audience.

R: Will it be more along the lines of ‘About a Girl’ and stuff like that?

K: Well, some songs are gonna be and some songs are gonna be along the lines of ‘Negative Creep’.

R: What stuff do you listen to these days?

K: Well, The Vaselines are my favourite band and we had the pleasure of playing with them, a lot of old stuff, … Sonic Youth.

(mumbling about trees, someone starts singing)

R: Erm… I was wondering about Jason Everman.

K: Don’t ask… That was a bad mistake… he never played on our record.

C: That never happened.

R: ‘Cos like he left you and then joined Soundgarden.

K: We kicked him out.

D: Right by the butt cheek.

K: He’s like Mr. Businessman, industry man, know what I mean. So we thought ‘well, fine, y’know, he just thinks we’re not serious, that you can screw us around.’

C: No, we didn’t take on a professional attitude…

K: … and, er, so he joined Soundgarden. Well that’s the band for him.

C: Those guys are on a major label, they’ve got a big bus…

K: He didn’t make one musical contribution to the band, not one.

(I’ve skipped some stuff here)

R: What are L7 like (they were supporting)

C: They’re just rock and roll. More tunes.

R: What’s the tour like?

C: It’s great. L7 are easy to get along with. It’s enjoyable, a wonderful experience, it’s just undescribable, like an LSD trip, or an orgasm, or uh stepping on a nail. You just can’t describe that. Something that needs to be experienced. You owe it to yourself.

(keeps going on and on, meaningless, and no one listens. “… a sunny day… ” etc, etc)

R: What’s the first music you got into?

C: Well I used to listen to K Tel records and AM Radio and then I got a copy of The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ and then I got a copy of Led Zeppelin ‘Three’ and then I got into Elton John and then I discovered Led Zeppelin ‘Two’ but I was too young to appreciate it. Then I listened to rock and roll and then Butthole Surfers and stuff.

D: Generic Flipper is just so noisy and so loose it’s just totally beautiful. It’s the Mona Lisa. When I was in 3rd grade…

(no one is listening and somehow talk gets back to the new album)

K: The album is gonna be raw, y’know. It’s not going to be slick or anything. [OH YEAH?]

C: It’s not gonna sound totally raw but…

K: It’s just gonna sound… I don’t know what the hell it’s gonna sound like. It’s gonna sound…

D: … recorded?

C: … kind of played by ear, y’know.

K: We’re gonna get the production we want.

C: It’s gonna sound like our live sound cos we are definitely a live band.

(Hmm… conversation is about Bad Brains and weird sandwiches and stuff so stoopid….. “Have you got my toothbrush?” )