LIVE NIRVANA INTERVIEW ARCHIVE October 4, 1991 - Chapel Hill, NC, US
Personnel
- Interviewer(s)
- Matthew Rudzinski
- Louisa Spaventa
- Interviewee(s)
- Kurt Cobain
Sources
| Publisher | Title | Transcript |
|---|---|---|
| The Guilfordian | The Kountess Reaches Nirvana | Yes |
| The Record Exchange Music Monitor | Which Seattle Sound?: Nirvana | TBC |
Transcript
The amazing Kountess traveled to Chapel Hill's Cat's Cradle (on the wings of WQFS) Friday, Oct. 4 to interrogate Nirvana, a truly divine Washington band whose current album, Nevermind, is tickling the masses. What follows is the strange ritual of interview between the Kountess (assisted by well known Metal Man, Matt Rudinski) and Kurt Cobain (lead singer and axe man of Nirvana.)
Q: What music have you been into lately?
Kurt: I don't listen to grunge music like most people would think. My favorite stuff right now is Daniel Johnson, Half Japanese, The Breeders, The Pixies. The Vaselines are my #1 all-time favorite band. They're beautiful.
Q: What's your following like in other countries?
Kurt: We're a lot bigger in Europe, especially England. We just played the Reading Festival and that was a big thrill. 30 thousand people. They weren't all there to see us, but it's nice to have that exposure. I don't know, on the average of about 1,000 people a show.
Q: The song Polly on the new album, would you like to explain it?
Kurt. Some people have been offended by it. They take it the wrong way. It started out as an anti-rape song, but I thought I'd add a twist to it, make it to where the characters were both people who were into S&M. So, the jerk who captures this woman, Polly, rapes her and keeps her in his house for a long time and they eventually develop a love relationship. They fall in love with each other. Then she kills him and leaves. I could understand how some people would think that it almost condones rape or glamorizes it in a way. [I] really didn't intend to do that.
Q: What's your favorite cartoon character?
Kurt: Speed Racer, definitely.
Q: Where did [the album cover] picture come from?
Kurt: Dave and I were sitting around watching a documentary on birth underwater and thought that was a really neat image. So we asked people at Geffen in the art department to take pictures of babies in the municipal pool. And I thought of the idea of the hook and the dollar bill.
Q: People have said to me they think the Seattle scene has sold out…
Kurt: I don't know what sold out means any more. Personally, I consider [Soundgarden and other bands on Sub Pop] the Seattle sound or the Seattle scene. But Mother Love Bone and Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains they don't #%*#ing count. They're crap, and I'm not afraid to say that, because they offend me.
Q: What do you think of cosmetic surgery?
Kurt: Cosmetic surgery? Well, I know this person who had a nose job, and they really screwed up. She's got this big hole in the middle of her nose. I think it'd be nice if people had penises implanted on their nose and fish gills cut into the side of their cheeks, stuff like that… their eyelids removed. A friend of mine wants to have freon tubes inside of his body so he stays a cold temperature all the time.
Q: If you could be one piece of fruit, what piece of fruit would it be and why?
Kurt: I'd be a tomato. Because everyone thinks they're vegetables, and they're actually considered fruits. The Pilgrims thought of the tomato as the Devil's fruit. They considered it poisonous. So do I--there's something really weird about tomatoes. I can't stand them. I'm scared of them.
(Call WQFS at 294-3820 for Nirvana requests. We're back on the air!)
© Matthew Rudzinski & Louisa Spaventa, 1991
Transcript
TBC
© Matthew Rudzinski & Louisa Spaventa, 1991