LIVE NIRVANA INTERVIEW ARCHIVE January 24, 1992 - Sydney, AU
Personnel
- Interviewer(s)
- Jen Oldershaw
- Interviewee(s)
- Kurt Cobain
- Krist Novoselic
- Dave Grohl
Sources
| Publisher | Title | Transcript |
|---|---|---|
| JJJ Radio | The Jen Oldershaw Show | Yes |
Transcript
Jen: You're on Triple J, right around the country. And just before that track - we'll get to that in a moment - we heard from Pearl Jam and the track from the LP Ten, Alive. And just then, Turnaround…
Krist: It was The Rolling Stones! That was The Rolling Stones…
Jen: It was too! Oh, thank you, guys. It was The Rolling Stones and Sad Sad Sad.
Kurt: It's very hard to confuse…
Jen: [laughs] I didn't write it down, that's the problem. In the studio, telling me what I've played for the last 5 minutes, is Nirvana. And the track just then that we heard was Turnaround from the brand new tour souvenir EP, Hormoaning. Welcome guys, thank you for coming in!
Krist: You're welcome.
Jen: How are you all doing?
Krist: Fine, thank you.
Jen: That's good.
Kurt: Very good.
Jen: Well, welcome to Australia for the first time and congrats on how the LP has gone - has it surprised you? Are you blown away?
Krist: No. [laughs]
Kurt: Yes.
Dave: Yeah, no, no-one expected it to be…
Jen: 2 "Nos" and 1…
Krist: It better have gone Gold, or heads would have rolled!
Jen: Well, it's also kicking-in for you in a big way overseas - was there much pressure on you to stay back home and consolidate that?
Krist: No.
Jen: No?
Krist: No.
Kurt: The answer is "No."
Jen: [laughs] Fine, OK. We might go to another track, we seem to be having technical problems with this one. So if you guys could just hang in there, we'll hear another track from Hormoaning.
Krist: [inaudible] hang on…
Jen: Another track there from the Hormoaning tour EP, a track called Aneurysm. What's the story behind the EP? Where was that recorded?
Krist: Oh, it was recorded here and there… parts of it were recorded in…
Kurt: That last song was recorded in Seattle.
Jen: Uh huh.
Dave: And then some of the other ones are taken from a Peel session we did about a year ago.
Jen: And is it likely to be released as a Peel session?
Dave: Uhhh, I don't know, I don't think we've really discussed that…
Kurt: We don't know anything about it.
Jen: Oh, you'd think they'd be quite interested in doing that. Kurt, you sound in quite fine voice on that one, but we've heard some stories about you having some voice problems over the last couple of months - how's the voice holding up now?
Kurt: [in a low, croaky voice] Well… well, let me tell ya… I gargle glass and eat kerosene…
Krist: [laughs]
Kurt: [in a low, croaky voice] I smoke Camel filters.
Jen: How is the voice, Kurt?
Kurt: It's fine now. I've had a month rest and I've been babying it and gargling milk of magnesia. It's fine.
Krist: You did that Luciano Pavarotti apprenticeship in Rome last week…
Kurt: Yeah, I had a lot of cheese.
Krist: What are all those rumors about sex and…
Kurt: What? Me and Luciano? "Let's have a party!"
Krist: [laughs]
Jen: I'm sure we'll hear about that in Melody Maker one of these coming days!
All: [laughs]
Jen: You toured pretty extensively over the end of last year, how did that get to you? Do you get really tired towards the end? I know your voice sort of suffered from it…
Krist: People were saying that we were uptight and pissed off and cranky…
Kurt: To heck with them!
Krist: To heck with them! Phooey!
Jen: I can't imagine you boys getting uptight or cranky!
Krist: What do you mean by that?!?!
Jen: I said I can't imagine it at all!
All: [laughs]
Kurt: Oh, crikey! Yikes!
Jen: What did you do over your month break?
Kurt: What?
Jen: What did you do over your month break?
Kurt: I slept… the whole time.
Dave: I ate.
Jen: Krist, what did you do? Apart from….
Krist: I learnt to do armpit jokes.
Jen: Oh. That's good…
Krist: I perfected my magician act… magic act…
Kurt: You're supposed to be a musician, not a magician.
Krist: Right! I'm a championship diver and a professional photographer…
Kurt: [laughs]
Krist: And in my spare time, I do horseback riding and cake decorating.
All: [laughs]
Jen: And you like making fun of people, I'm sure.
Krist: I do.
Jen: Now, your LP has done amazing things…
Krist: I make funny faces at them, stick my tongue out at them…
Kurt: It gets on my nerves.
Jen: [laughs] Now, the LP has done exceedingly well for you. Did you ever sit back when you were recording it and think, "My god, we're onto something pretty amazing here!" Or is it that the thing has totally surprised you?
Krist: I sat back and thought, "When am I gonna get out of here?!"
All: [laughs]
Krist: "I'm hungry!"
Jen: You didn't think that? When you were in the process of making it?
Krist: Well, back to taunting people… I think that's a very intense part of human beings… when they're on the edge and you're bugging the hell out of them!
Jen: Just waiting for them to bite, huh?
Krist: I'm doing a study on human reactions to petty distractions.
Kurt: [laughs]
Krist: Like giving someone a flat tire… or flicking their ear…
Kurt: [laughs]
Krist: It's very interesting.
Kurt: Or putting your finger, your index finger, to their chest and saying, "What's that?" and then flicking them…
Dave: Yeah, yeah…
Krist: Or you can walk up to somebody and say, "Hey, who won the race?" And they go, "I don't know, who?" And you go, "Charley horse!" And you knee them right in the… thigh…
Kurt: And then there's prank phone-calls.
Krist: Oh, yeah!
Dave: That's another story!
Jen: And destroying furniture, destroying hotel rooms and equipment?
Kurt: It's all a bunch of… oh, uhhhh… you can't cuss, can you?
Krist: You can't cuss, yeah…
Jen: I think we get the jist, "rubbish," "not true."
Kurt: Not true. Not Everett true.
Jen: [laughs]
Krist: Yeah. It's not true, it's Everett True.
Jen: Now, Kurt, you talk a lot about… other bands, like Mudhoney and Sonic Youth, can you see yourself and bands like Sonic Youth opening up the field for other bands who are perhaps just starting out?
Kurt: Oh, absolutely. 100%.
Jen: What other bands have you seen… that you would like to have advantages our of your success?
Kurt: Well, a lot of bands have gone on tour with us, like Shonen Knife and Captain America… The Melvins, The Jesus Lizard, Urge Overkill… those bands, I'd love to see them become the Top Hot 100…
Jen: And do you think the climate is right for that kind of stuff to happen?
Kurt: Very much. Major labels are signing every underground band there is.
Jen: And why…
Dave: If Flipper is getting signed, you know something's happening…
Kurt: The Melvins and Hole are all getting signed to major labels… Mudhoney, Urge Overkill…
Krist: There's bands that have practiced in their garage a couple of times…
Kurt: Yeah…
Krist: "Let's go to a major"
Jen: Is there any danger that that's a thing majors are into doing at the moment, but they're not really thinking about the long-term, like 5 years down the track, and supporting these bands?
Kurt: Well… most independent bands don't last more than 5 years anyhow, so who cares? You may as well get some money out of it, instead of being ripped off by SST for 5 years…
Dave: Exactly, yeah. Y'know, who wants to end up like The Rolling Stones 40th anniversary thing anyway?
Kurt: [laughs]
Dave: You don't wanna make it seem like a career.
Krist: And the good stuff will just rise to the top.
Kurt: Float.
Krist: Like a turd. [laughs]
Jen: Well, if you're talking about independent bands, I think a lot of people will have thought that you started out as an independent band… can you see yourselves combusting in a couple of years? Saying that you're not going to last that long?
Dave: Who cares.
Kurt: Well, these things happen. That could happen. As soon as you start writing bad songs… you've gotta be prepared for it.
Krist: There's no security in this career, see.
Kurt: It's just not fair. [laughs]
Jen: What about Nirvana in the near future, are you going to be going into the studio soon?
Kurt: Not soon, no.
Krist: This Fall.
Jen: For a new album?
Dave: A new CD.
Krist: A photo album.
Kurt: We're gonna record with Steve Albini, aren't we guys? Aren't we?
Krist: Aren't we, John Silva?
Jen: And have you got any new songs that you might be showing us on this tour?
Krist: Maybe.
Kurt: Ummm, yeah, Aneurysm.
Krist: There's even newer songs that we've been playing. You'll probably hear them on some bootleg somewhere.
Kurt: Well, we don't play brand new songs, songs that aren't even written yet, all the way anymore…
Dave: There's a few, like Uhhh…
Kurt: Why don't we make up a bunch of songs, a 20-minute psychedelic jam…
Jen: Well, I might leave you guys to work that one out yourselves. I hope the tour goes well for you…
Krist: We appreciate your advice.
Jen: I'll give that to you guys off-air. Krist, Kurt and Dave…
Krist: Yeah, cool, "Take a hike, jerks!"
All: [laughs]
Kurt: We get it.
Jen: Another track from the Hormoaning EP, this is Son Of A Gun, see you later…
© Jen Oldershaw/JJJ Radio, 1992