Nirvana - Come as You are

Nirvana: Kurt Cobain

I write poems for myself and I write poetry that gets torn apart and becomes songs. I have a lot of respect for words, the power of words.

--Kurt Cobain

Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana!!

To the thousands already inside San Francisco's Warfield Theatre, not to mention the hundreds outside pleading, begging and paying up to ten times the official ticket price of $13.00 from "scalpers" to get the chance to experience Nirvana the band, the concept means rock. Hard rock. And serious fun.

Greater and louder than the sum of its three parts, guitarist/ vocalist Kurt Cobain, bassist Chris Novoselic and drummer David Grohl, this rock'n'roll trinity of noise, melody and anti-apathetic lyricism brought their Sub Pop-based ethic to the big stage, the big label and the big crowd. All in a very big way.

Nirvana is punk. Arising—like Pearl Jam, Queensryche, Alice in Chains, Mother Love Bone, and Mudhoney—from the fecund grounds of the rain-soaked Northwest (Seattle, Washington, to be exact). Nirvana has a sound and sensibility that matches the punk movement of the depressed north of England and lowlands of Scotland. Indeed, "Punk is musical freedom," proclaims guitarist-singer Kurt Cobain. "It's saying, doing and playing what you want. In (dictionary) terms 'nirvana' means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that's close to my definition of punk rock." The following interview was conducted informally with Kurt Cobain, the poet/ singer/ guitarist at a private party set up by the band's friends.

Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box

THE INTERVIEW WITH KURT COBAIN - A PLAY

{After a decade of no Nirvana and a whole lotta strange stories, I decided one night while listening to In Utero to look up Kurt Cobain. It wasn't that hard, he looked exactly the same since I last saw him on TV. So after showing me his collection of tea-bags, we sat down with his guitar, just to see what he thought of Nirvana and what he's been up to all this time...}


Kurt Cobain: No, there's plenty of Nirvana's...I think there still might be some pizza leftover if you want it. {Quickly getting up}


Carson Arnold: Oh, thanks, maybe later. Not sure how long you have to talk, if you've made other plans or something.

Nirvana - Smells Like a Teen Spirit

Nirvana

Nirvana’s initial incarnation consisted of Kurt Cobain on guitar and vocals, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Chad Channing. After a brief stint as a four-piece in 1989 with the addition of second guitaristJason Everman, followed soon after by the replacement of Channing on drums in 1990, the band found the lineup that would form the core of the group when they added former Scream drummer Dave Grohl.

As Nirvana’s frontman, Cobain found himself referred to in the media as the “spokesman of a generation”, with Nirvana the “flagship band” of “Generation X”. Cobain was uncomfortable with the attention, and placed his focus on the band’s music, challenging the band’s audience with their much more abrasive third studio album In Utero, considered to be a conscious attempt to shed their audience. While Nirvana’s mainstream popularity waned in the months following its release, their core audience cherished the band’s dark interior, particularly after their 1993 performance on MTV Unplugged with theMeat Puppets, a band that Cobain had always idolised, performing with them the songs Oh, Me,Plateau and Lake Of Fire. It was later released and topped the charts in 1994.