LIVE NIRVANA INTERVIEW ARCHIVE October 29, 1992 - Buenos Aires, AR

Interviewer(s)
Bobby Flores
Norberto "Ruso" Verea
Interviewee(s)
Krist Novoselic
Dave Grohl
Publisher Title Transcript
FM Rock & Pop TBC Yes

Dave Grohl: Oh, hi, I'm David Grohl.

Krist Novoselic: Yo soy Krist Novoselic.

Interviewer: You just came here, are you going back home after the show tomorrow?

DG: Yeah, we have to leave on…

KN: Sunday. We wanna go back for the election on Tuesday.

DG: We have to vote on Tuesday.

Interviewer: Can you say who you're going to vote for?

KN: Yeah, Bill Clinton!

DG: Bill Clinton.

Interviewer: Do you think he's gonna win?

KN: Yeah, he’s gonna win.

DG: He’s up in the polls, but you never know.

KN: You never know, yeah.

DG: It’s a crazy election…

Interviewer: Do you think, though… is he the best? Are the others the worst?

KN: Yeah, he’s the lesser of 3 evils.

DG: He’s got a good running mate as well, so…

Interviewer: Did you know that Clinton's wife is behind all that labelling of records?

KN: No, that’s Albert Gore’s wife. Yeah, but that’s so minute compared to the big picture… If you wanna vote for the ex-Head of the CIA, I mean, that’s fine. [laughs] I think that’s a bigger skeleton in somebody’s closet.

Interviewer: Are you aware of how big you are here?

KN: Not really! [laughs]

DG: Not really. We're not really aware of anything. We don't know what to expect. We didn’t know how big of a venue we were gonna play, if it was part of a festival…

Interviewer: Has it happened before? I mean, not knowing what to expect?

KN: Well… We just never expect anything! [laughs] We just show up…

DG: We show up and play and try not to think about it! [laughs] There’s more important things to think about…

Interviewer: How did you manage the step, from being an underground group to selling loads of records?

KN: There's no explanation for that, really, it just kind of happened. We signed to a major label, so they have a lot more resources to print-up a lot more records.

Interviewer: How do you handle the pressure? Like, what's next? You know, you have a record that's been hit all around the world and…

DG: We’re not really thinking about that. I mean, we just wanna go in and record the songs that we’ve written since Nevermind. There’s really not that much pressure. I mean, I suppose there's a lot of expectation, but we don’t feel any pressure. I'm happy with what we're doing and I think that’s what counts.

Interviewer: There was a rumour about one of you being sick…

KN: Sick in the head… yeah!

DG: Sick of this shit! [laughs]

Interviewer: So, there’s nothing true about that…?

KN: Oh, I had the sniffles last week. [sniffs]

DG: I had a headache a couple of days ago.

KN: I wrecked my motorcycle, went into a curve doing about 55 miles and hour - how many kilometers is that an hour? About 70 or 80 kilometers, I went into this corner - boom, went off the road and walked away from it…

DG: Krist is the toughest man alive!

KN: Toughest man alive!

Interviewer: What do you think of other bands that have come behind you in your movement, if you can call it a movement, what you’ve started. Do you think that they’re copying you, or…?

KN: No. I mean, rock ‘n’ roll is really basic, 4-chord stuff, you know? Everybody kinda copies everybody else, you know?

Interviewer: He wants to know something about the background of the band - where did you meet? Were you friends before?

KN: Yeah, Kurt and I met about 7 years ago in Aberdeen, Washington… and kinda had the same perspective on a lot of things, so we decided to start a band, ‘cause we didn’t have anything else to do… and we played around town, played parties… Aberdeen is a small town, it’s on the Pacific Ocean. Our first show was in Olympia, then we went to Tacoma, which is a bigger town, and then we went about 170km to Seattle, played our first show in Seattle… We just kinda built up a following and made a record… Now, if you looked at the Nirvana growth chart, you would see a steady climb in percentage points. Then, last year, whoosh!

Interviewer: What bands do you listen to, I mean, contemporary bands?

KN: Oh, a lot of bands, really - Mudhoney, Sonic Youth…

DG: The Melvins, Kyuss, Wool, Daisy Chainsaw…

KN: Kurt really likes PJ Harvey.

DG: Yeah, she’s great. Have you heard that record?

KN: I heard it once, briefly.

DG: It’s really good. The Breeders, I love the Pixies a lot, Teenage Fanclub, a lot of really great bands...

Interviewer: Teenage Fanclub, L7?

DG: What’s that?

Interviewer: L7 - do you know L7?

DG: Yeah! L7’s great! I hope they come down here, ‘cause they’re a really great live band.

Interviewer: Do you think that - you mentioned Calamity Jane and we mentioned L7 - do you think women need a rock band, like those we mentioned? Compared to, say, Stevie Nicks and other women in rock: blonde, glamorous…

DG: Well, it’s definitely necessary to break stereotypes.

KN: Yeah, you shouldn't listen to it just because they’re women, listen to it because it’s good.

DG: Yeah…

Interviewer: This is for Dave - First, he mentioned that he had read some sort of statements by Kurt that you really added some strength and some power to the group, so he is asking what drummers you like or had an influence on you?

DG: Well, there’s a drummer named Dale Crover who actually…

Interviewer: Dale Crover?

DG: Dale Crover, who was in Nirvana, I guess, kinda… was he in the band?

KN: No, he was temporarily filling in.

DG: He plays on two songs on Bleach, he plays on Floyd The Barber and Paper Cuts. He is probably the most influential drummer of the last decade. Not many people have heard The Melvins and not many people have… really heard the Melvins [laughs] so… It really has to be seen to be appreciated. But, Dale Crover and John Bonham, just really hard-hitters… because it's a waste of a good drumset if you don’t them hard enough.

Interviewer: So he's a member of The Melvins now?

DG: Uh huh.

Interviewer: Do you think that young people care about the message in your lyrics, in the lyrics of your songs, or do you think young people just don’t care.

KN: Well, it depends where you go. I don't know about people in Argentina…

Interviewer: But in the States?

KN: I'm sure people are affected by it, sure, I don't know to what degree though.

Interviewer: He's going to play the Brujos…

KN: Alright!

DG: Oh, great.

Interviewer: He’s thanking you for being here.

DG: Oh, thank you.

KN: Muchas gracias.

Interviewer: He hopes that you come back here… and that you have…

DG: More time? Alright, thanks. Thank you very much.

© Bobby Flores & Norberto Verea, 1992