LIVE NIRVANA INTERVIEW ARCHIVE June 24, 1992 - Paris, FR

Interviewer(s)
Yvan Le Bolloc'h
Interviewee(s)
Krist Novoselic
Dave Grohl
Publisher Title Transcript
Canal+ Top 50 Yes

Interviewer: Nirvana merci de nous recevoir ici au Zénith à Paris je voudrais tout d'abord vous féliciter puisque vous êtes les numéros 1 du Top 50 et ce depuis 3 semaines

Dave Grohl: [gasps] Oh, no! Thank you.

Interviewer: Et bien Nirvana il faut reconnaître une chose c'est que depuis votre avènement on n'a jamais autant parlé de seattle votre ville d'origine alors est ce que vous avez eu en retour une ou plusieurs récompenses de la ville ?

DG: Didn't the Mayor or something say something?

Krist Novoselic: Oh, the Governor, one time…

DG: The Governor.

KN: The Governor of Washington State was doing his State of the State speech and he told the Legislators- in front of the Legislators, you know, he told them, “I'd like to welcome you to the State of Nirvana.”

Interviewer: Est ce que vos concerts vous les senter à chaque fois comme une fête ?

KN: I dunno if [inaudible] to be a party. Well, yeah, if you want to define ‘party’ as having a good time and releasing. I mean, there's people out there… I mean, a Rock 'n' Roll show is a pretty strange phenomenon. I mean, you have all these people crammed together, sweaty, just pushed together, people jumping on each other, squirming around. If you were to walk into a bank or a restaurant in that kind of atmosphere, you'd be like, “Get me outta here!” You know what I mean? And you go to a Rock concert and that's just the way it is and that's what you came for, it's like totally crazy. Maybe we live in- in today's society, there's so much pressure on people, then they come to the show and they freak out, it's just totally wild and they feel better when they leave.

Interviewer: Passons maintenant à Smells Like Teen Spirit votre it single N°1 est ce qu'il y a une recette là encore pour obtenir un tel succès ?

KN: The song's about, um, kids being lazy and apathetic, you know, just watching TV and not caring. And all this stuff's going on in the world and it's not a very pretty place. It can be beautiful, it could be the Garden of Eden if we all tried hard enough, but people - especially the young generation who are supposed to be really emotional about society because they're going to inherit what's happening - they just don't care, they're just wrapped up in this materialism, acquiring all these material goods, and it's just so phoney, you know? It's just wrong. If you put value on being virtuous or being a really benevolent person higher than some status symbol like a car or a stereo or something, I mean, this world would be really something.

Interviewer: Et qu'est ce que c'est ce morceau fantôme qu'on entend 14 minutes après la fin de Nevermind ?

KN: Oh, that song? That was, uh… what are you talkin' about?

DG: [laughs]

KN: It's the Devil!

DG: Huh?

KN: Play it backwards and you hear, you know, “Turn me on, dead man.”

DG: Right.

KN: I've heard stories, like, “Yeah, you know, I was listening to your CD and I was doing my dishes and I forgot”, or like, “I was sleeping on my couch and all of sudden, [heavy intro music] “What the heck is that?!””

DG: It's kinda funny.

KN: Yeah.

Interviewer: Dans la vidéo come as you are que l'on verra à la fin de notre entretien vous avez rajoutez le fameux bébé que l'on voit sur votre pochette ça vous es venu comment cette idée de bébé là ?

DG: Uh, we were- as we were recording the record, we- Kurt and I were watching a special on women giving birth to children underwater and then they had a special showing these women teaching infants to swim. It was just hilariously funny, seeing these little babies waddling through, and so we thought maybe we'd use that for a video. And then when it came time to decide what to use for the cover, we had no idea, and that was the only image. And then you said, “Put a fish hook in front of it.”

KN: Did I? I don't remember.

DG: I think, some… I don't know! Whatever. It just came together. And then someone said, “Why don't you put a dollar on a fish hook? Ha ha ha.”

KN: Yeah, the fish hook was like a joke.

© Canal+, 1992