With the 30th anniversary of Nirvana‘s breakthrough album Nevermind coming up on September 24th, bassist Krist Novoselic looked back at the legendary album’s sessions.
Novoselic recalled to Mojo that Nirvana came in the wake of a massive hair metal era, which proved to be the exact opposite of what he, Kurt Cobain, and Dave Grohl were offering up: “The dominant bands were Aerosmith reinvented. These soft bands with this macho swagger. Then we were this hard band with feminine sensibilities.”
He went on to explain how Nirvana adjusted to life in L.A. while recording Nevermind: “We had this work ethic we learnt from the Melvins. After hours, however, was a different matter. We would have these wild nights in our apartment or we’d hang out on the beach at night. We’d been in the studio with no windows all day so we wanted to get out.”
Novoselic said of the phenomenon that’s grown around Nevermind: “It’s a heavy rock n’ roll record, that’s all it really is. Something happened where it was bigger than life and captured the imaginations of people, but if you look at the genesis of it, it’s amazing. . . It was a very happy time before Nevermind. I feel like we were free. . . You parachute out, and land, and pick up the pieces. But that’s me. In the end, what you find in that record is up to you.”
FAST FACTS
- Nevermind was released on September 24th, 1991.
- The album was Nirvana‘s second album and major label debut. It marked the recording debut with the band of drummer Dave Grohl.
- Almost four months after its release, Nevermind hit Number One on the Billboard album chart, turning the “grunge” genre into a phenomenon.
- Just 46,000 copies of Nevermind were shipped to record stores when it came out. The record debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart at Number 144 and hit Number One on January 11th, 1992.
- Nevermind was eventually certified Diamond in the U.S. for sales of more than 10 million copies. It has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
CHECK IT OUT: Nirvana on August 30th, 1992 performing “In Bloom” live at England’s Reading Festival: