Cobain was a pain

August 24, 2011

Nirvana producer Butch Vig reveals he didn’t know how to deal with Kurt’s “light switch” mood swings during Nevermind sessions

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Memories: Grohl, Cobain and Novoselic in Nirvana

Nirvana producer Butch Vig says he didn’t know how to deal with Kurt Cobain’s mood swings while he and the band were recording their iconic Nevermind album.
The twentieth anniversary of the landmark release has reminded Vig about the difficult times he endured in April 1990, when he recorded demos with Nirvana, and the following year when they tracked the record.
It propelled the band into superstardom – but also laid the foundations of their demise with Cobain’s suicide in 1994.
Vig tells Rolling Stone: “They rolled up in a van for that first session. They’re driven 1900 miles non-stop and they probably hadn’t taken a bath or a shower in three or four days.
“Kurt was charming and witty, but he would go through these mood swings. He’d be totally engaged – then all of a sudden a light switch would go off and he’d go sit in the corner and completely disappear into himself.
“I didn’t really know how to deal with that.”
Vig enjoyed the Nevermind sessions more, but things became more difficult when it came to mixing the record.
“They’d stay up all night and take drugs and go to the beach in Santa Monica, then wander into the studio at three or four in the afternoon,” says the producer.
“They were really enjoying a moment of freedom, and in the back of their minds they knew they were making a great album. Those were fun times – before any of the craziness happened.
“But with the mixing, I’d be balancing the drums and the guitars, then Kurt would come in and say, ‘Turn all the treble off. I want it to sound more like Black Sabbath’. It was kind of a pain in the ass.”
Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic reunited with drummer Dave Grohl and Vig when he recorded some guest parts on the Foo Fighters’ latest album, Wasting Light.
He says: “Kurt was so compelled to write songs, so he’d always be banging something out. He’d have these ideas and we’d just kick them around for hours.
“We were really focused on the album – no shenanigans or messing about.”
Nevermind was released in September 1991, and Novoselic says the band were “burned out” by the time the played a homecoming gig in Seattle that Halloween.
“That was like the end of the innocent days,” he recalls. “Then everything just got so huge and it was hard to make the adjustment. I’m still trying to reconcile with all that.
“It can be emotional. It’s loaded with a lot of things. But if you just think about the music, that’s what kept Nirvana together.
“We liked to play together and we played together well. That was the core of it, and that’s what endures.”
An anniversary version of the album will be released next month, featuring unheard demo recordings and Vig’s original mix.