Krist Novoselic on Nevermind

Do you find it hard to talk about him?
[Long pause] It depends on the context. We were down in L.A., Dave and I, dealing with some Nirvana stuff, and we were sitting around, talking about Kurt. It was fun, going back there. It makes you feel better.

What are the things about him that make you laugh now?
His weird sense of humor, which was kind of grotesque. The comics and drawings he did, because he was a good visual artist. Sometimes he would speak in these high-pitched voices, like a child Satanist. We were always laughing about something, being ridiculous — mostly dumb jokes.

How does Nevermind sound to you now?
It's so strong. There are no weak moments in it. I don't ever skip over a song. Each song has something to say. We were well rehearsed — we went in and just knocked it out. It wasn't self-conscious. It poured out.

You did a lot of preparation for the record: writing, practicing, making demos, first playing some of the songs on tours. You were more task-oriented than punk bands are supposed to be.
We were always serious about recording and rehearsing. We would drive sixty miles to rehearsal. We would rehearse in Seattle, starting at eleven o'clock at night. I lived in Tacoma, Kurt lived in Olympia and [drummer] Chad Channing lived in Bainbridge Island. We all came together every night — do a lot of driving and crash in Bainbridge or Tacoma.

We also rehearsed in Tacoma. We found this barn — someone had made it into a studio. It was warm, and we weren't disturbed. There weren't other bands bleeding through the walls. We had the music to ourselves. And Kurt was always kicking songs around. He'd be in his apartment, cranking out riffs and vocal melodies, then bring them up: "Hey, check this one out." We'd put it into the grinder and see what came out the other end.

Could you hear the change in his songwriting between Bleach and Nevermind?
Definitely. Like "In Bloom": When we first started playing that, it sounded like a Bad Brains song.