May-June, 1991 Sound City Studios & Devonshire Studios Van Nuys & Burbank, CA, US

May-June, 1991 Sound City Studios & Devonshire Studios Van Nuys & Burbank, CA, US

Artist
NIRVANA
Cobain, Kurt (vocals, guitar)
Grohl, Dave (drums)
Novoselic, Krist (bass)
Kanning, Kirk (cello)
Crew
Vig, Butch (producer, engineer)
Sheehan, Jeff (engineer)
Set
[O] Smells Like Teen Spirit
[O] In Bloom
[O] Come As You Are
[O] Breed
[O] Lithium
[O] Endless, Nameless
[O] Territorial Pissings
[O] Drain You
[O] Lounge Act
[O] Lounge Act
[O] Stay Away
[O] On A Plain
[O] Something In The Way
[X] Sappy
[X] Verse Chorus Verse (with scratch vocal)
[O] Verse Chorus Verse (with scratch vocal)
[O] Old Age (with scratch vocal)
[X] Song In D (instrumental)
Best available sources
Source Quality Complete Runtime Lowest Gen Tracks Featured Notes
SBD #1a 10.0 No 0:46:26 Official CD (Nevermind, MFSL Gold CD, catalog#: UDCD 666)

• Smells Like Teen Spirit
• In Bloom
• Come As You Are
• Breed
• Lithium
• Territorial Pissings
• Drain You
• Lounge Act
• Stay Away
• On A Plain
• Something In The Way
• Endless, Nameless Andy Wallace remixes. Mastered by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs.
SBD #1b 10.0 No 0:15:44 Official CD (With The Lights Out)
• Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Breed
• Verse Chorus Verse
• Old Age Butch Vig mixes Smells Like Teen Spirit and Breed; Adam Kasper remixes Verse Chorus Verse and Old Age. Mastered by Bob Ludwig.
SBD #1c 10.0 No 0:02:30 Official DVD (With The Lights Out)
• Lounge Act (alt. take)
SBD #1d 8.5 No 0:23:37 ANA(3)>DAT(1)>FLAC
• Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Lounge Act
• Something In The Way
• Drain You
• Stay Away
• Lithium Butch Vig's first rough mixes.
SBD #1e 10.0 No 0:28:37 Official DVD (Classic Albums: Nevermind)
• Smells Like Teen Spirit (alt. mix)
• In Bloom (alt. mix)
• Lithium
• Come As You Are
• Territorial Pissings
• Something In The Way (alt. mix)
• Smells Like Teen Spirit (alt. mix)
• Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Breed
• In Bloom
• Come As You Are
• Lithium
• Drain You (alt. mix)
• Smells Like Teen Spirit All songs are incomplete and feature voice-over commentary. Vig mixes the tracks to demonstrate individual elements within the songs. Audio is lossy at 192 kbps.
SBD #1f 10.0 No TBC TBC>FLAC
• Lithium (alt. take) ×8 Multitracks.
SBD #1g TBC No TBC Official Video Game (Rock Band)
• In Bloom Pete Doell stem remix.
SBD #1h TBC No TBC Official Video Game (Skate)
• Lounge Act (alt. mix) DJ Z-Trip remix.
SBD #1i TBC No 0:03:48 TBC>FLAC
• Come As You Are (alt. take) Amateur mix.
SBD #1j TBC No 0:03:49 TBC>MP3 (192 kbps)
• Come As You Are (alt. take, alt. mix) Amateur remix.
SBD #1k TBC No TBC Official Video Game (Guitar Hero: On Tour)
• Breed Stem remix.
SBD #1l TBC No TBC Official Video Game (Rock Band 2)
• Drain You Pete Doell stem remix.
SBD #1m TBC No TBC Official Video Game DLC (Rock Band)
• Breed
• Lounge Act
• On A Plain
• Something In The Way
• Stay Away
• Territorial Pissings Pete Doell stem remixes.
SBD #1n TBC No TBC Official Video Game (Guitar Hero 5)
• Smells Like Teen Spirit Pete Doell stem remix.

Notes
In April, 1991, NIRVANA arrived in Los Angeles to begin recording their major label debut, Nevermind. It was the band's own decision to have Butch Vig as their producer, choosing him over several other big-name producers, including Scott Litt, Don Dixon and David Briggs. Vig's previous work on the Smart sessions had made an impression on the band, Butch was easy to work with, explained NIRVANA bassist, Krist Novoselic, on Nevermind: It's An Interview. [He's] laid back and really attentive to what's going on. He works hard, but he doesn't work the band hard. (6)

At that point, I'd never done any work in Los Angeles, says Vig. But I knew that was where the band wanted to work, and I knew of Sound City's reputation. I worked out a deal so it was cost-effective for us to go there. It was sight unseen. We just booked it and went in. (61)

Before they began working at Sound City, the band spent a few days at yet another rehearsal space rented for them in North Hollywood. Vig visited them several times and was immediately struck by the impact Dave Grohl's arrival had made on the band's sound: Kurt had called me up and said, I've got the best drummer in the world! I thought, Yeah, right. I've heard that one before. But the first time we went in that rehearsal space and started running through the songs, it was just amazing. Dave was incredibly powerful and dead on the groove. I could tell from the way Kurt and Krist were playing with him that they had definitely kicked their music up another notch, in terms of intensity. (61) Vig decided not to pressure the band into practicing too much, Frankly, I didn't want to beat the songs into the ground, says Vig. I just wanted to hear the arrangements and maybe tighten things up a little bit. (61)

During their six-week residency in California, the band stayed in a Van Nuys apartment complex close to the studio. The short term lease was arranged by NIRVANA's management company, and the owners of the building regretted it from the instant the band moved in. (53) A couple of times I went to pick them up at the Oakwood Apartments and they had definitely turned their place into a bachelor pad, recalls Vig. There were cans of food lying open everywhere and clothes thrown all over the place and acoustic guitars lying around the room. I know they were getting a big kick out of staying there because the band Europe was staying next to them. That was the band that had a big hit with The Final Countdown. The guys in Europe would all go sit out with their girlfriends by the pool everyday. And I remember Chris and Dave and Kurt making fun of them. They were not big Europe fans. (61)

On May 2, 1991, the band and Vig eventually settled into Sound City for sessions that were originally booked for less than three weeks. (53) The band worked for around 8-10 hours a day, occasionally blowing off steam by playing covers of old '70s favourites like Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and Aerosmith. (4) It is unknown if any recordings of these exist.

Vig had difficulty persuading Cobain to do second takes of songs. (4) Vig had to indulge in some light deception to maximise his material, and would often roll tape when Kurt was warming up in case they could use something. (4) Cobain had worked out his vocal parts so well that they barely varied from take to take, which enabled Vig to mix different takes together. (4)

Vig's previous experience of working with Cobain had prepared him to some degree: Kurt was very moody. I knew that from the Smart Studios sessions. He was very difficult to figure out because he could be in an elated mood, ready to play, then half an hour later he'd just sit in a corner and not say anything to anybody. Sometimes it would bring the session to a halt. He would be totally uncommunicative ... I found out right away that Kurt didn't like to sing a lot. I would record him warming up and if I was lucky I would get three more takes out of him. He likes to slur the words and sometimes it took me several passes to figure out what he was singing. But that's part of what made his singing special. He gave those words some magic, in that you don't always know what he was saying. I would then pick one as the best and then take certain bits from the other tracks. That was it. He was that good. (35) Vig also recalls that he and Cobain had disagreements about how to record the guitars. Whilst Vig wanted to layer the guitar with different sounds, Cobain only wanted to only play one at a time: For the most part, when I asked him to do stuff he'd eventually do it ... But sometimes he would say, I'm not going to play that any more. (35)
Vig told Gaar: Unlike at Smart, I had opportunity to work more on the product like never before, with overdubs, multiple mics, splitting right and left, etc. The songs were basically already in good shape, but I did do more arranging with them. [The original version of] Teen Spirit was longer and the little ad-libs after the chorus were actually [originally] at the end of the song. I suggested putting those in at the end of each chorus as a bridge into the next verse. And I remember Kurt sitting down with the acoustic and he had a couple of variations of the melody and the verse he was singing and we picked the one that was best. But most of the songs were fairly finished. I don't know whether they played them live, but I know that they did practice a lot. It wasn't like, what are you playing here. They knew. Krist had figured out his bass lines, and the drum patterns for the most part were worked out, and Kurt had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do. But he had a couple lines in some that he was still working on. (1)

The band set up in Sound City's large room, Studio A, to record basic tracks. When we cut basics, it went pretty fast, Vig recalls. I think it took five or six days in all. Dave was set up in the middle of the room. We built a big drum tunnel on the front of his bass drum, so we could mic it from a distance and still isolate it from all the bleed in the rest of the room. Krist had his SVT bass rig off to the side, but he could play in the room. His headphones were set up next to the drums. Kurt's amps were in a little isolation area, but he was also in the room and he could sing into a mic. We'd start running a song down and they'd usually get the basic track in two or three takes. If there was a missed chord or a bad bass note, we'd go back and punch in [the correct notes] right away. (61)

Novoselic brought the least amount of equipment: Two Gibson Ripper bass guitars and an Ampeg SVT II rig. (53) By contrast, Cobain brought a small arsenal of guitars: A 1969 Lake Placid Blue Competition Mustang, a 1965 Sunburst Jaguar with DiMarzio pickups, a Stella acoustic, a left-handed Mosrite and some new Stratocasters. For the most part, he utilized the left-handed Mosrite with his Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp and Crown power amp, we [also] rented a Fender Bassman, a Vox AC3O and a Marshall stack, says Vig. (35)

The single most influential piece of gear Vig rented was the Terminator. That's the one piece that really stands out when you listen to the album, recalls Drum Doctor's, Ross Garfield. It's a 6 ½" x 14" bell brass drum that weighs a lot, at least five times heavier than any other snare drum I've got. (53) Apparently, Grohl hit the drums so hard that they had to change the heads every other song. (4)

The drum tunnel was used on all of the Sound City drum tracks, except Something In The Way. It's something that I have at Smart that I've used on and off. Basically, you can take a drum shell and extend it as long as you want. We extended Dave Grohl's bass drum out an additional six feet. (53)

Miking for the drums was as follows: An AKG D12 and a FET 47 on the bass drum, a Shure SM57 on the snare, along with an AKG 451, Sennheiser 421s on the toms, AKG 414s and Neumann KM84s on the cymbals, and Neumann U87s for distant room mics. (86)

After basic tracks were completed, Nirvana moved over to Sound City's Studio B, for overdubs: We started adding the second rhythm guitar to songs, says Vig, and Kurt started working some more on his vocals. Dave did some harmonies. (61)

Lead vocal sessions were generally done in a one-on-one setting, with just Cobain and the producer present. The vocal mic was set up in the main studio area, but it was basically like a lounge area, says Vig. There were candles in there, and a big rug on the floor. A pretty cool vibe. Dave and Krist were around, but they'd be off playing pool or watching TV. They'd pop in to the control room and listen every now and then, but Kurt kind of wanted to be left alone when he was doing his vocals. He also didn't really like to use headphones when he sang, so we set up a fairly elaborate system where he could use speakers. (61)

For most of Cobain's vocals, Vig utilised a Neumann U67 and an LA2A compressor, In the studio I used a fair amount of compression on the vocals so that I could control his dynamics, and I also got Kurt to do some double-tracking. I'm a big fan of doubling, particularly on choruses, so he did that quite a bit on the record and that's part of what the sound is. Andy Wallace, the mix engineer, had a little bit of tight slap echo - almost a double echo - on a couple of the songs, and he also used a little bit of reverb and so on, but for the most part the vocals were left fairly dry. That really was the approach that the band and myself wanted to take. We didn't want to have it too washed out with reverb or echo, and it was the same with the drums and the guitars; we wanted everything to be fairly dry and in your face. (86)




NOTES ABOUT RECORDING INDIVIDUAL SONGS

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Vig admits that Smells Like Teen Spirit was the song that appealed to him most of all: Even in rehearsals when they started playing it you know their guitar and bass rigs were so loud, so unbelievably loud and Dave didn't have any mics on him or anything and the drums were equally as loud in the room. And I remember literally standing up and starting to sweat and pacing around the room because the song was so powerful and so amazing and so hooky ... I didn't even know what Kurt was singing at that point. (9)

When the time came to record the song at Sound City, Vig suggested a few changes to the arrangement. He moved the guitar/vocal ad-lib from the outro to a point after each chorus. He then cut the solo down. I think we changed the chorus to six progressions instead of eight, says Butch. I wanted the song to keep building into this explosive release. (53)

Vig first recorded Grohl's drum part and Novoselic's bass, utilizing the first ten of twenty-four tracks. Tracks 11 and 12 were reserved to record the basic live band performance, Then I'd go in and punch in the corrections and tighten up the performance, he says, because Kurt was having difficulties getting the timing right on the effects pedals. (53)

For the guitar part, Cobain chose a Fender Bassman amp, (53) using an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone as one of the effects on the pre-chorus build-up. (53) Take 1 of only two takes was deemed the best. However, upon repeated listening, Vig decided to use both takes in the mix. He double-tracked the twin guitar parts and used them in tandem, panning left and right. Kurt did two passes on it, though he didn't really want to, says Vig. (53)

Vig was only able to coax three vocal takes out of Cobain. The best parts of all three takes were combined to create a composite vocal master which was then placed onto track 15. Vig then asked Cobain to isolate his vocal part, Hello, hello, hello, how low, for dropping in. The overdubbed Hello bridge was placed onto tracks 21 and 22. (53)

Having finished the main vocal parts, Cobain then double-tracked the chorus vocals as well. The last step for Vig was to select track 20's chorus as the hot one and move it down to track 15 with the master vocal take. (53)

In Bloom

During the In Bloom session, Vig tried meticulously to get a good lead vocal take out of Cobain, and to that end he ran tape during this entire part of the sessions. Kurt basically had no patience, Vig recalls. He wanted to do something in one take and then move on to the next thing. (53)

I just took the best bits from three or four vocal takes and sewed them together. says Vig. (53) Typically, he would sing sometimes really quietly and then really loud, so I was forced to change the input level as we were recording him on-the-fly! It's kinda scary because you've got to know the song really well. Then you have to hope he doesn't change the phrasing or do something different. (53)

A problem arose when the band attempted to double-track the chorus, Kurt was singing for couple of beats longer on one version verses the other, Vig explains. To remedy this, Vig pulled the fader down to cut off the longer take, so the timing of the twin choruses would match. (53)

Grohl was enlisted to sing high harmonies in the chorus. I was laughing with Dave a lot because the part was just a little out of his range, and his voice kept breaking up, remembers Vig. He would finish one chorus and light up a cigarette to catch his breath. (53)

Track 17 of In Bloom was devoted to recording the guitar part. Cobain used his Mesa/Boogie amp on the verses, then switched to the Fender Bassman on track 18 to achieve a heavier, double-tracked fuzz sound on the chorus. (53)

Come As You Are

On Come As You Are the bass was triple-tracked: Novoselic played a regular bass, then an octave bass, then he tuned the bass strangely and ran it through a DBX sub-harmonic effect. We were trying to make the bass sound like a 12-string, recalls Vig. (35) Vig also recalls that Cobain's guitar sound was the result of an old Small Clone guitar effects pedal. (35)

Cobain made just three vocal passes for Come As You Are, take 1 being the best. Cobain was then asked to double-track the vocal through the entire song. It was really close, says Vig. Usually, when a singer double-tracks his vocals, it's hard to get the phrasing the same. But I put both of them up on the monitors and listened to the two takes, side by side, and it just sounded great. (53)

Breed

Cobain made four vocal passes on Breed. As Vig recalls, each succeeding take kept getting worse because he blew his voice out. (53) Unique to Breed was Vig's use of a Neumann U89 microphone for Cobain's vocals. At the time, I thought of using this one [rather than the U67] because he was singing higher and pushing the limits of his voice up. I just thought we needed more body to it. Cobain's first vocal take was selected as the master. (53)

Guitars were tuned down to D or maybe even C sharp. (35) The really scratchy guitar at the start of Breed was produced by Cobain plugging his guitar straight into the mixing desk. (35) Vig recalls: For the bass distortion we turned the amp up really loud and in the mix we also overloaded the board. We didn't use any pedals, just overloaded the channels. We went for a Ramones-type panning. Guitar hard right, drums hard left. The solo was played through a Tube Screamer [distortion pedal]. A lot of Kurt's solos had a simple melodic sensibility and he would record them very quickly. (35)

Breed predominantly features Dave Grohl pounding away at the Terminator snare drum. (53)

Lithium

Early on, NIRVANA struggled with instrumental portions of Lithium. First of all, they kept speeding the song up, says Vig. It was one of the few tracks that we used a click-track to. Dave was great, he'd never really worked with one, but he was fine as soon as he did it a couple of times. Butch and the band then suggested some simpler fills and patterns for Dave to play on Lithium. The experiment worked well, with the band finally laying down the instrumental track. (53)

Only two vocal passes of the verse to Lithium were made. Overall, take 2 was the best performance and was the one that was used. Upon reviewing both takes side by side, Vig decided to take the second line of the second verse from Cobain's first vocal pass and drop it into the master vocal take. The vocal chorus was then quickly recorded live and double-tracked. (53)

To achieve the thumping, darker sound on Lithium, the band employed an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzz box through a Fender Bassman amplifier. As I recall, says Vig, we used a U87 microphone on that. We wanted something that was no so bright, a heavier sound. (53) Two tracks were devoted to Novoselic's bass part. An additional three tracks recorded Cobain's guitar. (53)

The difficulties that day resulted in a classic recording of NIRVANA's epic Endless, Nameless. Vig recalls: I remember the first day we were cutting [Lithium], Kurt got really pissed off because it was taking too much time. Acknowledging Cobain's lack of patience, Vig decided to keep the tape rolling as the band launched into a jam. Kurt was really pissed off, thrashing and screaming, and he smashed his guitar in the middle of it. (53) At around 19:32 on track 12 of most Nevermind CDs, one can discern Kurt smashing his guitar. (4)

Polly

Polly was actually laid down during the April 1990 Smart Sessions. (1) That song was actually recorded at Smart, our studio in Madison and really quickly, says Vig. We actually thought about trying to record that again and make it sound better, but there was a certain quality in it that I think we captured the very first time we did it. (14) It's the same song, confirms Krist Novoselic. Chad never got credit on Nevermind for that. (53)

One of the techniques Nevermind sound mixer, Andy Wallace, employed was to add a delay line effect, giving Channing's cymbal crashes their shimmer. It's not like an echo because the time span is shorter, explains Wallace. It offsets the time on the cymbal hit just a slight bit from the original, blends them together and then changes that offset. so there is a slight pitch wobble going on. (53)

Territorial Pissings

For Territorial Pissings, Cobain wanted to plug his electric guitar directly into the producer's mixing board. Kurt wanted to plug straight into the desk for a trashy punk sound, Vig recalls. But I didn't think the guitar had any balls. So we actually split the signal between an amplifier and plugged Kurt's Pro Co Rat distortion pedal directly into the Neve control board and blended both into the final mix. Cobain recorded three takes on guitar. Take 3 was circled as best on the producer's track sheet. (53)

Before Cobain began the song, he exhorted Krist Novoselic to just sing something, who chose to interpret a little of the Youngbloods' chorus on Get Together (which the band had to pay to use). That's Krist singing into one of Kurt's guitars, a Fender Jazzmaster. It had a shitty pickup, and you could sing into it. Kurt wanted to put some intro on the song. I said, Why don't you do some stupid hippie lyric in there? Krist went in and sang a bad a cappella version of it. Kurt died laughing. Then I thought, Do we have clearance on this? Is this going to be a problem? (85)

Once it came time to record the vocals, Cobain sang a scratch vocal to warm up. He then got on the intercom to Vig in the control room and announced, Butch, I'm only going to sing one take on this. I'm not going to do anymore! (53)

Cobain's voice audibly goes to pieces on the song, which would have caused work to end on that day too.

Drain You

Drain You, according to Vig took some time. (35) Cobain tried several experiments with different guitars and amps before arriving at the right sound combination for the song. At first, he recorded two takes of the song using his Mesa/Boogie amp and different guitars. The early passes sounded scratchy and grating, reflects Vig. And the way he was playing didn't sound very good. Next, Cobain tried the Bassman amp and ran his Rat pedal effect into it for yet another recording experiment. Again, the first take was rejected, but the next two takes were keepers. (53)

Vig coaxed Cobain into singing three vocal takes for Drain You. Take 2 was chosen as the lead vocal on the verses, while take 1 was used as the master on the chorus. Take 3 did not go to waste, however, as Vig used Kurt's singing of the lyrics poison apple for the harmonies. (53)

Vig adds, Every time Kurt did a vocal pass he would run to the side of the room at that part of the song and pick something up - squeaky ducks, percussion things or an aerosol. It became an abstract part for 17 bars. We just left them all in on the mix. (35)

Lounge Act

Lounge Act was equally difficult according to Vig: We struggled a bit on this one. Five or six takes. We changed a few of the fills. Kurt plays this through the AC3O and then added some Bassman guitars when the guitar picks up. (35) Cobain sang a scratch vocal, followed by three formal vocal passes. (53) The tape was slowed down at the end to get the effect of the song grinding to a halt. (35)

Stay Away

Production notes for Stay Away indicate that the band used the same technical set-up that they used for Breed. The band recorded the instrumental backing live, while Cobain sang lead. Cobain then played second guitar lead with his Mesa amp, which Vig sparingly overdubbed onto the master guitar part. It was meant to sound like one guitar versus an overdub with two split guitars, the producer explains. Vig was able to blend Kurt's voice and guitar for the passage I don't know why.(53)

Getting the vocals to match up with the guitar part posed a unique challenge. Cobain had recorded two passes at Pay to Play that were left abandoned on tracks 19 and 20. He then reworked the lyrics significantly and asked Butch to scratch out the old title and write in Stay Away. Two more vocal takes of Stay Away were cut, and Cobain thought he was finished. He was doing it live, singing and playing the chords, Vig remembers. He'd do the little [string] bends but always have a tough time singing I don't know why and then [getting] back to the chords and verse. So Vig suggested to Kurt that he overdub just that one line. The overdub was placed alone on track 15. Once Kurt had recorded the key line, he told Butch, Let's make this razor sharp. Just in your face and then gone! Vig took the overdub vocal part and put it into a sampler. I went in and shifted it around and got the vocal so it matched the guitar part perfectly. It's like someone goes in and pushes a button [singing], I don't know why, and cuts out, super tight and pinpointed so it hits you in the face. (53)

On A Plain

The lyrics for On A Plain were written minutes before Cobain sang them. (4) This is plausible considering Cobain sang markedly different words on the song's live debut in May 1991. (10) The line, Don't quote me on that comes from an in-joke the group had that week, with everyone saying ad nauseam, [statement], but don't quote me on that. (4)

Cobain nailed the lead vocal in one take. Vig thought that the Grohl/Cobain double-tracked harmonies worked so well that he suggested an a cappella coda to round out the song. They did those harmonies another eight times, says Vig. I wanted to bring the music all the way down and leave those vocals in a cappella for four times, just by themselves. We actually mixed it that way, but when Kurt heard it, he decided he just wanted to hear one pass without music and cut out. (53)

Something In The Way

Cobain claimed that Something In The Way was not written until a week before recording began. (4) However, it is believed that the song was performed in November 1990 (10), so this seems to be another example of Cobain being economical with the truth.

They originally wanted to cut it as a full-on band, Vig explains. But that proved difficult to record. It just was not happening. Kurt was not very happy. Finally he came over to me and said, It needs to sound like this... And he picked up his old five-string acoustic guitar. He sat on the couch in the control room and started to sing and play. (61)

Realizing he was on to what could be a master take, Vig quickly set up some microphones: I turned off the air conditioner and everything else and had the phones shut off. He was playing and singing so quietly. But we got it down on tape. Later on, we overdubbed drums and Kurt added some harmonies. But it was all built around the acoustic track. (61)

Recording the vocals and guitar ahead of the bass and drums posed a challenge for Vig. Novoselic's bass and Grohl's drums were overdubbed in Studio B. It took quite a bit of time to get the drums right, Vig pleading with Grohl to play whimpy in order to match the mood of the song. Kurt and I wanted the drums to be very understated, explains Vig. Dave was used to playing much louder; plus, it can be very difficult to go back and lay drums over an acoustic guitar track, as the meter may vary a bit. In the end, Dave came up with a great performance. (53)

Novoselic recorded two takes of the bass line. Even that was hard to synch up with Kurt's part, says Vig. We had to punch in spots, just so Krist would get the languid feel on the bass to lock up with the acoustics. (53)

The cello on Something In The Way was one of the very last overdubs at the Nevermind sessions; Kurt Cobain explained the idea for the musical arrangement on Nevermind: It's An Interview: I knew I wanted cello on it, but after all the music was recorded for it, we'd kinda forgotten about putting a cello on. We had one more day in the studio and we decided, Oh geez, we should hire a cellist, you know, and put something in. We were at a party and were asking some of our friends if they knew anyone who could play cello, and it just happened that one of our best friends in L.A. is a cellist. So we took him into the studio on the last day and said, Here, play something. And he came up with a part right away. It just fell in like dominoes. (6 & 61)

From a technical standpoint, however, it wasn't all that easy. Kirk [Canning] is a good cello player, says Butch Vig, but we had a hard time getting his instrument in tune with Kurt's guitar. That old five-string acoustic of Kurt's was tuned down a few steps and wasn't really tuned to any standard pitch. I remember I fretted over the whole track. (61)

Sappy

The arrangement we did [of Sappy] at Sound City was very close to the Smart version, says Vig. Cobain played lead guitar while attempting to sing one live scratch vocal and one formal vocal pass. After overdubbing the lead fuzz guitar with his Rat pedal, Cobain laid down his guitar and walked straight into the control room. I don't want to do this, he insisted. I'm not into this song right now. So let's leave it. (53) The song is in a different key to that of previously recorded versions, it opens without instrumental intro and features a few lyrical changes, the guitar solo is also subtly different. (88)

Verse Chorus Verse

The band recorded this track live. Cobain provided a scratch vocal, then overdubbed three guitars to complement the bass and drums. (53)

Old Age

NIRVANA recorded Old Age live, with Cobain providing a scratch vocal. It was quickly dropped after a guitar overdub was completed. (53)

Song in D

Though Vig remembers Song In D being rehearsed at Sound City, there are no track sheets to reflect that it was ever formally recorded. Kurt was a little leery about this one because it was really jangly, recalls Vig. I wanted Kurt to finish the words. It was like On a Plain or About a Girl, this jangly arpeggio thing in the key of D. I thought I could turn it into another single. (85) Queried as to whether the mysterious outtake could have been an early pass at All Apologies, Vig responds, No, Song in D was it's own beast. He elaborates, We attempted to track it, but Kurt decided to stop working on it cuz it sounded too much like R.E.M., which is exactly why I wanted to pursue it! (84)

MIXING

Between Sound City's Studio A and Devonshire Studios, the band and their producer completed mixes of roughly half of the album tracks. The first mixes we did, before Andy Wallace came in, were really raw, which is how the band wanted them, Vig explains. (53) The mixes I like best were the rough mixes that I did that were straight off the Neve Board, with very little on them; no processing at all. Just real simple. (1)

At one point Vig remembers Cobain telling him, Take all the high-end off the guitars. Vig argued back, That would make the guitars sound too muddy. As for the rough vocal mixes, Butch noticed, There was a tendency by Kurt to bury the vocals more. [He thought] they sounded cool and were more punk that way. I would argue with Kurt: Your voice is the most intense thing about the songs, and it deserves to be right up there in your face with the music! (53)

For Endless Nameless, Vig turned over the control board to the band themselves, Krist, Dave and Kurt mixed that song, Vig recalls. they got behind the board and ran the faders up and down. (53)

Though Vig had originally been hired to both produce and mix the record, the sessions had fallen behind schedule, and the band's management and label were keen to draft in a new engineer. It wasn't any big deal, says Vig. We all agreed to get another mix guy in with fresh ears. (53) Geffen's Gary Gersh sent over a list of possible names: Scott Litt was on top of the list, Vig recalls, but Kurt said, No, I don't want to sound like R.E.M.; Ed Stasium was also on the list, to which Kurt said, No, I don't want to sound like the Smithereens. He went all the way to the bottom of the list and Andy Wallace was there, it said Slayer next to his name and Kurt said, Get this guy. The mixes were done at Scream, another San Fernando Valley studio. Basically, I'd let Andy go over the tracks by himself for a few hours, Vig recalls. When he got everything up, he'd call me in, and I'd bring in the band and we would nitpick stuff. Basically, we mixed a song or two a day. The whole record took nine or 10 days to mix. (61)

Despite the fact that Wallace was Cobain's own choice, and that the band participated in the mixing process, Cobain would later complain to the press that Wallace's mixes made Nevermind sound too slick, Looking back on the production of Nevermind, I'm embarrassed by it now. It's closer to a Mötley Crüe record than it is a punk rock record. (4)

But I think part of that was just Kurt's reaction to having Nevermind be so successful, Vig speculates. If it had only sold 50,000 copies, he probably wouldn't have had any comments on whether it was too slick or not slick enough. (61)

Michael Azerrad, who (one presumes) was able to hear the different mixes, reflects that: Vig's mixes sound positively naked in comparison to the final result. Wallace sweetened the sound, filtering the raw tracks through various special effects boxes, cranking out about one mix a day. (4)

Azerrad asked Vig his opinion of Wallace's work and he said: He gave some real wide stereo separation using some doubling and delays on guitars and things. He put a little gloss on the voices but I don't think he went too far with it. If anything, we wanted to make sure the mixes still sounded fairly organic. Part of reason why the album sounds so slick is that the room miking of the drums didn't work out well and so Wallace used digital reverb to fix the sound and further pumped up the drums with equalization and some samples that he blended in behind the kick drum and snare. (4)

Grohl noted: He did a lot of tweaking of the drums, making them more digital-sounding. Everything had a produced weirdness. (4)

After accounting for the extra lodging, extra studio time and Wallace's fees, the album's costs doubled. (4) The budget to produce the album had originally been $65,000, but by the time the project was done costs had reached $120,000 - still economical by major label standards. When asked about the total expenses for Nevermind, Cobain later joked to Guitar World's Jeff Gilbert, I don't remember, I've got Alzheimers. (53)



LOOKING BACK

Dave Grohl was asked about the band ethos at the time, and responded: It had been a while since the band had gone in and recorded a full LP, so it was more like, Wow we're in the studio, let's just get this done, let's do it. (6)

Vig remembers: The band was really loose. They were going out all night and partying. I think that had a certain sense of we can do whatever we want! Typically I would go in before them, like around noon or one, and they would get in mid-afternoon, 3 or 4 o'clock and we'd work until 11 o'clock or midnight. And they'd leave and I'd usually work a little longer. (1)

Krist Novoselic has fond memories of working with Vig: He was just easy to work with, laid back and really attentive to what's going on. He works hard, but he doesn't work the band hard ... All the dinosaurs have recorded there, Fleetwood Mac, Cheap Trick ... We got a warm sound out of that place ... We made the record we wanted to make, we didn't want to make the number one record, we didn't want to make some big hit record, it would have been the same record if it had been on Sub Pop. (9)

Cobain later claimed to Azerrad: I never listen to Nevermind. I haven't listened to it since we put it out. That says something. I can't stand that kind of production and I don't listen to bands that do have that kind of production, no matter how good their songs are. It just bothers me. (4) He went on to say that the sound was too slick. (4)



OUTTAKES

Gillian Gaar notes in her comprehensive article that there is a lot of speculation about the extra material that NIRVANA may have recorded during these sessions. (1) Vig had, in the past, tried to dispel such speculation by claiming there were no outtakes at all. However, he admitted to Gaar: They had about 15 songs that they were working on. And I thought we were going to at least try and record all of them. There were a couple that we recorded that Kurt never finished the lyrics on. One was called Song in D; it was really catchy. I was hoping he would finish the lyrics cause it would have been another amazing song. It had a kind of R.E.M. feel to it. And one was more of a punk thing. He had one other he was playing on acoustic; it was kinda bluesy. I asked, You want to try and put that down on tape? And he said, No, it's not really done. And one of the songs I think Kurt may have given part of the chord progression to Courtney for one of the Hole songs, or at least there's a little bit of a nod from it. Old Age, I think. (1)

Vig conceded: I'm sure that the [outtakes would] be in the Geffen vaults. We kept more stuff, and obviously with a bigger budget there were more reels of tape. And also I knew at that point, whenever I could, I wanted to keep stuff. So any of those extra tracks, they're sitting in the vaults somewhere at Geffen. (1)

To read Alan di Perna's excellent Guitar World article on the recording of Nevermind, click here.
To read Peter Henderson's excellent Mojo article on the recording of Nevermind, click here.

Alex Roberts. June 29, 2009