Sound City Page #6

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accommodations.

I think maybe $60k was the

budget for the whole record.

We had these songs, and we

busted them out.

We had a pretty good idea of

what we wanted to do.

He's the one who likes

all our pretty songs

As much as we loved noise and

we loved crazy-ass punk-rock

sh*t, we wanted to be a good

band.

We loved The Beatles.

Don't know what it means

One of the craziest songs

that we recorded was "Lithium".

For whatever reason, the band

and Dave kept speeding up.

Not subtly, but a lot.

It would start out a certain

tempo and then keep going faster

and faster.

Racing along, basically.

I said, "Dave, have you ever

played with a click track

before?"

My heart just went crack!

Aaaah!

I was f***ing - I just felt

like someone had stabbed me in

the f***ing brain.

When you're a drummer, you don't

want anyone to ask you to play

to a click track, you know?

That human feel is what gives a

player their personality.

Some drummers don't really

know how to play to something

that's keeping them in line like

a click track.

I'm so happy 'cause

today I found my friends

Lo and behold, the first

take, man, he locked in like

he'd played to a click a

thousand times.

And I think we got the song,

like, the first or second take.

Yea-ea-ea-h-h

Yea-ea-h yea-ea-ea-h-h

And then, when I listened to

it, I'm like, "Well, now it

sounds like the f***ing chorus

is slowing down.

It's okay to speed up a little,

isn't it?"

Yea-ea-h

Yea-ea-ea-h-h

I remember, every night, we'd

bring a cassette back from

Sound City to the Oakwood

apartments, where we were

staying, and listen to what we

had done that day.

Those imperfections, that's

cool.

And it makes it sound like

people.

And Kurt was entirely about

performance.

To us, it was most important

that there was an honesty and

truth to what we were doing.

I don't care

I don't care

I don't care

I don't care

I don't care if it's old

The music came through the

speakers in a way that was

primal.

You could hear the sweat in the

tracks.

You could hear Kurt's vocal

cords.

If you have, if you need

Looking back at Sound City, I

realize so much of that record

is about performance.

When we tried to record

"Something in the Way," the band

tried to record it live in the

big tracking room, and it was

just too, kind of, big and

bombastic-sounding.

That song had to be right

because it was such a delicate,

fragile composition.

Underneath the bridge

The tarp has sprung a leak

Kurt came into the control

room, and he started playing

the song.

He laid in front of the Neve on

this couch, and I turned off the

fans and the phones and

everything, and he played the

song just barely mumbling,

barely singing, and barely

playing that 5-string guitar.

And the drippings from the

ceiling

You had to focus on making it

correct and the way it should

be, which isn't necessarily

perfect.

It just feels right.

Something in the way

Mmm-mmm

That was when I first saw a

computer used with music,

because it was so hard to play

to that guitar.

I couldn't really figure out

how to get the performances

locked together without trying

to do crazy edits with him.

Somebody had told me about this

new digital machine.

So, this technician brought

in a computer and a screen, and

it was like the - it was

basically like Pro Tools or

something.

Mmm-mmm

It was archaic.

It was incredibly slow.

You can't do what you can these

days in Pro Tools.

You had this "render" button,

and it would take like two

hours.

We used to call it

"Slow Tools," 'cause it just

used to just slow everything

down.

And then, when you finally

listened to it, if you didn't

like it, you had to hit "undo"

and try another one and hit

"render" again.

It would take, like, another

two hours.

The computer was such a pain

in the butt.

It's just like, this will

just - this is a gimmicky

thing.

Good thing we have tape.

This will never take off".

When I hear

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the

radio, I remember those really

simple moments of being in the

studio.

And those 15 days or 16 days,

whatever it was, that board -

totally changed my life.

Nirvana!

Nirvana!

Nirvana!

Nirvana!

Here we are now

Entertain us

Sound City would not have

survived if it was not for that

record.

You know?

Nobody had ever heard of

Nirvana, but it went right up to

number one.

We knew right after that we'd

get a lot of business.

A denial

It was like Fleetwood Mac all

over again.

Joe was always really good

to me.

There was a plaque that he had

brought over to me when

"Nevermind" hit number one.

And we hung it on the wall, and

it was just a couple weeks later

that Joe actually passed away.

He was absolutely a beautiful

person, so absolutely a doll of a guy.

And I didn't - I didn't treat

him very well.

You know, with the separation.

And, um...

So I'm really glad we made up,

you know, before he died.

It was a sad day.

He helped a lot of people do a

lot of things in their career.

I remember coming back to

Sound City.

I hadn't been there in a while.

And the record had gotten big.

And they sent them a platinum

record.

I remember opening the door and

seeing that.

And it was such a huge moment

for me.

I was just like...

Because I remembered walking in

there for the first time and

seeing all of those other

records.

To me, Sound City represents

some sort of integrity like a

truth, which is very human.

Actual people doing this thing

that inspired millions and

millions of fans all over the

place to do the same thing.

That September, the phones

just blew up.

I mean, you come in the morning,

there'd be, like, 50 messages.

It's like this tidal wave of

interest, and it was a

no-brainer - Sound City.

We chose Sound City because

"Nevermind" was recorded there.

I had never been in a studio

before.

There was a lot of time spent,

like, cutting a tape at an angle

and taping it together.

It just, to me, seemed crazy. Like,

that didn't make any sense to me.

Killing in the name of

We did our record at

Sound City like a live show.

We brought monitors in, and

we invited a bunch of our

friends down.

I think we got half the record

in that one night.

Killing in the name of

Things got a lot more raw and

down-to-earth again.

I had started to get into

simplification and analog tape

and vintage equipment and that

kind of thing.

And so, obviously, all roads led

to a place like Sound City.

It became the center of my life.

I had a date for the 11th hour

Ohhhhhhhh

All the Catholics stuff, that was

all live to two-track, no overdubs.

After making records in the '80s

and working towards perfection

and click tracks, and all this

kind of stuff, suddenly to just

do, like, rocking out and have

it recorded, and it's all done,

it just felt really right.

Well, who needs that now?

Ah, who needs that now?

I kept working there pretty

much into the '90s with Rick.

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