The first riff that I totally mastered was ‘Come As You Are’ by Nirvana. I remember sitting there, plunking along, I remember thinking ‘How do they even do this?’
Bodhisattva is enlightened in the Buddhist philosophy, religion, tradition. He’s enlightened. It’s fine – I don’t really fight it – but many people use the term ‘zen’ and terms like ‘nirvana,’ ‘enlightenment’ in an almost superficial way. It’s not that complicated.
When it comes to grunge or even just Seattle, I think there was one band that made the definitive music of the time. It wasn’t us or Nirvana, but Mudhoney. Nirvana delivered it to the world, but Mudhoney were the band of that time and sound.
When I got my first guitar, I played along with everything I heard that had guitar in it, like the Ramones, Nirvana and Sublime, as well as whatever hip-hop and R&B stuff was on the radio.
I can bat in the morning, afternoon, evening, night, on ice, desert, wherever and whenever. It is almost nirvana for me. It takes me away from the stresses of life.
Obviously, for Geffen, if it wasn’t for us, it’s quite possible that bands like Nirvana or Beck would not be on the label.
It’s how you define yourself. It’s not Nirvana or Pearl Jam: it’s, ‘Do you watch ‘Portlandia’ or ‘Amy Schumer’?’ It relates to a specific sense of humor. And, ‘Do you know the hidden gems?’ Like, if you knew the Pixies in the ’80s.
When I listen to most forms of music, in their most raw and pure, it all has a punk edge to me, like Lead Belly, Jimmie Rodgers, Otis Redding or Nirvana.
I haven’t had a single thought for 26 years. I have only understanding. It’s somewhat complicated to understand that. I’ve hardly ever spoken about it. You’re in a state of total peace of mind. A kind of nirvana.
If you’re a big Nirvana fan, a big Hole fan, then I understand why you would want to get to know me, but I’m not my parents.
The important point is Brexiteers said that this would be easy, that we could leave and enter a post-Brexit nirvana, a land of milk and honey that will satisfy their ideological dogma and make the people happy. Sadly, this deluded dream has run out of steam.
I will say that I know Nirvana did a show and played a few chords from ‘More Than a Feeling’ before they did ‘Teen Spirit,’ and it wasn’t very good. But in all seriousness, ‘Teen Spirit’ was a great song. If subconsciously or somehow I had any influence on that, I’ll take that as a compliment.
I grew up in the ’90s, and I loved Nirvana.
And if I’m honest about it, I was obsessed with Nirvana and Pearl Jam. This is like ’92, right in the throes of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I think I probably wanted to be Kurt Cobain.
My exposure to independent music was via Nirvana and grunge so I’d never gotten into punk. I don’t really like that music of Crass, but I love the band, and I love their way, and their presentation.
Nirvana is next level. The songs are really cool to connect with on a more mature level, and I don’t think I really understood that when I was 15.
The first album that I bought was the Nirvana ‘MTV Unplugged in New York’ album.
I always like to think that I make movies that are like Nirvana songs. They have a slow verse, and then they pop into high gear, and then they go back into slow, and then they pop into high gear again.
The REM and Nirvana successes don’t mean much to me except as a potential distraction for bands who want to cash in on the trend. Don’t try to sound like someone else. REM and Nirvana don’t sound like anyone else.
Something about John Cleese was always very unsettled, I felt. There was always something else he wanted to do. He seemed constantly driven by this sense that there was a nirvana somewhere; some unique place where mind, body and soul would be utterly satisfied.
When I heard Nirvana, it changed my life.
Nirvana was a band that led you somewhere, as opposed to all the grunge bands that began and ended with themselves.
That was a time when I did love music, I couldn’t get enough of what was going on. Maybe it was Nirvana that brought me back. I guess it was a comfort because something that sounded so right – and non-commercial – had become so influential, so immediately.
Growing older, you respect the whole culture behind Nirvana.
I write about spirituality not so we get strong from within and achieve some state of nirvana and then distance ourselves from the real world. I write about it so we can feel empowered to doing the critical work that this generation of black women are charged with doing.
People misinterpret my emotions towards Nirvana because I’ve said things about how something happened with grunge that took a little bit of fun out of things. It’s no offense to Nirvana; they were one of the greats, obviously. But something died there, too, and we haven’t quite gotten the groove back.
My mom is awesome. She’s really young. My mom is 40, and she raised me listening to Nirvana and Courtney Love and Coldplay, Gin Blossoms, The Cranberries, and stuff. Like, my early, early memories are of being a little kid running around in floral skirts and Doc Martens when I was, like, three.
If I ever felt like I was getting lost in the hurricane that was storming around Nirvana, I’d just go back to Virginia.
Oh, I was a real Nirvana kid. I got into jazz because I listened to a lot of metal, Megadeth and that, and those guys play really fast and are virtuosos. I wanted to learn more about it, and I discovered that a lot of jazz guys played really fast, too.
I don’t really like Nirvana that much.
I remember, after the New Year’s Eve 1991 show, somebody running onto the bus and saying Nirvana had just hit No. 1. I remember thinking, ‘Wow; it’s on now.’ It changed something. We had something to prove – that our band was as good as I thought it was.
I’d love to see a Nirvana biopic. I loved them when I was younger. I really like jazz music, so I’d like to see a Billie Holiday biopic – she was a fascinating woman.
I love Nirvana, Joy Division, and New Order – older alternative, I guess.
I try to create something that draws you in without overthinking it. Something that resonates with you automatically that you don’t have to think about. That’s what the best pop is about: Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Nirvana – these guys made some of the most authentic and popular music.
Because of technology, there’s no longer the social shaming that goes on if you’re a black kid walking into a record store to buy Nirvana.
A lot of what attracted people to Nirvana was that they were like the people you went to high school with.
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