There always seems to be a spike in interest in Nirvana around the anniversary of singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain's death, even more so this year as buzz builds for HBO's forthcoming documentary, “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” which will debut on May 4.
There is also a new book that highlights some of the band's early exploits in Tacoma and Olympia, “I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana” by Nick Soulsby (St. Martin's Griffin, $15.99). Recently, we caught up with the British author to see how he went about tracking down members of local bands like Machine and Mico de Noche.
Tacoma Weekly: What is it about this band that you think has resonated over the years?
Nick Soulby: Having this kind of immortality, I think it was just the right moment; plus, on top of that, it's (Cobain's death) a very rare event. We're so used to seeing people dying on TV news, we don't realize how rare it is when a star at the top of their game goes. Michael Jackson was a shock to people, but he went 20 years after the peak of his career. John Lennon had disappeared for most of 10 years. Ian Curtis wasn't famous yet at the time that he went. Kurt Cobain is very rare because 18 months after the band had become famous he was gone.
TW: You do the web site, NirvanaLegacy.com, and previously wrote “Dark Slivers; Seeing Nirvana in Shards of Incesticide.” What was the catalyst for this project?
Soulby: I was preparing a blog ... and one day what I was doing was going through the list of all the bands they played with (including) Tacoma bands. We're talking Machine, Inspector Love. My Name is, of course, on the list – Girl Trouble. There's all these bands that I admit I had not heard of. I thought, “Oh, I wonder if I could find these guys.”
In the end, there were probably about 250 to 300 bands - if we're not talking about the big festivals - who played with Nirvana, which means a thousand to 1,500 musicians. I spoke to 210 of them and got 170 bands. There are undoubtedly other ways I could have done this, but everything has to end somewhere.
TW: This book as opposed to some of the other books out there seems to focus on the people who didn't become famous but saw things from the sidelines.
Soulby: Yeah, certain people get asked these questions all the time (like) Dave Grohl. .. In the end, there's only so much these people can now tell us that hasn't been repeated, ad nauseum. What interested me a lot more was there were all these other people who aren't part of the rock star level of things ... with normal jobs and normal lives that also have this legitimate claim to having been there. That's what intrigued me, that there were all these people who essentially have been ignored.
I spoke to the bands who played with Nirvana in Argentina and Brazil, and they said … they never had an American or British journalist ever bother and come and speak to them about their experiences. But there just at those three shows is where Nirvana is pretty well at their worst.
TW: There's quite a bit of Tacoma in there. How much did you know about the scene here?
Soulby: There is a gap (in the '80s) between the end of Gorilla Gardens in Seattle, where the punks had been congregating, and the next venue, the Community World Theatre (in Tacoma.) The only other place in the region that's really a major hub is the Hell House in Tacoma as well, which is where Girl Trouble is based. Those two venues for this brief period of time are pretty much the only games in the region. There are traditional rock clubs, but they're not that friendly towards punk, they're not too friendly towards all-ages shows. So all this stuff gravitates towards Tacoma.
At the time, for Nirvana, it makes absolute sense to end up there because the Community World Theatre is the primary venue for very young bands. So you've got the right venue, you've got this core of people who are very supportive and open to hearing this quite rough band at the time. It just allows them to grow into something a little more advanced in a community that is quite accepting of sloppy bands making some good noise. Tacoma is where Nirvana becomes a real band.
TW: Did you have any luck contacting Krist Novoselic or Dave Grohal?
Soulby: I never bothered. In the end, I kind of circled the nest. Two of Nirvana's drummers (Aaron Burckhard and Dave Foster) ended up providing the quotes for the book, the cover quotes, which is very kind of them. I think I was more interested in that early phase when they were more uncertain what they would become.
TW: What do you think people will find most surprising about this book?
Soulby:“We're 21 years down the line (and) these people have become icons. They've become figures who exist above us with this kind of myth that people reach that level because they're genius; people reach that level because they're special or different. I hope what I put across as both respectful and also honest is showing them as real people. In the end, the difference between a John Purkey (Machine, Sleeper Cell) – who is my favorite guy in Tacoma – versus Kurt is one compromises more in the direction of pop music … and that's legitimate. But I hope what people will draw from it is … these are people doing something someone like you or I could have a go at. The fact that it succeeds is completely separate to the act, which is simply to go out, create something you're proud of, make music … make connections and be friendly. I hope that comes across very well.”