Catching Up with Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic: “Well, Let’s Just Do Whatever We Want to Do at This Point”

Krist Novoselic, the former bassist for the iconic grunge band Nirvana, is up to a lot of things today, musically and creatively. From those having to do with his famous band to new projects like his supergroup 3rd Secret, Novoselic is investigating his myriad interests.

The artist, who is based in Wahkiakum County, Washington, recently landed in Seattle (literally flying his own plane) a few days before Christmas and that’s when he connected with American Songwriter for a conversation about new work, Nirvana memories and a brief exploration into the reality of artificial intelligence.

[RELATED: 4 Songs You Didn’t Know Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic Wrote]

American Songwriter: What are you up to these days, musically?

Krist Novoselic: Well, you know, I released five records since 2017. And the last record I released was this year early summer, the second 3rd Secret record [with bandmates like Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil of Soundgarden]. But we haven’t played any shows yet. We’ve done some videos. So, like the videos we do are all live performances. Because we do like to play together and we’re all great musicians, I think, and so people want to see us play. So, there’s no, like, concept videos or artistique montage. The montage is just the music and they’re live performances, so that’s what we do.

AS: Do you have any plans for live shows coming up?

KN: Well, there’s never been any offers. Like, real offers. There’s been like, “Hey do you want to play in India?” “Do you want to play in the Farrell Islands?” Or, “Do you want to play … ?” But there’s never any money [laughs]. Yeah, we’d love to go to India. Or on a spiritual quest where we all vanish, I don’t know!

AS: That’s surprising, right? Because 3rd Secret is, well, a supergroup. With you and Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil, among others.

KN: Yeah! So, I got to push on it. If I push on it, maybe it will happen. But I was thinking about doing another video.

AS: Let me ask about songwriting, especially with 3rd Secret. When you are collaborating with another artist, how do you approach the enterprise?

KN: Well, the first record was a COVID record. So, some of that stuff was done remotely. Like, people would do a spot here or a spot there. And the second record was more like songwriting in a room. Or people had riffs already. So, there would be some songs—like, Jillian [Raye] and I had some songs or Matt had some songs and there were other instances when Kim and Bubba [Dupree] had a riff or I had a riff or riffs. And then we started to just go in the room.

And everybody’s like a filter—the other people are like filters. Like, “That’s great!” Or, “That’s not working.” Or, “How are we going to resolve this?” And I’m always like, “What does the song need for the personality of the song or what the song is emoting?” And then I expected other people—like, you decide to collaborate with other people and so you have, you know what to expect. You know them musically and what they’re capable of. And what they’ve done. And it just bubbles up to the surface. It’s expressed. One thing leads to another and you’ve got a song.

AS: Had you worked with Kim and Matt prior? Obviously you three share parts of a big history.

KN: A little bit. But not really. I worked with Kim in, like, 1999 at the NO WTO Combo and those were like, we were backing Jello Biafra, basically. And we came back—well, that’s the story of 3rd Secret. Kim and Bubba and myself and Alfredo Hernández, we were jamming in Seattle in, like, 2001. And we were recording in this warehouse and then I mixed these demos or ideas. I burned them on a CD, then one thing led to another and the band—just everybody went their own ways. Eventually, Soundgarden reunited and then, you know.

But during the COVID, I was cleaning things out. I was finding just boxes of analog stuff. Like, “What’s on this VHS tape?” And then, there was this old Macintosh computer. And this old VHS desk deck. So, I assembled it and started to transfer and review VHS tapes, like, “This is cool, this is cool.” But most of it was just junk or things that I didn’t own a copyright for anyway. But I’m going through CDs and this one just said “9-21-01” on it. That’s all it said. So, like, “Before I throw it out, I’d better listen to it.” Then, “Oh, I remember this! These are those jams we did with Bubba and Alfredo!” I sent them to Kim and he shared with Bubba, [and then we said], “Hey, let’s jam,” and I’m like, “Let’s do that.”

I did [the band] Giants in the Trees [a few years ago]. With Jillian, there was this one song and it eventually turned out to be that song, “I Choose Me.” I just sent it to Jillian and she put some vocals over it. And so, she goes, “Here’s some vocal ideas.” She came up with this big chorus and I just dumped it into Pro Tools and it was just, like, a stereo mix. So, I did some quick and dirty editing on the Pro Tools, like arranging. And there was this demo. I sent it to Kim and Bubba and they said, “This is great. Let’s jam!” So, Matt Cameron happened to have some studio time booked and he had some extra time—like, what he wanted to do was done. So, we just, off the cuff, went up there and we recorded it. And we just started going with it.

And Jillian and I had just a bunch of demos that we thought were going to be Giants in the Trees, but that band didn’t survive the pandemic. So, when you hear the first 3rd Secret record, there’s some songs that Matt and Kim and Bubba don’t even play on. And … it’s kind of Giants in the Trees, basically. And the second record is more of a rock record. The first record is this John Fahey folk-grunge record. Somebody called us the grunge Pentangle or Fairport Convention. And, like, yeah, I could see that. Especially because of the Fahey and the [John] Renbourn kind of stuff. And Bert Jansch. Then there’s grunge, too.

It seems like it threw a lot of people for a look, like, “What is this?” Right? … I know Matt, Kim and I have been through so much. So, we’re kind of like, “Well, let’s just do whatever we want to do at this point.” And then nobody’s heard our band, there’s no promotion. It’s not on a label. There’s people discovering it all the time, 3rd Secret.

AS: How did Giants in the Trees lead to this one? What did you learn from Giants that influenced 3rd Secret?

KN: Well, Giants in the Trees was handy because it was all in Wahkiakum County. And so [with 3rd Secret], half the band’s down in Seattle and half the band’s in the southwest corner of the state, so there’s that proximity thing. And Kim, Matt and I just share so many common experiences there’s an affinity.

AS: Does that come up when you’re together?

KN: Oh yeah, we talk about a lot of things. We talk about personal [things] like that because we’ve shared so many experiences. So, there’s just like a fellowship there, a camaraderie. So, that’s a bond for sure. We feel like peers. And then with Bubba, he’s in the trenches of punk rock.

AS: This is my one grunge question for you: Do you ever think it’s going to come back? Like, I’m surprised there aren’t bands out there today saying they are grunge.

KN: The grunge revival?

AS: Yeah, I’m surprised it’s not a bigger thing, strangely.

KN: Well, you know, the grunge went on. Nirvana ended in ’94 but grunge kept cranking into the ‘90s and beyond. And Nirvana just seems like its getting bigger and bigger. You know, there’s the t-shirts everywhere. And then just new generations of fans just keep discovering it and there’s something about it that there’s some kind of connection—something. I don’t know what it is. I can’t pinpoint it.

AS: It seems like culture repeats itself. There’s conversation about all the fashion from the ‘90s coming back, too. So I guess it makes sense that Nirvana is being rediscovered all over again. But I wonder why a band hasn’t stepped out and said, “We’re a grunge band!”

KN: There could be. Yeah, there could be. A lot of new bands—I heard a lot of new music on, like, terrestrial radio. There’s a station out of Seaside, Oregon and they play a lot of new music and new bands. But it’s like—it’s retro. You can just get a sound or an attitude or you can mix that up. And with 3rd Secret, that’s what we do. We’ve always done that grunge stuff. I could play grunge bass and then Matt’s on drums and Kim’s on guitar and Bubba, he does his thing. Then we throw it all for a loop with two women singers in front [including Jennifer Johnson]. And that just kind of happened!

AS: Since we’re at the end of the year, let me ask, what are your hopes for 2024, personally or professionally?

KN: I’m thinking about making a film with Bob Pyle—you know, I did that record on Butterfly Launches from Spar Pole. That came out in 2019, I think. And it was with … a lepidopterist, Dr. Robert Michael Pyle. So, he and I made this record and it’s like heavy John Fahey-influenced music. And he does spoken word about the natural world because of his scientific background. I know you can hear it on YouTube, you can find it. But there might be a movie version of that project, so we’ll see. Multi-media!

AS: Over the past few years, I’ve seen all these anniversaries for Nirvana albums like Nevermind and In Utero. What is it like to put these together for you? Does that tickle you?

KN: Oh, that’s a good question. Yeah, we did the In Utero 30-year anniversary and it’s just, like, “Wow, time flies!” That record is a real statement. … I mean, it’s still like a three-piece grunge band but there’s a lot of breadth to it. It doesn’t really just kind of hit you over the head with the same idea. And then there’s a lot of—it could be from like light and beautiful and then menacing and everything in between. And then you do these anniversaries and they’re just so fun to design and have a product. So, there’s all kinds of goodies that you get. Because people like the tactile—there’s a market for it. People just want to hold and own something and that’s how you—if people want it and they’re such fans, you know?

Then we worked AI. I could talk about that for a second. We used it as a tool for these live shows. So, there were these board tapes from Rome, Los Angeles, and Seattle and it was just a stereo mix off the mixing board off the live show. And then you could use AI to extract that—you could get a multi-track recording from it. You could isolate the instruments. And that’s as far as the artificial intelligence goes and then you get a human being like [producer/engineer] Jack Endino to mix it. So, it’s not really AI—it’s just a tool, right?

But you know I was driving through Seattle and I saw these posters for a Rolling Stones concert. You know, the mouth and the tongue, right? And then I was hearing a new Beatles song on the radio and it’s 2023! And to see that—that’s something we should really hold onto. Because it’s amazing—well, the Rolling Stones are coming to town. There’s a poster for it! There’s a new Beatles song out. I appreciate that. I pause for a moment as such a huge fan of those bands. Like, this is cool! That this is still part of our culture. That it’s relevant.

AS: Are those concerts you worked with AI on out?

KN: Yeah, it’s part of the In Utero [anniversary release]. And they’re not really AI. What they are, there’s a great band that were at the height of their powers, Nirvana. And we played these shows and we played them really well. And so that technology allowed us to just mix the sound better. In the old days, [it would be] “That’s what you get.” Maybe you could master it and tweak it a little bit. But now you can get a nice mix. But there’s no fake vocals, there’s no fake nothing. It’s all real. And that’s an appropriate use of that. It’s like a tool. Then there’s a whole other part, which is controversial, which should be. Because there needs to be discussions about it. We need to start talking about the reality of it.

Photo by Mat Hayward/Getty Images