| 11 April 2011
On April 5th '97, 3 years after Kurt Cobain's death, an almost 12 year old version of me was sitting watching MusiquePlus(Quebec's version of MTV). Having been recently introduced to rock music, and having just heard the name of Nirvana, my curiosity peaked when I heard about the anniversary of Nirvana's singer's death, and the quick tribute the host was about to pay him by playing a live version of Drain You, from MTV's Live and Loud concert at Pier 48 in Seattle.
Little did I know how much that single moment would guide the majority of the following years of my life's decisions and actions. I was too young to realize at the time, and perhaps easily impressed, but from that moment on, I decided this was what I wanted to do, this was the life I wanted. The stage, the rough look, the cigarette burning on my guitar etc. but more importantly, the music. I recorded the clip on my VHS, not knowing what Nirvana would sound like, but it was instant love, which quickly turned to obsession. I watched and watched the clip, and picked up a small toy guitar with one string, too loose to produce anything of quality, but I was able to figure out the main guitar line(it was quite simple really). A month later, on my birthday, I got my first guitar.
Fast forward almost 14 years later, skip all sorts of bad decisions, mistakes and experiences (including a trip to Seattle on Kurt's 10th anniversary - that would result in my coming to terms with all the negativity I took in from having a broken man as a role model growing up, but that's another story), I am now COO of a multi-national company. Somewhere along the way I lost the fire, or I grew up and lost the naivety that made me give up everything and everyone for years in the hope that it woudl make me a "rockstar", I don't know. My musical ranges and inspirations have since grown a lot, but there will always be a part of me that lives and breaths Nirvana. There will always be a part of me that owes where I am today to that one clip that would change my life.
And so, I've decided to pay a little tribute to Kurt, to the influence, good and bad that his life and music had on my life and music. It will consist of a series of acoustic covers of some of the darker, grungiest, and heaviest Nirvana songs, but mellowed down. I call it Unplugged in Montreal. Original, right? I've got about 10 songs in mind that I will be releasing over the coming weeks, maybe months, I'm not sure.
While Drain You would have been an appropriate first one, I chose to go with Heart-Shaped Box. I never really paid attention, when I was younger, to what the songs really meant, instead just engulfing myself in the atmosphere, the mood of the songs. But it's only as I sang the chorus that I realized the sarcasm, cynical-ism and irony of these words; forever in debt to your priceless advice.
Click here to see the video.
And here is the Drain You clip, the 3 minutes that changed my life!
