There’s moments in all our lives where we look back at our younger selves and cringe just a bit. For Dave Grohl, one of those moments just happens to be from his time with one of the biggest bands in the world.
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A new excerpt from Paul Brannigan’s 2011 biography This Is A Call: The Life And Times Of Dave Grohl details the Nirvana album that Dave Grohl doesn't like listening back on. That album is In Utero.
“That album captured a moment in time for the band, and it’s definitely an accurate representation of the time… which was dark,” Grohl said.
“It’s a f*****g dark album. I don’t like listening to that record. It’s a weird one for me. I hear songs on the radio every once in a while, and I like the sonic difference of hearing ‘All Apologies’ or ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ come on in the middle of a bunch of compressed, Pro-Tooled modern rock radio music, because it stands out, but lyrically and conceptually it’s not something that I like to revisit too often. But maybe what I love the most about that album is the sound of urgency, and the sound of the three of us in a room playing.”
Grohl goes on to discuss how In Utero served as a response to the massive success Nirvana experienced with their previous record Nevermind.
“Nevermind and In Utero are two totally different albums,” Grohl said. “Nevermind was intentional, as much as any revisionists might say it was a contrived version of Nirvana, it wasn’t: we went down there to make that record, we rehearsed hours and hours and hours, day after day, to get to Nevermind. But In Utero was so different. There was no labored process, it was just… bleurgh… it just came out, like a purge, and it was so pure and natural.”
Although Grohl clarifies that he’s “proud” of both records, it’s not a period of time that he really wants to look back on. “Obviously In Utero was a direct response to the success and sound of Nevermind” We just pushed ourselves in the other direction, like, ‘Oh really, that’s what you like? Well, here’s what we’re going to f*****g do now!’” Grohl said.
“But it is a hard album for me to listen to from front to back. Because it’s so real, and because it’s such an accurate representation of the band at the time, it brings back other memories, it kinda makes my skin crawl.”
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