In a recent chat with Rock Feed, 3rd Secret’s Krist Novoselic and Kim Thayil got into the details about their latest record, ‘The 2nd 3rd Secret,’ and shared some opinions about their days with Nirvana and Soundgarden. Novoselic specifically explained whether their former bands would be as big as they are if they started today.
“If the grunge movement itself kicked off in 2023, but the technology landscape was where it was right now, do you think that Nirvana and Soundgarden would’ve reached the same levels in today’s industry?”
“No, and I’ll tell you why. Because what happened like in 1991 or 1999, 1990, there was no rock record like even in the top ten or number one. Rock was pretty cliché.”
Painting a picture of the rock scene in the ’90s, he added:
“It was like the bands; they made some good music. They were some good bands, but rock music needed something new. [Bon Jovi, Poison, Guns N’ Roses] were doing really well, but I don’t know. It just seems like there was something in the air.”
Novoselic went on to describe how Nirvana affected the music of that time:
“And then, overnight, there was just a new kind of rock music. But it was just kind of rock music anyway. Nirvana was – You know, we like the Beatles and Black Flag and Black Sabbath and punk rock. We were really like in punk rock, but we weren’t punk rock ideologues.”
The bassist explained what he meant by ‘ideologues,’ saying:
“Because I remember in the ’80s how they were like ideologues. And they would burn all their rock records because that was a false god, and those who espouse them were false prophets.”
Other Nirvana members talked about the effect of the band’s music and style on its fame before. In fact, Dave Grohl’s words in a 2021 chat supported what Novoselic shared in his recent interview. Because while the drummer was speaking of Nirvana’s debut album, ‘Bleach,’ back then, he told the Howard Stern Show:
“The cool thing about it was like it was noisy like dissonant punk rock cool songs, but then there was a song called ‘About a Girl’ in the middle of the record. It sounds like something off of an early Beatles record. It’s like a Lennon and McCartney song. You’re listening to, and you’re like, ‘Oh fuck! This kid can do that too? Holy shit!’”
