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My Embarrassing Interview With Kurt Cobain (Sept. 20, 1991)

by Dead City Beat

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EDIT: While you're here, check out my current project, Red Arms (redarms.bandcamp.com)

This is a terrible interview

I am not feigning self-deprecating modesty when I say this, this is objectively terrible by all journalistic standards. It is so for the following reasons:

1) my questions were poorly crafted because
2) my research was incomplete and inaccurate

I decided to release this now for the following reasons:

1) it’s still history, despite how poorly done the interview was, and
2) my friends keep bugging me to post this trash fire.

So here you go, jerks.

This is the entire unedited recording of the interview, inarticulate musings and all.

For context, the recording starts while Kurt Cobain and I were having a casual conversation about censorship. Specifically, he was asking if we had something similar to the PMRC that was attempting to censor artists. This is where the recording starts. It ends with him patiently recording a “Station ID” promo for my university radio station, CHRW in London, Ontario, Canada. In between is well… yeah… not great.

To Mr. Cobain’s credit, he was remarkably patient and kind considering how not well prepared I was.

This interview was recorded on Sept. 20, 1991 at the Opera House in Toronto, Ontario. I was 21 years old at the time and I didn’t know much. I was just starting to play in bands. A few years later, I experienced a little bit of success when Scratching Post was formed (I was the original drummer and original co-writer for the first E.P as well as the first major single, “Blood Flame”). After a less-than-amicable split from the group, I focused on my other band Sifter (later known as Sanseiru) until that project ended in 2004. At about that same time, I started Dead City Beat as a solo project, focusing mostly playing stuff that I couldn’t play with my other bands, mainly noise and dub influenced post punk. In 2013 I cofounded Red Arms with Eric Longtin and as of today we’re still going strong. Dead City Beat isn’t dead, just on hiatus :)

Final take-away from that interview. As we spoke I got a vague sense that he wasn’t really enjoying their success. I couldn’t understand it. I was so enamoured with and envious of his talent and success I just couldn’t understand how he could have been so indifferent to it. A few years later it became very clear why. When I reflected on this experience, I realized that success doesn’t mean a goddamn thing if your world is falling apart. Depression is a cruel thief that bankrupts your life with one fleeting moment of joy at a time. It still bums me out.

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released November 2, 2018

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Dead City Beat London, Ontario

and Red Arms (redarms.bandcamp.com)

Dead City Beat is an experimental project from the urban black hole of London, ON. Dead City Beat fell out of the post punk movement, borrowing elements from dub, noise, punk and psychedelia. Dead City Beat’s sound is varied, almost manic. It's what urban radio should sound like... ... more

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