Nirvana’s final album, In Utero, is a certified grunge classic, and there was a good reason why, according to Kurt Cobain, who cited a “very in-your-face and real” technique they used while recording to capture the sound that the album has become so well known for.
Back in 1993, Cobain spoke about In Utero with Guitar World writer Jon Savage, who noted that the record had a “claustrophobic” sense to it. “I think so, yeah. The main reason we recorded the new album In Utero, with [producer] Steve Albini, is he is able to get a sound that sounds like the band is in a room no bigger than the one we’re in now.”
“In Utero doesn’t sound like it was recorded in a hall, or that it’s trying to sound larger than life. It’s very in-your-face and real,” he explained. “Technically, I’ve learned that the way to achieve that is to use a lot of microphones. I’ve known that for years, ever since I started recording, because microphones are so directional that if you want ambient sound, you need to lose a lot of tracks. Or you need to use an omnidirectional microphone, farther away from the instruments, so you can pick up the reverberation from the walls.”
Cobain went on to confess that he had “no idea” how many mics they used while recording In Utero, but it was “a lot.”
“We had big old German microphones taped to the floor and the ceiling and the walls, all over the place,” he recalled. “I’ve been trying to get producers to do this ever since we started recording. I don’t know anything about recording, but it just seems so obvious to me that that is what you need to do.”
Cobain also revealed that he had attempted to try out this method once before, but didn’t get very positive feedback, saying, “I tried to get [Nevermind producer] Butch Vig to do it, I tried to get [Sub Pop producer] Jack Endino to do it, and everyone’s response was, ‘That isn’t how you record.’”
“Steve Albini proved to me on these songs, although I don’t know exactly how he did it; I just knew that it had to be done that way,” Cobain said. “He had to have used a bunch of microphones. It’s as simple as that. Which is why live recordings of punk shows sound so good. You really get a feel of what is going on.”
The post ‘Very In-Your-Face and Real’: Kurt Cobain Described Recording Technique That Gave ‘In Utero’ Its Classic Sound appeared first on VICE.
