The Members of Nirvana Talk About What the Band Name Means to Them in an Unaired 1990 Interview

The early members of Nirvana (Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Chad Channing) sat down in the Husky Union Building at the University of Washington Seattle with Matt Emery of Air Waves in 1990 to talk about the band. The interview was filmed for KIRO-7 but never made it to air.

This interview was intended for the short-lived KIRO-7 Seattle television show “Air Waves” but the series was cancelled and this historic footage never aired.

Before they got started, however, Emery asked each member to define what Nirvana meant to them.

Matt Emery: What and who is Nirvana

Krist Novoselic: Nirvana’s three guys from Puget Sound area Olympia, Bainbridge Island, and Tacoma. Nirvana is a seven letter word and Nirvana is a as a concept. 

Kurt Cobain:  Nirvana is a three piece underground alternative grunge rock band from Seattle Washington or the outskirts of Seattle Washington and that’s about it.

Chad Channing: Nirvana are three people, Me and my two friends Kurt and Krist. Nirvana, well like, even the meaning, it’s kind of like the freedom from all pain and desire. You know, just a perfect place between peace and your mind I guess. 

After that introduction, the band talked about music in Seattle, their European tour, and what it was like being in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down.

Because there were so many people coming from East Berlin in the West Germany so we pretty much just experienced it on the highway and that’s it. We didn’t get to see the wall we didn’t get to see anything but the venue that night when we played but there was a lot of good feeling in the air, a good atmosphere.