Nirvana - Nevermind

Each month we take a look at a classic track or album and discuss it from a music production perspective, examining any sonic innovations that took place during its recording. This month we focus on Nirvana's 'Nevermind'; taking a look at some of the ways in which producer Butch Vig, got the best out of the band.

Being a producer is more than just knowing how to mic up a drum kit and how to set up a noise gate. A huge part of working with artists is man-management, and there are a few lessons to be learned from the ways in which Vig handled potentially tricky situations in the recording of 'Nevermind'.

A famous example of the producer winning Kurt Cobain around to his way of thinking concerns the singer's reluctance to double-track his vocals. Cobain was resistant to the technique until Vig informed him that John Lennon had double-tracked his vocals on numerous Beatles records. Cobain was a huge Beatles fan and promptly agreed to do it.

The hardest track on the album to get right was the song, 'Something In The Way'. The band, who were set up in the live room, couldn't seem to play the track quietly enough and eventually Cobain came back through into the studio's control room in frustration. He lay down on the couch and picked up his battered old acoustic guitar and began to play very, very quietly, telling Vig 'it needs to sound like this'. Realising that there was something special in the way that Cobain was playing the song right there and then, Vig turned off the air-conditioning in the control room and unplugged the telephone. He set up mics around the singer and recorded him playing the track sitting there on the couch.

Building the rest of the track around this performance was painstaking. Cobain's timing wasn't perfect, and the guitar that he used only had five strings and wasn't in tune! However, what Vig was smart enough to realize was that the magic in Cobain's performance was the reason the song was going to work, and any extra work that needed to be done in the studio was going to be more than worthwhile.