In an interview with Rick Beato, record producer Butch Vig recalled recording Nirvana’s ‘Lithium.’ As the producer revealed, the track from their hit album ‘Nevermind’ was done with a click track. And one thing about it broke Dave Grohl’s heart.
“The only song that was done to a click track was ‘Lithium,'” Vig said. “They started playing, as soon as they kicked in, it sped up. Kurt [Cobain] said, ‘What do we do? I just don’t like the way this is feeling.’ I pulled Dave aside and said, ‘Have you ever played to a click?’ And he said, ‘No, why?’ ‘I think maybe we should try it.'”
Their attempt was successful, and the band ended up getting the song in one take: “I always carry this tiny little Roland drum machine with me. He said, ‘I’ll go try it tonight.’ And he came in the next day, we roll the click. ‘Lithium,’ first take, boom, done. Perfect. I was just like, ‘Oh my God, Dave Grohl is a machine.'”
“He told me years later that when I asked him to play with a click track, I broke his heart, but only for one day,” Vig revealed.
After releasing their debut album, ‘Bleach,’ on Sub Pop, Nirvana began working on a follow-up with Vig. However, during their first round of sessions at Vig’s studio, drummer Chad Channing left the band. Mudhoney’s Dan Peters briefly stepped in for ‘Sliver’ before Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic met Grohl.
“When I joined I hadn’t heard any of the music they had recorded with Butch Vig months before [in Madison, Wisconsin, in April 1990],” Grohl said of the making of ‘Nevermind.’ “Originally those recordings were meant to be the next Sub Pop record, but that fell apart. When they played me those demos – they considered them demos – ‘Breed’ was then titled ‘Imodium.'”
“I loved that riff, I loved the chorus, the simplicity of melody. ‘Lithium’ was there and ‘In Bloom.’ ‘In Bloom’ was the song that they had invested the most faith into. They had made a video for it and the production was amazing. I heard those songs and thought, ‘Wow, these guys have really taken a giant leap, from ‘Bleach’ to this new material,'” he added.
Although Grohl later admitted that he didn’t expect ‘Nevermind’ to be so successful, it ended up being a massive hit. It changed the lives of the band and their inner circle and also touched millions of people who deeply connected with the music and Kurt Cobain’s lyrics.
