For Krist's Sake
Krist Novoselic has more to talk about than his days in Nirvana.
Not that Novoselic wants to do so by running for office. "I get asked about that so much, not because I'm so political, but because so many people are apolitical. I'm really not that into politics. I read the paper and I watch the news, and then I go about my life, which is connecting with people and friends and collaborating on art and work."
To that end, Novoselic has lately been working on an amateur film about, he says, "punk rock and yoga" -- a combination that seems bizarre to most folks but makes perfect sense to him. "To me, they're the same thing, because they're both about liberation and expressing yourself in a way that works for you," he points out. "And that's what I'm doing. I'm filming, doing the script, doing the editing, directing it, the whole thing. It's do-it-yourself, just like punk rock. You can just make a film for yourself, and some people will get it and some people won't. But even if they don't, it's like, 'Oh well. That's what I had to say.'"
Novoselic looks at his years in Nirvana in much the same way, despite the mythology that's sprung up around the band -- a legend that at times threatens to entomb him before his time. "To me, the trap is not so much Nirvana," he says. "The trap is what Nirvana has become to our culture. I'm really proud of Nirvana, and I'm happy that I was in it, and I think it's really wonderful that so many people have a really sincere connection to it. But the way things work in the media economy, you've got to keep those pages full so you can get the advertising, and Nirvana is such a compelling story that it's always dragged up. Now, there's been some really good reporting about the band that I've really enjoyed, and a lot of people have really hit it on the head. But there's also been a lot of irresponsible crap: scandal-mongering, conspiracy theories. All this stuff that's just been cooked up. And it's competing for eyeballs with the good stuff."
Obviously, Novoselic's goals for Nirvana didn't include spawning artifacts like 1998's Kurt and Courtney, a film that insinuated that Cobain was knocked off by his wife, Hole's Courtney Love; in his words, "Nirvana was a revolutionary band." But, he goes on, "the music industry didn't want the revolution to happen. That's why they thought up the word alternative. They saw that there was this undercurrent of bands rising up, and they were like, 'Oh, my God, this is going to kick the status quo out. So what do we call this? Let's call it alternative, so that way, it'll miss its target. Instead of obliterating the status quo, it'll just move to the right or left of it as an alternative to the status quo. And the status quo will be fine.'" Suddenly, he effects a Nixonian tone: "'Gentlemen, there's a dangerous force out there, and we are in great peril. It's called' -- whatever it was called -- 'punk rock. The masses are ready to eat it up, and I'm looking at our returns. So let's call it alternative.' And the rest of them are like, 'Brilliant!'"
That Novoselic laughs at the end of this performance is reassuring. He knows that the main reason people are listening to his political views is his celebrity, and he's more than happy to trade on that fame if it helps him accomplish his goals. "It's like when you develop film," he says. "You turn a negative into a positive." But his background in a revolutionary band notwithstanding, he's no anarchist himself.
"There's all this mistrust of politicians and of government and the whole none-of-the-above mentality, and I find that disturbing," he says. "We don't live under the influence of a military junta or a totalitarian regime. We have a great system here, and a great constitution that's very enduring. That's why I argue that the United States is one of the greatest countries in the world."
