Recording Nirvana: Drain You (Butch Vig Breaks It Down In The Studio)
2009 ж. 10 Қаз.
2 076 054 Рет қаралды
My favorite Nirvana song, and the best video clip yet. Butch Vig deconstructs the song Drain You. Like the other videos, this is one is of him behind the console in the studio soloing out sections of the song and talking about how they made the record. Tip of the hat to "Classic Albums" & EagleRock Entertainment.
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"That's pretty grungy" As he mixes Nirvana
Ikr. He clearly doesn't know much about grunge. How could you called a punk rock band grungy. He was manipulating kurt the whole time to make it sound less and less punky, while he polished all of his music. To me that's like changing the colors in an artists painting.
lvlultiplication grunge is not a fucking term given to nirvana by the media. No they didn’t like it. We don’t call nirvana punk because they AREN’T listen to sex pistols and say that they are the same genre as nirvana.
The Burning Candles TBCX To quote german punk band Wizo: If one tries to tell me what punk is and what's not, i'll shit him in the face because i don't need new rules. On a side note, i personally like both Pistols and Nirvana, but surely you know as well as i do that the Sex Pistols where sort of a casting band, right? Sid made the band only because of his looks, not really being able to play his instrument. He was in the band because he sort of was a personification of punk attitude, transported a certain image. So there's that. Punk attitude and mentality is something i see very much in Nirvana, complete with the whole no future yadda yadda on Cobains part. Lastly, if you want to boil it down to pure music, then compare Tourettes by nirvana with Pretty vacant. Anyways, why someone would feel the need to restrict the use of the term punk and unisono claiming to have the authority to decide what goes and what doesn't is beyond me. Sounds kind of Punk conservative to me, pal.
ShitForBrains Doe You restrict the use of the term punk because words require restrictions in order to have a definition in order to have any coherent meaning at all. We both know punk isn’t defined as “hotdogs with ketchup and a girl in a dress playing Hank Williams country and having a nice time in a monogamous relationship,” right? Well, I hate to break it to you, but you just restricted the definition of punk a little bit.
Probably took out some of the punk elements to make more money, but I do think that the engineer is an artist in their own right. If you don't want the engineer to have any creative input then just don't hire one.
I could literally spend hours, days, months with these master-tapes and not get bored
so true, i wish i had copies of those 😔
+Marc Davis Yeah it's cool, but this album is a bit over-produced in my opinion. Also Garbage were shit.
Yea same
Shoegazer 93 i think it sounded amazing, far from being my favourite of their albums, but amazing.
RIDE
for everyone that says Butch mANiPuLated Kurt into recording more tracks, he knows what he's doing and the end product sounds amazing. Sometimes the musicians need to see from a different point of view but Kurt would never have recorded more tracks if he didn't have to and we would never have had the drain you that we have, it's really good and Butch did a great job on it. Also, Kurt obviously liked the sound otherwise he would have made Butch rerecord everything, so it's not like Butch did it against his will.
id kill for him to produce a single one of my songs
The part with the single guitar sounded kinda dry. The album wouldnt be what it is now if it wasnt for Butch’s white lies
@@Churroboyyy I'd call it 'creative revisions' hehe
There's not a great band without a great producer behind.
Who the fuck are u?
Can just imagine Kurt smiling maniacally and squeaking a small duck toy, then suddenly just ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.
it was dave yelling
Yes, that was the scream of a tortured genius. He said "Dave's snare fill"...not snarl, or whatever some people are hearing to make them think it was Dave screaming. 100% Kurt.
Had to have been intense.
Migwel Swanchez You wish... That screaming belongs to Cobain, Grohl can only ever dream of having a screaming range like Cobain's.. I still like Dave though....but only as a drummer.. 🤘✌👍👍👍👍👍
No
Five guitars overdub, no wonder I have problems getting the sound right with my amp..haha
Yea lol
@Yağız Kara hey
Men, saludos. Que buenos covers haces
hey) didn't expect to see you here hello fom раша
@@Tomnedreb ❤️ from DC
3:08 "here's the super grunge ...it's pretty grungy" (smiles) made my day
The best grunge band is pearl jam, but the best punk band is, of course, black flag. Without them nirvana wouldn't be the same.
lvlultiplication what would you classify alice in chains as? Back when Layne was the lead singer.
Mind Flowers they're like sludgy, but not super sludgy enough to be sludge metal. Except for their self titled album, that one was super heavy.
...the hell is sludge metal, stop it.
I especially love how the Wikipedia entry on "sludge metal" lists Black Sabbath as an example...apparently everything has to be put in a category and there has to be a category for everything.
Butch is the reason why this album sounds amazing.
Him and Andy Wallace!
@@louismullens2783 Exactly. Listen to the deluxe edition. Vig captured a good signal but his mix is static and murky. (nothing wrong). But Wallace elevated it to an iconic sculpture inside the punchy SSL G series desk.
i dont know....kurt dave and krist ?
Yeah Butch and Andy made it sound amazing, very full poppy-grunge sound. But I reckon In Utero sounded better.
@@Cobain_5150 The topic here is the engineering. The musicianship obviously speaks for itself. It all works together.
"I was lying basically, saying "There's a problem with the track, it didn't record properly, or it's out of tune or something. So let's do it again." So he thought he was doing the same part over and over." I fucking died.
Super Cuts So did kurt
But if it "wasn't heavy enough for him," doesn't that mean Kurt WANTED to add more guitars? Something is off here
Russell Carstens He clearly says big enough for me, as in referring to himself.
It's a common trick, I've gotten some of the best vocal takes while I was doing "test" recordings ;)
Super Cuts it probably caused Kurt’s suicide...
Favorite Nirvana song of all time.
Scentless_Apprentice same
same
Same
Yeah, it’s a perfect Nirvana tune - heavy, but thoughtful.
Ditto! A masterpiece
I wish he broke down every song from the album
Got a link to that amigo?
kzhead.info/sun/ZdCuZJyIb5aQh6M/bejne.html
He does, this is from the BBC classic album series
@@1conor do you have link for “on a plain”?
When in doubt.....add more guitars....
ahahaha true
+Mike Patton jeje
love you, Jesus
Worked for The Smashing Pumpkins
or if you're Mike Patton, add whatever the fuck you want
So happy to find out that giant tone was carefully crafted. No wonder my Jaguar never ever sounded like this!!!
Yeah, I was always very frustrated not knowing how to get my guitar tracks to sound this FULL. I'd tried everything---different pedals, different compressors. I almost got something I was happy with when I started double tracking, but still; it still didn't sound as "layered" as my favorite rock records. It didn't occur to me until I saw this goddamn video---and maybe read about how Grohl multitracked his vocals on his debut Foo Fighters record several times out of vocal insecurity---did I finally realize I'd been too conservative, that it's about a lot more tracking (each with varying, complementary tone of course).
You have to be careful with it because it can also run things to sludge if you keep tracking similar guitar sounds. I've recorded a lot of bands with two guitarists who just lazily double everything without having individual parts and it can sound bad. But also it gives much more power in the live sound done properly. Nirvana never got the sound of their records live until they brought in the second guitar in pat smear, especially using Mustangs and Jaguars (guitars I love, but for playing clean stuff, they can lack power).
He does. I have the Classic Albums dvd it’s from.
I think the talent of the Butch Vig is often underestimated. His work is so critical in defining the songs as have we come to love them. And not just Nirvana...
entirely ok with you !!
Garbage is an extremely underrated band
Squishy mouse if officially an instrument now
*is
+6stringsdummy get a life
+Russell Cameron after you
fuck u indonesian...
FuckIndonesian indonesianshit whats up between Indonesian and Malasyan ?
Love the way he overdubbed that guitar.
yes
Hell yes sounds really full and powerful
I could listen to Butch do this with all the music he produced.
the steam noises and squeeky toy are brilliant touches. They're so iconic in the song
I could listen to Butch talk forever,he's an absolute legend!!
Had the pleasure of meeting Butch at the height of Garbage's tour.What a true gentleman and genuinely down to earth person.
Everytime I hear Kurt's voice it sends chills down my spine
Kurt had one of the best screams in music. 😆
Personal E-mail. I've read that Kurt was a huge fan of the Pixies which isn't surprising. I think it's safe to credit Frank Black for a decent stake of the inspiration for Kurt's patented primal tantrum scream. I can hear a direct lineage back to this particular scream at 1:20 of this song: kzhead.info/sun/ZremnbeHqoaKpok/bejne.html
@@MonkyMonk729 I think the lineage of screams like that go all the way back to Lennon's I want you (She's so Heavy)kzhead.info/sun/p6WeYrWXg5qPa58/bejne.html
I think it might have some origin with The Doors, I feel like he would have have heard Morrison’s screams and thought “wow that’s cool” and ever since that he unintentionally screamed in reminiscent way to Morrison, because I hear a bit of Morrison ness in it. It could also have to do with his Meat Puppets influence, because if u listen to the record version do Lake of Fire (Meat Puppets 2) there is a part where Curt Kirkwood screams a bit, and doing it life was even more prominent. That’s my theory
Check out Well well well by john lennon. I bet Kurt was inspired by this track.
He did
I've watched the part at 3:13 to 3:30 probably a few hundred times. So cool to hear the individual guitar parts and how they blend together to make a giant wall of sound.
That guy has the best job ever
His voice is just beautiful, he is a lovely soul wish he could be here with us.
He is still here in spirit. Check this out. kzhead.info/sun/gLuvntKniqp7fHA/bejne.html
4:25 when I hit a piece of furniture with my little finger
damn that make laugh so hard
Travis Edwards 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
that's the sound when i stub my toe on the bed post
Travis Edwards what kind of psychopath does that?
JAJAJAJA exacto
Just gorgeous. The engineer/mixer/producer is definitely the extra member of the band when done right, like this.
When you finally hear how he stacked all those guitar tracks on top of each other and listen to the final result, Man, that just sounds amazing!
This guy played a big part in two of my favorite albums Nevermind from Nirvana and Siamese Dream from Smashing Pumpkins
He also do the same thing to foo fighter on wasting light album and make it a one of the great album ever.
@Barry McHawkiner Shame Corgan did the vocals on it. His voice is fucking awful in tone and he could never actually sing. Also nobody gives a fuck about Smashing Pumpkins anymore. Shows how memorable those songs were I guess. Now if you'd said The Bends or OK Computer then fair enough.
@@MS-eb8cf Speak for yourself dude. Smashing Pumpkins still fills arenas every time they play, so obviously a few people still like them.
@@MS-eb8cf the main difference is that the pumpkins have had plenty of time to deminish their legacy by putting out garbage. Nirvana's stuff is frozen in time.
@@MS-eb8cf 😂😂 dude shut up
4:26 when u find out butch has been over dubbing guitars behind your back
Kurt loved playing this live. It is such a cool sounding tune. What an album.
butch vig is a genius
He is so humble considering this song is a masterpiece.
This has always been my favorite Nirvana song. I am glad so much extra work went into it's recording.
Genius! He pulled off the greatest record in 20 years of rock....
The Guitar sounds AMAZING on this track! Whole album sounded AWESOME. Butch is the man 🙏🏻💪🏻🙏🏻💪🏻
I could watch vids like this one for hours
I'd like to take a moment of silence to thank Butch Vig for giving us the masterpiece of Nevermind.... .... Thank you.
I only have one complaint about this. It is about 7 hours short.
Jmpsthrufyre * 665 years ago fucking facts
HEY, WAIT, I HAVE A NEW COMPLAINT. This comment is now 666 years old
2:04 - Butch Vig, everyone.
Finbar Murphy Eh?
Click on the time link, Buch says “it still didn’t feel big enough for me.”
but he says "it still didn't *sound big enough..."
I love this stuff. I don't care what band or artist it is, I looooove seeing how they mix music and come up with ideas. I could hate the band and still love watching this stuff. It's a fine art, and Kurt always got a phenomenal guitar sound.
Vig also "tricked" Kurt into doubling his vocal lines by telling him that John Lennon used to double his vocals as well.
Lennon did double his vocals! Just listen to Ticket To Ride.
@@icecreamforcrowhurst Lennon did it, because he didn't like his voice
One mention of Lennon and Kurt was in!
Well it was true
Lol
Butch Vig is a badass. He's done some amazing mixes.
A lot of people don’t understand the success of a lot of artist comes from the producers and the engineers! They do so much.
Love how he says he lied to him
Probably the only way to get him to agree to it
The intro to Drain You is just so simple. Kurt's vocals and a guitar part. Yet it sounds so fuckin good. Whenever I listen to Drain You, I always keep repeating the intro over and over bc it sounds so cool.
Yeah it sounds so clean..love it
Just another example of having the proper producer adding to the genius of the band. Phenomenal 😎🎭✌️
Lol after watching this entire documentary and the bonus stuff it's clear that butch vig essentially scammed Kurt Cobain into recording nevermind lol.
Hey dude! What's the name of the documentary? Id like to watch it in its entirety but I can't find the name. Thanks!
Classic Albums : Nevermind
You can only see these clips in the U.K for some reason
scammed how? didn't they sign a record deal?
No. He mean that Butch lied many times to Kurt in order to produce the album in the way he wanted to
FUCK YES, a detailed layering of the guitar tracks. I could listen to Butch dissect these tracks for days..
One of the greatest screams in all of Rock music comes on Butch Vig: "Oh and here's Dave's snare fill!"
Lol 😂 right !?
Yooo we need more of these
The bassman sounds so good
So does the Mesa
Nirvana cana To me that's the best part of the whole song! It wasnt the Super grunge that made this an official grunge song, it was those Bassmans!
Man, they should have done a multi-track runthrough of all the songs on Nevermind, especially my personal favorite " On A Plain". The harmony vocals at the end. Kurt and Dave do a similar thing on "All Apoligies."
Quite possibly the greatest record ever recorded. Thank you for producing it.
Kurt`s vocals are insane. Angry, desperated and strong at the same time. Overdubbed it became more powerfull !The guitars are so fine too. He hold on the melody (you... you... you.. quack, quack, shhhhhh... shhhhh......) to explode in chorus. This make you wanna jump em broke evereything arround you. Drain you has an experimental side that a love so much just like Aneurysm. I wish Areurysm was recorded and mixed in Nevermind. I wonder how beautiful In Utero would be if has overdubbed vocals and guitars.
That would be good to hear as well as hearing Nevermind mixed and produced as In Utero was with Steve Albini behind it. Would make for a couple very interesting listens
Was it just me or did anyone else expect him to ‘breakdown’ as in ‘I really miss Kurt’ breakdown.
@@willclark6694 I almost hate In utero meanwhile. It has way too much anti-attitude. Kurt just wanted to act like he is that young punk rock kid next door that is still dissatisfied. In the biography CAYA he says indirectly that he listened to Nevermind a lot.
I wish I had a producer like this for my album
Where do you live?
Pay them lol
@@mosheparanov🤨
I was a teen when this album came out and me and my friends were mystified at how big the sound was for a 3 piece band. Now I know why!
Oh my dear lord. I've never seen this until now. This is wonderful! Thank you!
this videos are incredible, thank you
Genius. That guitar sound is amazing
i wish this video was maybe.... an hour longer. this is probably my favorite nirvana song on my favorite nirvana album
Masterpiece. Thanks Butch!
It's amazing how this album sounds so clean and so powerful at the same time. Butch Vig did a marvelous job.
Wow, I thought it was just one guitar all along, just mixed well. Maybe two tracks to make it more stereo. It really does have a wide orchestral sound. Butch Vig is the reason why Nevermind sounded so good I'd love to have each track individually and mess around mixing it, it'd probably just ruin the perfection of it though. Would be great to make some kind of disco remix though
This man is the true genius behind the sound!
Quite possibly my favorite track from the band. The build up in the middle and then the release. Awesome.
Awesome video. Hands down my favorite nirvana song.
This is my fav song on Nevermind. Loved to see how this was mixed. I never heard those "steam" vocal effects until now! Or the squeaky toys. That's sick.
I've always thought it was amazing how much time, energy, talent, and thought goes into a song that 99% of the world will never hear.
Huh? Nevermind has sold more than 10 million copies; believe me, a shitload of people have heard/will hear this song.
@@Carlos-xz3vi They hear the song but they don't necessarily hear all the time, effort, and skill put into it. Like looking at a painting without seeing the hundreds of layers of paint underneath it
My favorite Nirvana song! This is so cool! Thanks for the upload!
I LOVE THESE VIDEOS
Kurts screaming track without effects and then he's like oh there's Dave's snare fill
With all this studio work on the albums, Nirvana sounded real good live. In my car, I'm listening to, 'From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah'. Good stuff.
Recordings were made from 1989 to 1994 and there's a whole teams credited for engineering, mastering, production and mixing. Seems reasonable to assume some overdubbing happens on that record.
@@marjoleinfokkemahe’s saying that they had a full sound in their live performances, even though pretty much everyone at this point recognizes the music from their studio recordings or ensemble performances like the unplugged show
thanks for posting this. incredible
Butch Vig is awesome! Love watchin videos with him talking about records he has worked on! He shares so much of his process!
i did not want this to end
Nirvana made me want to be a band but these videos made me think I could actually do it. This dude talks about making masterpieces like its normal. And now I have a show at the end of the month with my band so it all worked
everyone wants to be a band.... even Kurt when became Nirvana was happy.
A master at work, amazing..
I love this so much. This is so amazing and funny at the same time. What a great guy.
Butch Vig tricking Kurt so he could get all the takes he needed is one of my favourite little facts about Nirvana.
That Mesa though
cnpanesar98 was gonna say the same thing lol. Absolutely perfect distortion
Agree the mesa sounds quality
The mesa sounds so good. Wish I could find a pure recording
Boogies are the meat of most hard rock and metal in the 90s and 2000s. Of course, because they sound amazing. :)
I love the intro of this song. the guitar sounds so cool, very industrial. its my favorite tone of the album
this is so awesome, butch is a legend!
Makes me want to become an audio engineer =P
its really fun. :)
Yeah well it's alright but you'll always be angry that you're not on of the musician.
well, usually audio engineers know how to play music as well. :)
Good luck getting paid in 2018 bud
It's a nice dream, and this video makes it look like it's such an agreeable and cool job.
Honestly, the guy was spot on and built a damned fine track. It's my favorite Nirvana track and it wouldn't have been the same without him.
The guitar tracks put together sound AMAZING. That's amazing. I'll remember that for production
Favorite song of theirs. I love that intro.
*Epic scream from Kurt* "Here's Dave's snare fill." -.- That snare roll sounded sick, though.
The Mesa tracks sound amazing. I could listen to the clean part all day long.
A glorious sound!
That's really awesome to watch the song being made. I wish they had more videos like that
"It's got a pretty glorious sound." - Understatement of the year. It was pretty fucking epic! This was one of my favorite songs on this album. The sound effects sealed the deal. I always loved the rubber mouse and steam sounds... and that guttural scream. What a song and what a mix. I wish this video went to the end!
From the classic albums vh1 series on never mind ... it’s on Amazon prime now
I CAN WATCH THIS SHIT ALL DAY LONG
Absolutely astounding.
I love you Butch! This is so freakin awesome!
This guy is going to produce my album. That's it.
He'll lie to you...
And he will make you do overdubs
Walter Stevenson - he will make you record the entire album in one take on a single stereo mic in a church.
Steve Albini is better
@@theblakex 💯 he can definitely make a proper album. Him and Jack Endino.
I always thought that the squeaky mouse toy he's talking about was from a guitar string being scratched. Great video.
Pure genius work!
This is awesome, my favorite song off of this album too.
imagine if when they played this live some guy ran on with a squeaky mouse toy, wouldve been great
Josh Kernick mtv unplugged with only squeaky mouse
BrxIghtside It would've been hilarious if it was Dancing Tony at the 1992 Reading Festival.
I gotta Fever, and the only cure is more squeeky toy
The guitar hits in this song are sooo heavy
Best producer ever!!! Thx a lot 🤘🏻💪🏻
Beautiful Distortion. What an great Band was Nirvana. Love you all ❤