Set for premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival on Wednesday, March 16, The Smart Studios Story documentary will focus in on the Madison, Wisconsin recording studio that’s responsible for albums like Nirvana’s Nevermind, Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish, L7’s Bricks Are Heavy and Everclear’s Sparks and Fade, among others.
Founded by producer and Garbage drummer Butch Vig in 1983, Vig explains to Billboard that the story behind the documentary is “is more about a scene, a snapshot of time in the Midwest and how we started the studio and the bands that came in were very underground, very do it yourself.” He goes on to say, “We were so far removed from the East Coast and West Coast we were left to our own devices, and slowly the bands that recorded there started to make some noise, which led to bands that exploded in the mainstream like Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins.”
Vig also explains some of the difficulties behind Nirvana’s Nevermind sessions, mentioning how Kurt Cobain would have “intense mood swings and just shut down.” “He would just go sit in a corner and disappear into his own space. Krist (Novoselic) would say, ‘He just goes into these moods and he’ll come out in awhile.’ So we’d find something to do for a couple hours, tweak the drums or work on bass sounds, and all of a sudden Kurt would pick up his guitar, ‘Let’s go.’ He’d be back, fully engaged. I just had to gauge when the timing ws right to go for takes.”
Check out a clip from the upcoming documentary The Smart Studios Story below:
[H/T Diffuser]