After Nirvana ended, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 and then Eyes Adrift, releasing one album with each band. From 2006 to 2009 he played in punk band Flipper, and contributed bass and accordion to the song "I Should Have Known" from the Foo Fighters' 2011 album Wasting Light.
Apart from his musical endeavors, Novoselic has been active politically, including the creation of the political action committee JAMPAC. From November 2007 until September 2010, Novoselic wrote a weekly column on music and politics for Seattle Weekly's website.
Biography
Early life (1965–1986)
Novoselic was born to Croatian immigrants Kristo and Marija Novoselić in Compton, California. He lived there for one year, before his parents relocated to the Los Angeles Croatian neighborhood of San Pedro, California, where he remained for most of his childhood. He has two brothers, Robert Alan Novoselic and Dillon Malloy Novoselic, and in 1973, Novoselic's sister Diana was born. The Novoselic family moved to Aberdeen, Washington in 1979, due to rising property prices in California. In 1980, his parents sent him to live with relatives in Zadar, Croatia, then part of SFR Yugoslavia. There, Novoselic attended the gymnasium. Novoselic was already interested in bands like Led Zeppelin, Devo, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and Aerosmith. He also enjoyed rock bands like Zabranjeno Pusenje, Prljavo Kazaliste and Azra. While in Croatia, he picked up an interest in punk rock, and discovered bands like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones. He has cited Paul McCartney, Geezer Butler, John Entwistle, and Gene Simmons as the fundamental influences of his bass playing.
Sometime later, Novoselic's brother Robert introduced him to his friend Kurt Cobain, who had noticed loud music coming from upstairs. Robert told Cobain that it was his older brother, who listened to punk rock. Cobain eventually befriended the elder Novoselic and the pair ended up sharing similar musical tastes, including a fondness for local band The Melvins. The two had several mutual friends and began hanging out shortly thereafter. Some time later, Cobain gave Novoselic a demo tape of his former band Fecal Matter. After several months, Novoselic finally listened to the tape, liked it, and agreed to start a band with Cobain.
Personal life
Novoselic has been married twice. His first wife was Shelli Dilley; he met her in high school, and they began dating in 1985. They were married in December 1989; they divorced in late 1999. In early 2004, Novoselic married artist Darbury Ayn Stenderu. He currently resides near Deep River, Washington, in rural Wahkiakum County, Washington.
He wrote a blog for the Seattle Weekly website from 2007 to 2010. He currently attends Lower Columbia College and is studying for a law degree.
Nirvana (1987–1994)
All about: Nirvana (band)
Cobain and Novoselic's first band lasted barely a few weeks before it disbanded, leaving the pair to move on. However, the duo eventually discovered that the Melvins could pull $80 a night for one show. Inspired, Cobain and Novoselic started a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover band, in which Cobain played drums and Novoselic sang and played guitar. That band was short-lived as well.[9] Some months later, Cobain and Novoselic met Aaron Burckhard. While the new band never used the name, it was the first incarnation of Nirvana.
Burckhard lasted barely a few months and Melvins drummer Dale Crover filled in until Novoselic and Cobain met Chad Channing. The trio recorded their debut album Bleach, released in 1989. Channing left the band in 1990 and was briefly replaced by Crover and Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters.
Later in 1990, Melvins singer-guitarist Buzz Osborne encouraged Novoselic and Cobain to check out a punk band called Scream. The pair were impressed by their drummer, Dave Grohl. A few weeks later, Scream disbanded, and Grohl placed a call to Osborne for advice. Osborne gave him Novoselic's phone number, and Novoselic invited Grohl up to Seattle, (San Francisco, where Scream broke up). Grohl passed the audition and joined Nirvana. A few months later, in the spring of 1991, the band recorded their major label debut, Nevermind, which launched the band as a worldwide phenomenon with their hit single "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
Nirvana ended abruptly in April 1994 following Cobain's death. For most of the rest of that year, Novoselic retreated from the spotlight. Novoselic and Cobain had been virtually inseparable for almost a decade, and the loss of his close friend was especially hard on him. One of few public appearances came that September at the MTV Video Music Awards, where the video for Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" was awarded for Best Alternative Video. Novoselic took the opportunity to pay tribute to his bandmate and best friend.
Post-Nirvana (since 1995)
The following year, Novoselic continued to dabble in musical endeavors. He was offered the position of playing bass in a new band, the Foo Fighters, with friend and former bandmate Dave Grohl but both decided against it because they believed people would think of Foo Fighters as a new incarnation of Nirvana. Novoselic instead formed the band Sweet 75 in 1995, releasing a single self-titled album in 1997. Even though he turned Foo Fighters down, in 2002 he performed uncredited background vocals on one song during the One by One album sessions. The track is "Walking a Line", released on the One by One bonus DVD and as an iTunes bonus track to the album, in a tribute to Cobain.
In 1998, Novoselic directed his first movie, L7: The Beauty Process, a pseudo-documentary that utilizes concert footage taped in 1997 in three American cities. In 1999, he joined Jello Biafra and former Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil in the No WTO Combo. He then joined former Meat Puppets front man Curt Kirkwood and former Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh to form Eyes Adrift, which disbanded in 2003. This band was significant as it was the first official release in his career where he sang lead vocals. He also took a highly active role in the song writing process, co-writing several songs with Kirkwood.
Following the end of Eyes Adrift, Novoselic announced that he was quitting the music business, noting that he disliked the process of building up publicity for new records. However, in recent years, Novoselic has occasionally worked on music for a possible solo album, noting, "Right now, I'm just doing it for myself, and that's what it's all about."
In November 2006, it was announced that Novoselic would join Flipper, replacing Bruno DeSmartas on bass, for a tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. He was a full time member of the band and had been working on their new album. On September 22, 2008, due to responsibilities at home, Novoselic announced his departure from the band. As a result, the band canceled the remainder of the tour. Rachel Thoele then replaced Novoselic. In 2009, he played a newspaper vendor in the movie World's Greatest Dad starring Robin Williams. In October 2010, Dave Grohl, former Nirvana band mate of Novoselic, announced live on BBC radio that Novoselic will be joining the Foo Fighters on their next album as a bassist and accordionist which was released in 2011: Wasting Light. Novoselic also played bass on children's music artist Caspar Babypants' (a.k.a. Chris Ballew of The Presidents of the United States of America's) 2010 album This Is Fun!, for a cover of the Nirvana song "Sliver."
Performance and recording with Foo Fighters
Novoselic's first experience with the Foo Fighters, as a guest musician, was performing backing vocals for a non-album track titled "Walking A Line," later released on a special edition of the band's album One by One. Later, during the encore of the Foo Fighters' secret show at Paladino's in Tarzana, California on December 22, 2010, the band, with Grohl on drums was joined onstage by Novoselic and the band's live guitarist Pat Smear for a version of Nirvana's "Marigold" a 1992 Grohl original, which was also a b-side on Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box", the first single from In Utero.Novoselic also recorded bass and accordion on the song "I Should Have Known", appearing on the Foo Fighters' 7th studio album called Wasting Light, released on April 12, 2011.
Politics
In 1992, the Washington state legislature attempted to pass a bill called the Erotic Music Law. The law would allow courts to declare certain albums "erotic" by their content, and would make it illegal to sell those albums to those under the age of 18. A lobbying group called the Washington Music Industry Coalition formed as a response to the bill. Novoselic and Nirvana actively campaigned against the bill and performed a benefit concert for the lobbying group in September 1992.
In 1995, the Erotic Music Law was reintroduced to the Washington State Legislature as the Matters Harmful to Minors bill. Noting that the music industry had serious clout in Seattle given the success of the scene, Novoselic proposed creating a political action committee, which was named JAMPAC (Joint Artists and Musicians Political Action Committee). Over the next several years, JAMPAC fought a number of different issues, including the Teen Dance Ordinance, a 1985 law that severely limited the ability of minors to attend shows. With JAMPAC, Novoselic began to turn his focus more and more towards politics.
Novoselic remains active in politics as an elected State Committeeman, making appearances to advocate electoral reform (especially instant-runoff voting and proportional representation) and running the website. He considered a 2004 run for Lieutenant Governor of Washington (as a Democrat, challenging an incumbent of the same party), but ultimately decided against it. He also joined the board of FairVote, then the Center for Voting and Democracy), and was appointed chair in January 2008. His first book, Of Grunge and Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy, was published in October 2004. It covers Novoselic's musical past, including Nirvana's rise to a world wide phenomenon of the early 1990s. Novoselic also covers how he got involved in politics, his support of electoral reform, and his belief in the need to return to grassroots movements and clean up politics in general.
Novoselic spoke on matters of electoral reform at the 2006 Libertarian National Convention. He supported Democratic Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential election, though it was erroneously reported in some media outlets that he had endorsed libertarian Republican Congressman Ron Paul.
He withdrew from the campaign for county clerk of Wahkiakum County. He was running under the "Grange Party." He is a member of The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. However, the Grange is not actually a political party. He was running in order to protest Washington State's system in which a candidate can claim any party as their own (real or fictional).
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