Remembering Kurt Cobain with the Help of AI
Kurt Cobain
On April 5 1994, I was driving to pick up my brother from elementary school. The radio DJ, Richard Blade of KROQ Los Angeles, cut into the middle of a song and said “Reports of a deceased white male found in an upstairs room of a house Kurt Cobain owns are being investigated“. As I parked and waited for my brother to arrive, the DJ cuts in again and says “Confirmed: Kurt Cobain dead at age 27“ then he played the song “All Apologies”.
My heart fell.
I had been a fan of Nirvana since the first time I heard ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on the radio. The catchy riff along with the angry voice, very much like my own, yelling and pissed off at the “status quo”. This band had risen to displace the two top mega bands at the time “Guns N’ Roses” and “Metallica” as the biggest band in the country. But instead of hiring an entourage of body guards and dating a supermodel, Kurt continued wearing the same flannel shirts I wore, the same beatup Vans shoes I wore, was the same sarcastic funny dude, like I was, married a tall confident blonde who speaks her mind, just like I did. Every time I visit the Microsoft campus up in Bellevue, Washington, I make a short trip to Kurt’s house across the pond on the East side of Seattle, just to meditate and reflect.
The make shift monument outside of Kurt Cobain’s Seattle residence where he took his own life.
As you can tell, I identified with this man and his music, his choices in life (some of them, I never did the drug thing) he was on top of what seemed like everything good and he takes his own life. I was bothered because I just didn’t understand mental health at the time. I kept thinking; he had everything, including a little 2 year old daughter, why would he do this?
Every year, at this time I listen to and play his music on my guitar. Thanks to AI, there is a new song it created in the likeness of Nirvana. With the help of Google’s Magenta AI, a system designed to teach AI to make music and art, the mental health organization called ‘Over the Bridge’ fed the AI midi files of Nirvana songs. The AI then generated the notes and harmonies, in which humans then cleaned up a bit added lyrics and voice.
As a life-long NIrvana fan, I was blown away. To me, this totally sounds like a song Kurt may have authored. I also appreciate the great work Over the Bridge is doing in such a clever way to bring visibilty into mental health awareness.
Take a listen what do you think?