Nirvana Cellist Kera Schaley Speaks on Recording “In Utero” In New Interview

Recently the cellist from Nirvana spoke on the recording of In Utero in a new interview. The cellist was very upbeat when speaking on the creative process and mentioned the possibility of not having a cello on the song “All Apologies”. 

Stereogum states, “In the conversation, Schaley says she got the call to play on In Utero because she was dating producer Steve Albini at the time, so she was the obvious first call when Kurt Cobain expressed interest in recruiting a cellist for the record. Here’s her quote about recording ‘All Apologies’: ‘The funny thing about ‘All Apologies’ is Steve kept trying to talk him out of putting cello on it… Isn’t that funny? He was going on and on that he shouldn’t put cello on it. And I think I was being snarky, and I was like, ‘That’s the joy of multi-track recording, I can record it and you can take it out.’ But Kurt and I won in the end, and so I got to play that and that one was really just off the cuff. I think I only heard it once and then I had some ideas and I started doing stuff. And I think they just kept the jam part, where I was just playing along. And then later on, he loved the deep sound, like the really deep, groaning sound of the low notes. He was like, ‘Just lay on that for a long time.’ And so I just laid on that low note for him. And I got some noise parts in there. I like making noise on the cello, too. And if you listen for some high screeching sounds at the end, that’s me.’”