This New Nirvana Song Created by a Bot Will Make The Hair on the Back of Your Neck Stand

By Ammar Haziq  •  19 Jun 2020 in Music

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No, Krist and Dave didn’t form a new band. Although what you’re about to hear will no doubt fool some people into believing that the band just released a new track.

YouTuber Funk Turkey, who’s known for creating mock tracks of famous rock bands like AC/DC, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Metallica, made the fake Nirvana track using AI programming to compose the lyrics.

Titled ‘Smother’, the 3-minute track eerily replicates all of the band’s tropes, from their signature raw garage sound to Kurt’s twisted wordplay and unique voice. Even if it is on the poppier side, the track really sounds like the legendary grunge band.

In the video’s description, Turkey said “using lyrics.rip to scrape the Genius Lyrics Database, I made a Markov Chain write Nirvana lyrics” (which is basically nerd talk for “I feed a computer Nirvana lyrics and this is what it spat out”).

The mash-up of lyrics generated by the system gave the song some lines that Nirvana fans would be familiar with like “I could eat your heart-shaped box for food”.

Using “cheap” tools, Funk Turkey completed the song and mentioned in the description that all music and vocals performed were “mixed and mastered by me, in my kitchen, on a sparkly red cheap Stratocaster, a crappy mic, and an old copy of ProTools.”

“Vocals are doubled, slightly compressed, and run through an emulated reel-to-reel and tube saturation for a bit of extra warmth and grit,” the YouTuber explained.

While there will never be another Nirvana song or a band quite like them, we appreciate this awesome work from Funk Turkey. In a way, since all the lyrics fed to the bot comes from Kurt, could be this be consider a legit manifestation of Nirvana’s spirit? Maybe Krist & Dave would approve…

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