Drummer Dave Mudie (Courtney Barnett) on Nirvana 'Nevermind' (1991)

Revisiting my conversation with drummer Dave Mudie in celebration of his latest album with Courtney Barnett being released this week.

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Dave Mudie, the deft powerhouse drummer who has been the engine room of Courtney Barnett’s CB3 since 2012, joins me to talk about the album that changed music for him - and the rest of the world - Nirvana’s iconic album Nevermind.

We talk about how a love for Nirvana united Dave, Courtney and bassist Boanes Sloane when they first played together in country-psych band Immigrant Union, the influence of Dave Grohl on his playing in songs like Pedestrian at Best and Depreston, being gifted a bottle of scotch by Grohl at a gig, running after a Krist Novoselic lookalike by mistake, the unique perks of the power trio format that Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and the CB3 all used to their advantage - and what Dave, Boanes and Courtney have been playing in the tour bus while traversing the globe for the past few years.

We also delve into how producer Butch Vig used the ghost of John Lennon to convince Kurt Cobain to embrace more refined production, why Cobain later disavowed many aspects of the album, the track that almost didn’t make it on the album due to human error, how the record label underestimated the demand for the album, and whether an album like Nevermind could have the same impact on the direction of music today.

My Favorite Album is a podcast on the impact great music has on our lives. Each episode features a guest on their favorite album of all time - why they love it, their history with the album and how it's influenced them.

Jeremy Dylan is a filmmaker, journalist, concert promoter and photographer. He directed the the feature music documentary Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts (out now!) and the filmBenjamin Sniddlegrass and the Cauldron of Penguins.

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