Famed bassist Krist Novoselić loves music. Whether it’s an accordion strapped to his shoulders or the bass he’s become world famous for playing, he loves finding new melodies and playing in front of dancing audiences. The man who rose to the top of the pop culture pinnacle with his band, Nirvana, is now grinding and building with a new project, one born out of the rural Southwest Washington Wahkiakum County. Novoselić’s new group, Giants in the Trees, has been turning heads and working its way up to the Pacific Northwest ladder, first selling out their Seattle album release show at Ballard’s Sunset Tavern and, later this summer, the four-piece will play coveted sets at both Sasquatch! and the Upstream Music Festival. We wanted to catch up with the great northwest musician and ask him about how his new band started, what its goals are for next year, and what Novoselić has learned about the music business over the past year.
KEXP: You’ve said Giants in the Trees formed after the four members were the only ones to respond to a call for an open jam. Is that really how the group started?
Krist Novoselić: Yes. It was at the Grange Hall (in Wahkiakum County, where the band members live). It was really casual; we knew each other already from a Grange meeting earlier that week. It was on a Saturday and we just plugged in and started jamming and we didn’t look back. We started writing songs right away. The first one we wrote was “Sasquatch.” It just seemed like we all could communicate musically very well.
The band’s songs often incorporate themes of nature. Why are these ideas important to the group?
You write about what you know. We live out in Wahkiakum County so we’re, like, rural dwellers. And [lead singer] Jillian [Raye] -- who writes the lyrics -- she just seems inspired by living out in the sticks in the Willapa Hills in Southwest Washington, in the small county here, which is home to about 4,000 people.
How does the group write?
We throw ideas around. Last night, we wrote a couple songs but you just have to write a lot. There’s a filtering process to see what works. You have to ask yourself, “Does this sound good?” You work ideas out and see what flies and what doesn’t fly. As a band, we like melody. We’re in some ways a traditional pop band like a group from the early 70s, how they did pop music. We go for melody and find hooks. There’s also a lot of playing going on -- like Ray [Prestagard] is a multi-instrumentalist. He plays slide guitar and box guitar and all these different string instruments. He’ll play a Telecaster and Jillian will play a 12-string guitar or a 6-string banjo. I’ll play bass or accordion. We’re just trying to find different sounds but also trying to play the instruments well and bring the voice of the instrument into the sound of the band.
What’s been a favorite moment for you -- on stage, recording or rehearsing -- while playing with the group?
I actually really like playing accordion. Playing bass for me is second nature; I’ve been doing it so long. But I learned to play accordion really young and I stuck with it my whole life. I learned the language of it before I even reached puberty. There’s, like, this window for learning when you’re young and if you could learn a language or an instrument before you hit puberty you remember it your whole life. But when you transition into adolescence, that window closes. I was lucky enough to where I had this past time playing accordion and I never forgot how. But it is also a very demanding instrument. I haven’t by any means mastered it, but I think I can play it just enough for a rock band.
From: https://www.kexp.org/read/2018/4/20/kexp-exclusive-interview-krist-novoselic-climbs-again-with-giants-in-the-trees/
