20th Anniversary of 'Heart Shaped Box' with director Anton Corbijn

Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box

Over on The Daily Beast, they have an interview with director Anton Corbijn discussing the process of creating the amazing clip for 'Heart Shaped Box.' Hard to believe it's been 20 years, but Corbijn still recalls that Cobain's ideas (shared via fax machine!) were exactly what the iconic song needed.

Anton Corbijn:

Writing, drawings, both. Kurt drew out images for the video. He would fax them to me. But of course, fax paper… anything written on it disappears after a few years, so I have nothing left.

Generally, the ideas for videos are mine, with sometimes an idea from a singer or a band worked into it. But usually the ideas are sparked off by me listening to a song. I tend to need a long time. I need to play the song 20 or 30 times in a row while I do exercise or sit in the bath; these are places where I always get ideas. But Kurt's ideas came fully formed, along with the song. Kurt was so incredibly detailed in his ideas, and they were so good, that of course I went with those. I would say that I contributed, idea-wise, maybe 15 percent.

The Daily Beast piece is definitely worth a read, including how Courtney suggested the director to the band and the difficulty of casting an old man that looks like an old man when you're in Los Angeles.

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