Mona Mur Premieres Her Exceptional Reinterpretation of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

As we pointed out in our premiere of Mona Mur’s “SCHIELDWALL” music video at the end of last summer, she has made a career out of going places other artists wouldn’t dare. Well, she has done it again with this unveiling of her interpretation of the iconic Nirvana anthem of a generation, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” It comes as one part of her Teen Icon release, which also includes her cover of “Icon” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. For more Mur info, hit her site at: http://monamur.com.

Both songs put on display Mur’s talents at combining frenzied guitars with nicely layered electronic textures, and both are complete reinventions of the original. With the Nirvana cover, she stays within the realm constructed by Kurt Cobain, but wholly revamps it in a way that’s completely new, but still familiar to lovers of the original. To record and produce these covers, Mur reunited with frequent collaborators Ralf Goldkind and Jon Caffery who were so instrumental in the creation of her Snake Island album, which came out last September.

Explaining her motivation to remake these songs, and how they took shape, Mur comments:

“Starting out as a singer at the tender age of 3, performing a Hamburg sailor’s shanty in front of 25 startled members of my peasant family, I was of course for quite a while willing to interpret other artists’ works. You are not alone on the planet, and all music, as the universal language, comes through channels already explored by others.”

She continues:

“Now, after four decades of writing many originals, I started secretly recording a bunch of covers, pieces that bloodily inspired me to sing and perform them, just for sheer pleasure, to relax, to use my voice in unforeseen ways, and as of recently, to play guitar to them, which gives me an enormous kick. These songs are great pieces of art. By reinterpreting them in an unheard-of fashion, I pay my respect. ‘Teen Icon’ is the tip of the iceberg. I might come up with a whole album that will leave no desires unfulfilled.”

Interestingly enough, the acclaimed German director and cinematographer Elfi Mikesch was the one to suggest Mur take a stab at doing her own version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” When she first approached the song, Mur really found herself connecting with it, overwhelmed in a whole new way by the power of Cobain’s lyrics.

She views both it and “Icon” as universal, timeless pieces of art that will still be enjoyed generations from now, which is part of what attracted her to record her own take on them. It’s all part of an interesting creative time in Mur’s musical career, as she forges forward with some of her best work in her now four-decade career.

Artwork for the single “Teen Icon” by Mona Mur