Kurt Cobain is a singer-songwriter active in the Pacific Northwest. Cobain was in middle school on Doomsday, and survived due to the isolated nature of the town he was then currently residing in. Cobain had always been interested in music, and (after performing in local bars during the late 1980's) grew to prominence in the 1990's as one of the first musicians to become a genuine star in the region since Doomsday. Cobain remains active in the American rock scene into the present day.
Pre-Doomsday Biography[]
Kurt Donald Cobain was born on February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington to Wendy and Donald Cobain. He was encouraged in his early interest in the arts by his grandmother, Iris Cobain, who was herself an artist.
Surviving Doomsday[]
A 21st century estimate of the death toll and radiation spread from the Soviet annihilation of Seattle.
Kurt was living in his small hometown when the bombs fell on Doomsday. The local television stations were interrupted by the Emergency Alert System and a message from Washington Governor John Dennis Spellman warning residents of the impending Soviet attack. Tiny Aberdeen was far out of the way of the Soviet attacks on Seattle and Olympia, but there was a real worry about fallout, and locals covered their windows and doors with tarps and often took shelter in basements for the next week or two. This experience would inspire Cobain's song "Hidin' from Doomsday," which later became a hit.
Post-Doomsday[]
Although the town of Aberdeen survived, the power soon went out, as the local electricity stations lost their personnel, and the area soon became traveled by both frightened refugees and dangerous bandits. The residents of Aberdeen were forced to cling together, as rumors increasingly swirled about the potential dangers lurking the dark forests. These stories would also inspire some of Kurt's early songs.
A photo of young Kurt Cobain during the early years of his musical career. During this time, he was primarily working as a handyman and manual laborer by day to support his musical aspirations at night.
Musical Career[]
Kurt began playing in small local venues in his area of former Washington state. Because it was unsafe to travel through the lawless wilderness for many years, Kurt initially remained a very local phenomenon. However, as travel gradually became somewhat safer in the 1990's, Cobain began traveling with caravans of merchants to nearby areas. He would support himself by working as a handyman and manual laborer by day, and then play his guitar in town squares and bars at night.
As communications gradually improved, Cobain was one of the first musical acts to be invited to play live sets on the gradually expanding radio stations in former Washington.
Big Break in Victoria[]
One of the defining moments of Kurt Cobain's career came when a merchant paid for three musical acts from the Pacific Northwest to be brought by sailboat (the most reliable form of high-speed transportation in the region post-Doomsday) up to Victoria to perform at various venues and radio stations there. As Victoria was far more urbanized and wealthy than former Washington state, this represented a "big break" for Kurt and the other artists. Victoria's media allowed them for the first time to reach listeners deeper in the interior of former Canada, the Provisional United States, and across the Pacific Rim.
Kurt Cobain's big break, performing at a concert in Victoria City, which was simulcast around the region.
Cobain gradually became a talked-about sensation among Victorians, and the moment everyone realized he had finally "arrived" in the mass consciousness of the public was when he performed a concert at Victoria City's largest venue, which was simulcast on the radio and on the (admittedly more limited) television stations of the Victorian Territorial Broadcasting Company. The sight and sound of Cobain performing his music to crowds of enraptured Victorian fans made him a full-fledged star, and word of his popularity began reaching a broader audience around the Pacific.
From here on out, Cobain was a star. He remained in Victoria for many years, but gradually began traveling up and down the coast by boat, going as far north as ANZC-controlled Alaska, and as far south as the northern coast of former California, then controlled by the Municipal States of the Pacific (which would later become Jefferson). The latter was still considered a dangerous proposition in those days, but doing so enhanced his reputation as a daring rebel who defied danger to bring his music to audiences.
2000s[]
Kurt Cobain became a regular artist performing in towns and cities up and down the coast of the Pacific Northwest, and by the 2000s was firmly entrenched a symbol of local culture, and seen by many as the primary caretaker who had saved the PNW rock scene after Doomsday.
Starting in 2002, Cobain's primary residence became Newport, the most successful city on the coast of former Oregon, which provided him with stability and a large pool of fans. During this first stay in Newport he also met the woman who would become his wife, a local librarian named Sarah.
Torrington concert series[]
In 2012, Cobain accepted an invitation to perform a summer concert series in Torrington, the capital city of the reborn United States. Cobain would end up staying in Torrington for the next several years as his primary residence, but traveled by steam engine to other cities in the United States, spending many of these concerts in the Pacific coastal city of Newport, which would eventually become his next home.
An Australian crowd gathered to enjoy Kurt Cobain's concert at the Sydney Opera House in 2015.
Australia and New Zealand[]
In 2015, Kurt Cobain became the first major American music artist to travel to the ANZC's core islands to perform. The most prominent of this concert series was a nighttime performance outside the Sydney Opera House before throngs of entranced Australian fans. Cobain's concert series ended up being a source of pride for the American expat community in the ANZC, especially the younger generation of American exiles that had grown up feeling an "outsider" status in Australia, who now got to see an American artist become the popular trend in the ANZC. Cobain would remain in the ANZC until the following year, solidifying his fame in Oceania and the surrounding environs.
Artistry and Musical Style[]
Kurt Cobain is considered one of the legends of the post-Doomsday rock scene in America and the Pacific region. His lyrics often reflect the deep emotional angst felt by many outsiders, but his style continued to evolve as he got older, encompassing many themes, including political topics and more upbeat songs. Cobain has stated that as he got older and found the love of his wife and children, he felt happier and more free to explore upbeat tones for his songs. However, he still never lost the grungy edge that made him an icon, and continues to put out music that expresses rage and longing, among other emotions.
Personal life[]
Kurt Cobain has been outspoken in his support for those who were often considered outcasts from society, including the LGBT community, even before Doomsday. Cobain has stated that his own experiences as the victim of bullying and feeling like an outcast gave him a sense of empathy for others.
Cobain currently lives primarily in Newport, Oregon, USA, though he maintains a broader schedule of travel than most post-Doomsday artists in the region. He frequently travels back to his former residences of Victoria and Torrington.
In 2004, Cobain met a librarian named Sarah in Newport. The two fell in love and eventually married. In 2007, Sarah Cobain gave birth to her and Kurt's daughter, Iris Cobain (named after Kurt's grandmother who had encouraged him in his artist pursuits as a child). In 2012, the couple had a son, Kevin Cobain.
Kurt Cobain has said that despite the pain he'd seen in the post-Doomsday world "My life with Sarah, Iris, and Kevin has brought me a happiness greater than any I've ever known before."