Nirvana are one of those bands whose songs never really lose their place. The records stay in circulation, the songs keep getting passed on, and for a lot of people the connection starts early, before they know much about Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, or about the scale of what that band meant when it broke through. In South Africa, that pull is now being carried on stage by Cantrel, the father-and-son band built around Neil Breytenbach of Prime Circle and Jesse Breytenbach.
What started as a jam on “Come As You Are” in mid-2025 turned into something much bigger. Cantrel went from playing a Nirvana song together for fun to learning around 25 tracks in roughly three weeks and taking them live. Ahead of the next run of shows – 21 March in Ballito, 28 March at Music Kitchen and 02 April at Splashy Fen – AFRICA.ROCKS spoke to the band about nerves, respect, Krist’s basslines, Kurt’s shadow, and what it means to carry these songs in front of South African audiences now.
“every song is going to make me nervous, because there is such respect for Nirvana, and especially for Kurt.”
Do you remember the first time Nirvana properly hit you?
Jesse: I grew up listening to all kinds of music, especially bands like Nirvana. It eventually latched on to me, and I was singing the songs nonstop without really knowing anything about the band or the music. Then, when I was about 12 years old, it hit me who the band actually were, what they did, and the impact they had on a whole generation. Now, playing the tribute show, I can see that Nirvana still has that same impact on young kids today.
When did you two first play a Nirvana song together? What was it, and how did it go the first time?
Jesse: The first time we actually played a Nirvana song together was in mid-2025. The song was “Come As You Are”, and we hadn’t come up with the idea yet; we were just playing for fun. But after that, it felt so surreal to be playing that song after so many years of listening to it, and we knew we had something good going on. That’s when the idea of doing the tribute show came about.
What made you take it from “we can play a few covers” to “let’s do a whole Nirvana set”?
Jesse: That’s the thing with Cantrel: we had never played Nirvana songs live before, ever, but we enjoyed that jam together. So we went from zero to hero very quickly, learning about 25 songs in roughly a three-week period and then playing them live, because we were so excited about doing the tribute.
What’s the feeling you’re chasing when you play these songs live?
Jesse: The feeling isn’t so much for us. It’s seeing a crowd of all ages going absolutely nuts over songs that are more than 35 years old. For us, the feeling is wanting to stop people from forgetting that that era actually happened, even though it was so many years ago. I think it was the coolest musical era that ever existed.
Is there a song in the set that still makes you a bit nervous, even now? Why that one?
Jesse: Every song makes me nervous, and as long as we play the tribute, every song is going to make me nervous, because there is such respect for Nirvana, and especially for Kurt. Before every show, I remind myself what we are actually doing and how big a thing it is to do. After playing a couple of shows, I realised why no one else had done it. As much as it is fun, Cantrel has big shoes to fill to do it. We will always have the greatest respect for this amazing band.
Kurt’s voice is tied to the songs in people‘s heads. How do you sing them in a way that feels true without putting on a Kurt mask?
Jesse: It just so happens that I sound closer to Kurt than other singers do. I don’t put on a voice or try to make myself sound like him. Sure, I’ll do some vocal expression on specific things, because those were iconic sounds, but in terms of my actual singing voice, there’s no act there. Besides, no one could ever sound like Kurt again.
Krist Novoselic’s basslines are a huge part of why those songs move the way they do. What are you listening for when you play them live?
Neil: I try to make the bass come alive and groove as much as possible, both to get people moving and to pay tribute to Krist’s legendary bass playing.
“The songs were amazing enough not to change, and that’s why we started the tribute.”
How much do you stick to the original arrangements? Where do you let yourselves breathe and make it your own?
Jesse: We keep to the skeleton of the songs and try to keep the sound as similar as possible, even with one guitar pedal. Other than that, we don’t make the songs our own, because they’re not ours. The songs were amazing enough not to change, and that’s why we started the tribute. If anyone is changing the songs of a band they’re paying tribute to, I don’t think they respect the band as much as they say or think they do.
In South Africa, how do people show up for it? Is it a singalong crowd, a watch-and-listen crowd…?
Jesse: Every crowd in South Africa has both the dancers and singers and the people who sit back and just want to listen. That happens at every show. We get that at the Nirvana shows too, but most of the crowd do come up front and sing and dance along, because how could they not? Also, we want the crowd to have as much fun as we have playing the songs.
“I get to a point where I feel
like I am Kurt.”
What did you learn about yourselves as a band by living inside someone else’s songs for a full set?
Jesse: For me personally, it gets really quite intense. I get to a point where I feel like I am Kurt. With a tribute show, people don’t just want to hear the songs; they want to see and imagine what the band looked like in person and how they acted in real life. That gets tricky, because you’re kind of putting on this persona for an hour to an hour and a half, and then you have to go back to being yourself. It’s crazy and weird, but we love it.
When you go back to writing your own material after these shows, what carries over into Cantrel, even subtly?
Jesse: I think if anything carries over, it might be the way we write songs. But other than that, Cantrel is its own project and has its own mechanisms in the way we sound and the way our songs come out.
If someone walks in knowing nothing about Cantrel and only comes for Nirvana, what do you hope they leave with?
Jesse: I hope they leave with a surreal experience, but also with the understanding that we, as Cantrel, are the ones doing the tribute show. I hope people who don’t know Cantrel come and join the Cantrel family, and love our music as much as they love Nirvana’s incredible songs.
Catch Cantrel live on the road this month and next with their Nirvana tribute shows in Ballito, Music Kitchen and Splashy Fen.
