The new documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck uses previously unreleased music and archival footage to offer fans an intimate look at the Nirvana frontman's too-brief life — and adds new interviews with his friends, family and bandmates, such as the above clip, which finds Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic looking back on the earliest days of their relationship.

In this segment of the film, first posted by the New York Times, Novoselic recalls that he was 18 or 19 when they met, and Cobain — a year younger — was already showing flashes of the restless, uncompromising creative spirit that would later help make him a star.

"He liked punk rock music and that piqued my interest," says Novoselic in the clip. "I noticed what a good artist he was. He was working at the time as a janitor, but he'd always have to do some kind of art — usually defacing something. He never had, like, idle hands. It just came out of him. He had to express himself."

Elsewhere in this portion of the film, director Brett Morgen reveals footage from an early Nirvana performance, and Cobain can be heard describing the audience as "locals who hated our guts and thought it was terrible music."

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck has already earned widespread critical acclaim, and is scheduled to make its limited theatrical bow April 24, with an HBO release to follow on May 4.

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