According to Nirvana's bassist Krist Novoselic, "In Bloom" "originally sounded like a Bad Brains song," before being slowed down and reworked by Cobain at home. In a 2002 "Rolling Stone" interview with David Fricke, Novoselic recalled that Cobain "went home and hammered it. He kept working on it. Then he called me on the phone and said, 'Listen to this song.' He started singing it on the phone. You could hear the guitar. It was the In Bloom' of "Nevermind", more of a pop thing."