Kele Fleming Releases “The Nite the Stars Fell (For Kurt Cobain)” Featuring Art Bergmann
Vancouver-based alt-folk artist Kele Fleming has never shied away from truth. Her songs are protest anthems. They are hymns for the haunted. They are postcards from the edge, sent in the voice of someone who made it back. Her newest single, “The Nite The Stars Fell (For Kurt Cobain),” might be her most personal yet.
Out April 5 via World Peach Records, the song is being released on the 31st anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. Fleming wrote it exactly one year earlier, on April 5, 2024—the 30th anniversary of his passing.
“I wrote this song on April 5, 2024,” Kele shares. “That night, I came very close to death myself. I was in the middle of a medical emergency, lying on a hospital gurney, waiting for a battery of tests. I didn’t understand at first why my thoughts had turned to Kurt. Later I realized—it was the anniversary of his death. Some benevolent angels had other plans for me that night, and I feel Kurt was among them.”
What emerged from that night is a raw, reverent, and poetic track—a haunting duet with Art Bergmann, Canada’s punk laureate. Bergmann’s weathered voice adds gravity and grace to the recording, matching Fleming’s radiant ache note for note.
The nite the stars fell
Was he among them, I couldn’t tell
Explore your Leonard Cohen Afterworld
To give rebirth a whirl
Teen spirit wild and free
Told us all how to be
His heart in a box for the whole world to see
Awake in the nite with me
Bringing me pennyroyal tea
“The Nite The Stars Fell (For Kurt Cobain)” features Kele Fleming on vocals and acoustic guitar, with legendary Canadian artist Art Bergmann contributing vocals. Scott Fletcher plays bass guitar, Tony Lee adds drums and percussion, Jonathan Blokmanis provides electric guitar, and Matthew Presidente performs on piano and keys. The track was engineered and mixed by Sheldon Zaharko of Zed Productions, with assistance from Annie Kennedy and Alex Walters, and was mastered by Andrew Downton at Railtown Mastering. Each musician brings their own emotional weight and artistry to the track, making it a powerful, collaborative tribute.
Fleming, described as “the distinct love child of Linda Perhacs and Ani DiFranco,” has long balanced fierce intellect with soaring, soul-rattling vocals. Quoting Darwin and Foucault mid-song, she crafts psychedelic, feministic folk music that pushes against apathy and forgetfulness. Her music has charted at #1 on the New Queer Canada Music Charts, and her presence as an LGBTQ2A artist remains essential in today’s shifting landscape.
With over 500,000 Spotify streams to her name and a previous hit remix (“The Great Acceleration – Devours Remix”) amassing over 114,000 listens, Kele continues to break barriers and defy industry molds. “The Nite The Stars Fell (For Kurt Cobain)” is another bold stroke in an already luminous discography.
This is not just a tribute. It’s a torch passed between generations. It’s a whispered thank-you to a fallen star—and a quiet vow to keep the light burning.
Hi Kele! Good to see you again!
Yay! Great to see you too. Thanks so much for doing this!
This song feels like both a tribute and a personal reckoning. Can you take us back to the moment you realized you were writing for Kurt—and for yourself?
Ya, it’s definitely a mix. It was a very odd night for me, the night I wrote the song. It was the night of April 5th, 2024, and I was awake in the middle of the night because I was very unwell. I was in a kind of altered state, the kind of altered state when you’re really sick or in excruciating pain. At the time, I didn’t realize how serious my situation was and was sitting up awake in my house, looking out across Strait of Juan de Fuca to Washington State (I live on the Canadian side of the strait in Victoria, BC) and up at the stars and the opening line just came to me. I got out my phone and started dictating…’In Aberdeen, a voice made in the trees…At first, I didn’t understand why I was writing about Aberdeen, but I kept going. As I continued writing/dictating, I realized that more and more words were connected to Kurt Cobain’s writing (and, he was born in Aberdeen, Washington). I remembered that it was the 30th anniversary of Kurt’s death about the same I realized I needed to get myself to a hospital. Once in the hospital, I kept writing by dictating lyrics and singing the melody into a voice memo as I was being wheeled between medical tests and doctors. I was told by the doctors that if I hadn’t gotten myself to emergency when I did that there’s a very good chance I could have died that night. I felt that my angels were looking out for me that night, and that Kurt was among them and had other plans for me.
You describe that night as one where you came close to death. How did that experience shape not only this song, but your perspective as an artist and a person?
I really can’t separate the song from that experience now. The experience is the song and the song is that near-death experience for me. I feel that I was gifted not only a song that night, but also a second chance at life. A chance to live and breathe and create. That is a gift and I don’t intend to waste it! I didn’t sit down and say to myself, ‘I’m gonna write a song about Kurt Cobain.’ The song came to me that night. I was compelled to write it. And, actually, I think it’s the thing that kept me going, kept me alive, got me to the hospital in the nick of time so that I can be here now and embrace my calling as an artist.
What does Kurt Cobain represent to you—not just musically, but emotionally or spiritually?
I was the lead singer and songwriter of Vancouver indie band hazel motes in the early 1990s when Nirvana were shooting to super stardom. Grunge was so huge then, and was here on the West Coast of Canada too. I have always loved Kurt Cobain’s writing. His lyrics are brilliant. Kurt’s writing represents independence and spirit to me. I respected that Kurt called himself a feminist and called out misogyny and homophobia. He wasn’t afraid to do so. So rare for a white, heterosexual man to do so. Huge respect!
I also feel like he was in touch with something bigger than our physical world…He was in tune with something bigger than all of us, the mysteries of the universe. There’s a moment when I’m writing a song when I feel that, too. It’s a spiritual and emotional opening to everything, and receiving the gift of the music of the universe.
Art Bergmann’s voice brings such power and texture to the track. How did that collaboration come about, and what was it like recording with someone who’s such a legend in Canadian music?
As it happens, Art and I had been in contact last summer about doing a show together. I was just finishing the recording of this song at the time and couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something missing from the song. So, I asked Art to sing on the track, and he said yes!
I was so thrilled to have Art sing on this song. I’ve been a huge fan of his music and his voice for many years. The grace and clarity that he carries into song is beautiful. And, I knew it was right for the song and the story of the song to have Art’s voice and spirit there.
The final line of your song references “pennyroyal tea.” What meaning does that hold for you, and why was it important to end the song on that note?
If you’re a Nirvana fan, you might remember the song “Pennyroyal Tea’ from their album ‘In Utero.’ The song was supposed to be released as one of the singles from the album in April 1994, but it wasn’t because Kurt died that month. It was always one of my favourite Nirvana songs, and I love the lyrics. When I was writing ‘The Nite the Stars Fell’, there were lyrics from various Nirvana songs swirling around in my head. There’s another phrase from the song that made it into my new single – ‘Leonard Cohen Afterworld.’
It wasn’t really conscious on my part…At the time of writing the song, I was kind of in an altered state myself because I was in the middle of a very serious medical emergency…I think I ended the song with pennyroyal tea because it was a nod to what could have been if Kurt Cobain had lived. And, Kurt was one of the angels ‘awake in the night with me.’