05/08/2024
Rest In Peace Steve Albini
Steve Albini has died at the age of 61. Steve Albini was a HUGE figure in the music industry, a musician with the bands Big Black and Shellac, a recording engineer, and a record producer. Albini gained significant recognition for his distinctive production style, which often emphasised raw, unpolished sounds and captured the honest performances of the artist. Albini produced albums for a wide range of artists across various genres, including Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey, The Jesus Lizard, and many others. He was respected for his commitment to maintaining the integrity of the artists' sound and vision, often favouring minimal overdubs and a "live" recording style. Albini famously did not like to be called a "producer," however he worked on, by his own estimate, "a couple thousand" albums as a recording engineer, including hugely important classics like the PIXIES' seminal ’Surfer Rosa’, Nirvana's ‘In Utero’ and PJ Harvey's ‘Rid of Me.’ However, Albini was originally no fan of Nirvana, believing them to be a generic version of the Seattle sound. He only agreed to work with them because he felt sorry for them, believing they were at the mercy of their major record label, and wanted to give them a more abrasive and explosive sound, more indicative of their live shows. Hating the term ‘producer’ he saw his role as recording a band and not shaping its sound.
Outside of music, Albini is also known for his outspoken views on the music industry, economics, and various social issues. He declined to take royalties, charging only a flat fee because he considered it unethical to make money from an artist's work indefinitely. He's published essays and articles on these topics, gaining a reputation for his sharp and sometimes controversial commentary. He ran his own studio, Electrical Audio, in Chicago, Shellac's sixth studio album, ‘To All Trains’, is set to be released May 17th. Steve Albini, your uncompromising attitude will be sorely missed!