Acclaimed Engineer and Musician Steve Albini Dies at 61
Post-punk maverick artist and engineer Steve Albini died on May 8 from a heart attack at his Chicago studio Electrical Audio. He was 61.
Albini, became a fixture on the city’s music scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s, fronting the bands Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac, and working as an engineer for a wide variety of acts, including Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey, and, Page & Plant.
“He was the smartest, most cynical producer/music critic/band leader/pundit, everyone was scared of him,” Dave Grohl told BBC 6 in 2015 “…He’s just smarter and funnier and better at everything than everyone else in the world.When we went to record with him I know I was nervous because I knew what kind of dude [he was], and I just thought he would hate me because I’m such an idiot. I think he treated me like a pet so we got along great because I was the drummer.” During a Foo Fighters show on May 9, Grohl dedicated “My Hero” to Albini.
Recently, Albini completed Shellac’s first album in 10 years, To All Trains, which is scheduled for release May 17. The band’s sixth studio record was tracked and mixed at Albini’s studio during a series of weekends in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2022.
While Albini was the go-to engineer for a wide of rock, alternative, indie-rock, punk, and metal acts, he downplayed his role as a creative influence, repeatedly stating in interviews that that his goal was to capture artists as they wanted to be heard, not contribute his own ideas to their sessions. A longtime supporter of musicians’ rights, Albini never aligned himself with the corporate money-making structure of the music industry, and remained critical of the system that has thrived from exploiting artists since its inception.
He never took royalty points on other people’s records, charged a mere $700 a day for engineering other acts, and sometimes finished an album for free if an artist ran out of money. He was opinionated and sometimes curmudgeonly, but he was loved by countless acts he worked with, including the Jesus Lizard, The Breeders, the Toadies, Superchunk, The Wedding Present, Slint, and Joana Newsome.
During her set in Utah on May 10, Newsome said of Albini, “He’s been so enormously important in my life musically for so many years, but still just as a human, as a person, as a hilarious, loving, loyal friend to so many people – I miss him. I’m gonna miss him so much,” reported Stereogum.
Albini was born in Pasadena, California, and moved around the country with his family before settling in Missoula, Montana. In his teens, he discovered Ramones, and was inspired by the energy and rebellion they exuded, which was a vivid contrast to his stagnant upbringing. After he finished school he moved to Chicago to study journalism, and became entranced by the city’s punk scene and its legendary alternative record store Wax Trax. Albini found like-minded misfits and misanthropes in Chicago, and became an active member of the community with the band Big Black, which he formed in 1981 with former members of the punk group Naked Raygun.
When Big Black broke up in 1987, Albini formed Rapeman, a group whose name he later regretted but was stuck with, and compared to getting a bad tattoo. Any bad press was belied by his production which, which began in 1988 with Pixies’ legendary album Surfer Rosa. In the years that followed,, the Breeders reached out to him for their debut 1990’s Pod. IN 1993, Nirvana hired Albini for In Utero and PJ Harvey worked with him on Rid of Me.
“Meeting Steve Albini and working with him changed the course of my life,” Harvey wrote on Twitter. “He taught me so much about music, and life. Steve was a great friend – wise, kind and generous. I am so grateful.”
“Steve Albini” by Mixwiththemasters is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
