Remembering Steve Albini
• Steve Albini, the legendary record producer and engineer behind Nirvana’s landmark album In Utero, and the Pixies’ 1988 album Surfer Rosa, among countless others, has died of a heart attack at the age of 61. The news was confirmed to Variety on Wednesday by Taylor Hales, who works at Albini’s Chicago recording studio, Electrical Audio.
Albini first rose to fame in the early ’80s as the frontman for Big Black, the Chicago-based trio known for aggressive guitar-based rock that worked with a drum machine rather than a live drummer, a rarity for the time. In the early ’90s Albini formed the band Shellac, which released five studio albums over the years.
As the Variety piece notes, Albini hated the term “producer,” instead insisting on a “Recorded by Steve Albini” credit. He also famously refused to take any “points” — royalties, a common financial bonus for most top producers — from the recordings he worked on. Even now, Albini was still consistently taking up production gigs for a flat fee, refusing royalty payments in a show of support with his indie artists.
In addition to Nirvana and The Pixies, Albini also worked with PJ Harvey, The Breeders, Slint, Helmet, the Jesus Lizard, Jon Spencer, the Dirty Three and former Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant on their 1998 album Walking Into Clarksdale.
Albini was born in Pasadena, CA on July 22, 1962. He attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and spent most of his career in Chicago, where he launched Electrical Audio.
Sadly, Albini was preparing for a tour later this year to support Shellac’s sixth full-length album, To All Trains — the band’s first in a decade — which is scheduled for release next week. [Photo credit: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images]
