Remembering the Legacy of Steve Albini: Musician, Engineer, and Independent Spirit

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It should have been a joyous time. Steve Albini, a 61-year-old American musician and studio engineer (he didn’t like to call himself a producer), had just finished the new album of his band Shellac, which was supposed to come out after ten year. . However, he will not live to see the revelation. Albini died of a right heart attack in his recording studio in Chicago.

“The best thing you can do now is to record an album in a few days – with high quality, but minimal production and no restrictions from label executives. If this is what you want, I’m more than happy to be a part of it.” wrote Albini to the Nirvana band members at a time when they were supposed to follow up the incredible success of the Nevermind album.

He didn’t like them originally. Cobain et al. they did not arouse any strong feeling in Albini. He agreed to the collaboration because he was attracted by the opportunity to free the band from the heavy pressure of the record label and help them return to a more honest, raw sound.

“It’s not a trick to make an album where every note and every drum beat fits. Any patient fool with a good budget can do it. I prefer to work on records that have higher ambitions: originality, individuality, passion,” Albini continued in the letter. The raw energy of Nirvana’s last studio album so scared the band’s label Geffen that he ordered the two singles remixed.However, Albini managed to live up to his words “music must live for us all”.

Perhaps the most famous paragraph from the letter to Nirvana is about money. Albini gave up all the benefits that can usually be accepted in the music industry – such as a percentage of loyalty. “I think it’s ethically impossible. The band writes the songs. The fans of the band buy records, the band is responsible for whether the record is great or terrible. So the license fees belong to the band.” Albini could be drowning in money just because of a percentage of In Utero sales. I prefer reasonable amounts he won in poker tournaments.

He was born in Pasadena, California, but spent most of his life in Chicago, where he studied journalism and supported himself by selling records in a music store. It was influenced by the punk and DIY scene, The Ramones, but also by experimental new wave bands like Devo. He was only interested in the raw, dirty sound. His musical range was limitless. As a producer, he was willing to work with anyone who paid a basic entry fee (still very low compared to the competition).

He was behind the legendary albums Surfer Rosa by Pixies or Rid of Me by PJ Harvey, as well as the independent rockers Cloud Nothings or Godspeed You! A black emperor. Albini’s life was guided by principles: from offering his services even to those who thought they could not afford it, to the rule that one could take pictures at the concerts of his own band. For him, the firm principles were a way to break free from the invisible practices of the major players in the music industry.

Albini was able to mix punk, grunge, but also the symphonies of the songwriter Joanna Newsom. Tu Albini convinced them to record the album Ys (2006) alone first with only the harp accompanied by the singer, and then working with an orchestra. Newsom himself later said that if they had recorded together, the album would have felt much more formal and tight, without the feeling and energy that made Ys ​​one of the non- most prestigious independent in the past two decades.

On another of the most delicate records in Albini’s album, Things We Lost In The Fire (2001) by the duo Minnesota Low, the listener feels that he has been transported directly to the recording studio. Albini preferred to be known as a studio engineer rather than a producer, believing that his job was to be an expert in studio technique. He should understand why he “connects” it, what type of microphone must be used and where to place it to pick up the cymbals correctly. This knowledge is far more important than a producer telling from the studio couch what a song should sound like. Albini wanted to capture the artist in his nature. Don’t insert anything, don’t remove anything, don’t push them anywhere. And do it as precisely as possible. All this can be heard in detail on the band’s 2001 album Low.

Before establishing himself as a studio engineer, Albini devoted himself heavily to his own musical projects. His band Big Black was founded in the early eighties, while they were still in university studies, and they showed the same uncompromising and aggressiveness with which Albini inspired the music reviews of his time. Big Black mocked homosexuality, racism and the far right. They were true provocateurs, and their music was described as unlistenable even in positive reviews, and fans found razor blades, condoms or pieces of bloody hair in the Lungs album packaging they have

He only realized many years later that Albini’s impulses could cause pain to those around him. “A lot of what I said came from a position of comfort and privilege. They were stupid and I feel sorry for them. No one is obligated to ignore my mistakes, but I feel obligated to apologize for them,” he said. three years ago on social network X.

“We made a mistake,” he said of himself and his peers. “We believed that the great battles for equality and inclusion had already been won and would eventually play out in society, so our contrarianism, sarcasm and irony to hurt anyone.”

Big Black broke up in 1987. Five years later, Albini formed the post-hardcore band Shellac with bassist Bob Weston and drummer Todd Trainer. The trio released records about once every ten years, but they always made a big splash. Meanwhile, no one has heard the new album To All Trains yet. Shellac promised not to do any promotional material for the record. Albini’s final album will be released on May 17.