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Legendary record producer Steve Albini has died, aged 61

He was known as the mastermind producer of Nirvana’s 'In Utero' and more

By Anagricel Duran
Steve Albini, guitar, performs with Shellac at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 12th February 1995. (Photo by Frans Schellekens/Redferns)

Steve Albini – the indie rock icon and legendary record producer – has died at the age of 61.

Per Pitchfork, Albini died of a heart attack at Electronic Audio – his recording studio in Chicago. His death was confirmed by the studio’s staff members.

Albini fronted the likes of underground bands such as Shellac, Big Black, Rapeman and Flour. He was most well known for being the producer of major albums such as Nirvana’s ‘In Utero‘, Pixies’ ‘Surfer Rosa’, PJ Harvey’s ‘Rid of Me’, Manic Street Preachers‘ ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ and more.

Shellac recently announced ‘To All Trains’, their first album in 10 years which is set for release next week (May 17) and were preparing to embark on a tour.

Born in Pasadena, California in 1962, Albini was part of various bands throughout his teenage years. At the age of 14, he was introduced to the Ramones by a schoolmate and claimed their music to be the best he had ever heard. He credited his music career to hearing their first album.

He moved to Illinois to attend Northwestern University where he received a degree in journalism. He was also active as a writer covering the punk rock scene in local zines including Matter and Forced Exposure and gained a reputation for the iconoclastic nature of his articles. At the same time, he tried his hand recording musicians and engineered his first album in 1981.

Albini hated the term “producer”, preferring the title “engineer” instead. He insisted on a “Recorded by Steve Albini” credit. He was known for vocally stating that the music industry had financially exploited and stylistically homogenised artists and refused any royalties from the recordings he recorded, explaining that it was unethical.

Speaking to NME last year, Albini shared that being forever associated with Nirvana due to his work on their 1993 final album ‘In Utero‘ was no albatross.

“It’s totally normal, it’s perfectly reasonable,” the producer and audio engineer told NME. “If you had never heard of me before and someone is trying to introduce me to you, they are going to name the famous records that I worked on – and ‘In Utero’ is the most famous.”

He also said that working on the follow-up to the internationally successful ‘Nevermind’ was “fairly normal”, though he ensured that all knowledge of the sessions were kept secret.

“There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about the sessions,” he said. “I mean, apart from them being extremely famous. I had to do everything I could to keep it under wraps to make sure that we didn’t get overrun by fans and the added nonsense. That was the only thing that was weird about it.”

Last year, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic spoke to NME and recalled working with the producer and how the band landed on the post-‘Nevermind’ sound of the record. “Kurt was a fan of Albini,” he said. “I remember being in a tour van in 1989 and Kurt was listening to Pixies. He raised his finger and said, ‘This shall be our snare sound!’ He wanted to do it with Steve for a long time.”

Kurt Cobain had been a known admirer of Albini’s music before he worked with Nirvana, having been in attendance when his band Big Black played their last ever show in 1987. During the first session, he brought with him a piece of the guitar Albini had smashed during the gig.

Before embarking on the creation of ‘In Utero’, Albini share his pitch to the band for what his vision of the album should be and why he would be a great fit as a producer. He wrote out a four page letter that landed him the job and saw him and the team create the iconic album in two-weeks.

“I consider the band the most important thing, as the creative entity that spawned both the band’s personality and style and as the social entity that exists 24 hours out of each day. I do not consider it my place to tell you what to do or how to play. I’m quite willing to let my opinions be heard (if I think the band is making beautiful progress or a heaving mistake, I consider it part of my job to tell them) but if the band decides to pursue something, I’ll see that it gets done,” he wrote in the letter.

Albini also went on to say: “Some people in my position would expect an increase in business after being associated with your band. I, however, already have more work than I can handle, and frankly, the kind of people such superficialities will attract are not people I want to work with. Please don’t consider that an issue. That’s it. Please call me to go over any of this if it’s unclear. If a record takes more than a week to make, somebody’s fucking up. Oi!”

PJ Harvey previously opened up as to why she chose Albini to work on her LP ‘Rid Of Me’. She explained that she loved his work with Pixies, and thought his “bare, very real sound” would gel with hers. She was also a fan of the two-week time period to work on the album as it would remove the possibility of brooding and overthinking while recording (per Udiscovermusic).

Back in 2021, the legendary producer addressed his past transgressive and “edgelord” behaviour, explaining that “nothing was off-limits” at the time.

“A lot of things I said and did from an ignorant position of comfort and privilege are clearly awful and I regret them,” he explained on X/Twitter. “It’s nobody’s obligation to overlook that, and I do feel an obligation to redeem myself…”

Albini went on to say he’d “matured, evolved and learned over time”, adding that his actions were “miscalculated”.

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