Remembering Steve Albini

The Shellac and Big Black frontman, who recorded classic albums by Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey, and more, died of a heart attack

Steve Albini, an icon of indie rock as both a producer and performer, died on Tuesday, May 7, of a heart attack, staff at his recording studio, Electrical Audio confirmed.

As well as fronting underground rock lynchpins including Shellac and Big Black, Albini was a legend of the recording studio, though he preferred the term “engineer” to “producer.” He recorded Nirvana’s In Utero, Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me, and countless more classic albums, and remained an outspoken critic of exploitative music industry practices until his final years. Albini has long been admired for sticking to his principles and questioning music industry standards, especially in the recording studio. He never took royalties from records on which he worked—including Nirvana’s In Utero, which has sold over 15 million copies—despite that being customary in the industry, and he kept his day rates for artists comparatively low, especially as a producer with his pedigree.

Steve believed that producers “killed and destroyed” the albums they produced - probably why he referred to being called an engineer, as opposed to a producer. He always kept the artists vision and thoughts, front of mind in the recording booth. Albini mentioned his liking for "good guitar", saying "good noise is like orgasm". He commented: "Anybody can play notes. There's no trick. What is a trick and a good one is to make a guitar do things that don't sound like a guitar at all. The point here is stretching the boundaries.

I was fortunate to have met Steve once, at Third Man Records in Detroit, Michigan. I was thumbing through a bin of vinyl one afternoon, and this guy came up to me - I struck up a conversation and he mentioned that he worked on the album I had in my hands; Surfer Rosa. I asked what he worked on, on the album and he said he engineered it. I said: Steve? He smiled and shook my hand. I told him that I admired the way he wore his guitar strap, and he said: I am glad you tried that out, always good to have your arms free, keep playing guitar, kid… and he walked out. I was never sure why Steve Albini was in Detroit that day, but am glad to have met this legend.

Here’s to Steve Albini. There will never be another indie rock pioneer like him. If you play guitar, try wearing your strap like Steve next time you practice or play. He’d get a kick out if it.