CHICAGO (TND) — Steve Albini, the idiosyncratic producer and engineer who recorded era-defining alternative 90s rock albums by the likes of Nirvana, the Pixies, and P.J. Harvey, has died. He was 61 years old.
Albini, who also performed as a punk rock musician in the noise and post-punk bands Big Black, which he fronted, and Shellac, died of a heart attack, the staff of his recording studio, Electric Audio, confirmed to Pitchfork.
In addition to running the state-of-the-art studio Electric Audio in Chicago, for affordable prices for many independent musicians, Albini also held unique business practices in the music industry, refusing to take royalties on artists’ recordings as is standard practice for engineers and producers.
“The session I did with Nirvana was conducted under essentially the same terms I’d do with any band, then or now: we’ll figure out how much it’s worth to do the session, you pay me, and Bob’s your uncle,” Albini explained in a 2014 documentary.
Within the music industry, my business practices are somewhat unusual. Normally, bands would be paying a royalty to the producer or engineer … from an ethical standpoint I believe it is an untenable position for me to say, to a band, ‘I’m gonna work for you for a couple of weeks and then for the rest of your f****** lives you’re gonna pay me a tribute.
Albini’s model — which he compared to building a house, and not charging homeowners for the construction for years to come — and his ear for a raw yet refined way to present the bands on recordings led to him becoming one of the most prolific and sought-after producers of the 1990s.
His work as the engineer on the Pixies’ “Surfer Rosa” album put him on the map for many, but his signature on Nirvana’s final studio album “In Utero” would make him a household name in the alternative music wave of the 1990s. He would form long-standing partnerships with groups like The Jesus Lizard and Pixies while also working with popular bands of the time like Bush but also pairing up with icons of the Chicago and Midwest rock world like Cheap Trick and The Stooges.
His sudden passing sent waves of grief and shock through the music landscape.
“Unquestionably a giant of American indie rock, he seemed to be in the midst of a personal & professional renaissance,” music critic Steven Hyden wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “He was always interesting, even when he was maddening. And his drum sound is one of the greatest in recorded music”
“Steve Albini did more to shape music as we know it in his 61 years on earth than most people could ever dream to across multiple lifetimes,” the musician and indie label runner Max Allison wrote. “standards we take for granted now came into the culture by his mind & his hands. he taught generations how to make art your life’s work.”