The musician Steve Albini, protagonist of the American indie-rock scene as frontman of Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac and sound engineer and producer for Nirvana, has died at the age of 61 in Chicago. The news of his passing was confirmed today to Variety by Taylor Hales, who works at Albini’s recording studio in Chicago, Electronic Audio.
Who was Steve Albini
Born in Pasadena, California, on July 22, 1962, to immigrant Turin parents, Albini was a singer, guitarist, record producer, sound engineer and music critic.
Albini is also the founder of the Electrical Audio company, which operates with two recording studios in Chicago and over the years has established itself as one of the most important realities of independent rock. Steve Albini rose to prominence in the early 1980s as the frontman of Big Black, the Chicago trio known for aggressive guitar-based rock that used a drum machine rather than a real drummer, a rarity at the time .
The love of music
However, he was also known for his equally aggressive criticism of musicians who he believed were interested in money or popularity rather than music. He despised the term “producer,” even though that was probably what he did on many recordings, and insisted on getting “Recorded by Steve Albini” credit and withheld royalties from recordings he made, which is a common financial bonus for most of the producers. Even today, Albini consistently accepted production gigs, refusing royalty payments as a sign of support for his indie artists. His sometimes iconoclastic stance – and his galvanizing work on the Pixies’ 1988 milestone album Surfer Rosa – endeared him to Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, who insisted the band work with Albini on its second album , «In Utero» of 1993. In the same period, Albini also recorded PJ Harvey’s second work, «Rid of Me», with an equally aggressive sound.
The other artists
Albini also worked with artists such as Pixies, Breeders, Jesus Lizard, Mclusky and even with former Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant for the 1998 album «Walking Into Clarksdale». The latter album in particular benefited from the Albini’s spare, no-frills sound, which was in contrast to the duo’s elaborate latter-day recordings. In the 1990s Albini formed the band Shellac, which has released five studio albums over the years and is preparing for a tour later this year to support their sixth full-length album – and first in a decade – « To All Trains”, which is scheduled for release next week.
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