Everything about Steve Albini totally explained
Steve Albini (born
July 22,
1962) is an
American singer, songwriter,
guitarist,
audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of
Big Black and
Rapeman and is currently a member of
Shellac. He is founder, owner, and
engineer of
Electrical Audio, a
recording studio complex located in
Chicago. He also produced
Nirvana's last studio album
In Utero in 1993.
Early life
In his youth, Albini's family moved often, before settling in
Missoula, Montana in 1974. The activities of bored teenagers in rural Missoula provided much inspiration for later Albini-penned songs. While recovering from a broken leg, Albini began playing
bass guitar. According to
Thrill Jockey's
Looking for a Thrill, Albini first became exposed to punk rock by a schoolmate on a bus and proceeded to purchase every
Ramones recording available.
He took bass lessons in high school for one week and started playing in bands. He played with drummer Joey Cregg, son of former Mayor Bill Cregg, in the punk band Just Ducky, which quickly disbanded.
While growing up in Montana, he only found a few bands he deemed worthy of listening to, including:
The Stooges, the
Ramones,
Television,
Suicide,
Wire,
Public Image Ltd. and
Killing Joke.
After high school, Albini moved to Evanston, Illinois, to attend college at the Medill School of Journalism at
Northwestern University. In the Chicago area, Albini was active as a writer in local
zines such as
Matter (and later the Boston zine
Forced Exposure), covering the then-nascent
punk rock scene, gaining a reputation for iconoclasm and outspokenness that continues to this day. Around this time he began recording groups.
As an artist
Big Black (1982-1987)
In 1982 Albini formed
Big Black, and recorded the
Lungs EP.
Jeff Pezzati (
Naked Raygun) and
Santiago Durango joined shortly thereafter, and the trio (along with a drum machine credited as "
Roland") released two more EPs:
Bulldozer (1983) and
Racer-X (1984). Pezzati was later replaced on bass by
Dave Riley, with whom the group recorded two sparse albums:
Atomizer (1986) and
Songs About Fucking (1987), as well as the
Headache EP (1987), and two 7" releases:
Heartbeat and
He's a Whore/The Model. Influenced by
PiL,
Killing Joke,
Wire and
Gang of Four, they gained a reputation for confrontation, sarcasm and abrasiveness, breaking up in 1987 on the eve of the release of their second album.
Rapeman (1987-1988)
Albini went on to form the controversially titled
Rapeman in 1988, with former members of
Scratch Acid, Rey Washam (later of
Didjits), and
David Wm. Sims (later of
The Jesus Lizard). They broke up after the release of one EP,
Budd, and an album,
Two Nuns and a Pack Mule (1988). They also had a 7" on the
Sub Pop Singles Club.
Shellac (1992-present)
Albini formed
Shellac in 1992. With fellow bandmates
Bob Weston (formerly of
Volcano Suns), and
Todd Trainer (of
Rifle Sport,
Breaking Circus and
Brick Layer Cake), they initially released three EPs:,
Uranus and
The Bird is the Most Popular Finger. Those were followed by four angular, minimalist and typically cranky albums:
At Action Park (1994),
Terraform (1998),
1000 Hurts (2000) and
Excellent Italian Greyhound (2007). All were released, as before, on
vinyl, as well as
CD.
Recording work
» See List of Steve Albini's recording projects for a chronological list of Albini's recording work
He is currently most active as a
record producer, but he dislikes the term and prefers to be credited as
recording engineer if the
record company insists on any credit at all; however, Albini is comfortable receiving no credit.
Unlike any other engineer/
record producer with his experience and prominence, Albini doesn't receive
royalties for anything he records or mixes; rather he charges a flat daily fee when recording at his own facility, described by Azerrad (Azerrad, 2001) as among the most affordable for a world-class recording studio. In fact, Albini initially charged only for his time, allowing free use of his studio to friends or musicians he respected who were willing to engineer their own recording sessions and purchase their own
magnetic tape (Azerrad, 2001). When recording elsewhere, Albini uses an admittedly somewhat arbitrary
sliding scale based on such factors as his friendship with the musicians, his opinions of their integrity and music, and his assessment of a given record label.
Albini estimates that he's engineered the recording of 1,500 to 2,000 albums, mostly by rather obscure musicians. More prominent artists that Albini has worked with include
Pixies,
Nirvana,
Whitehouse,
Superchunk,
PJ Harvey,
Mono,
54-71,
Om,
Bush,
Joanna Newsom,
Nina Nastasia,
Cheap Trick,
Page and Plant,
Neurosis, and
The Stooges.
In Albini's opinion, putting producers in charge of recording sessions often destroys records, while the role of the recording engineer is to solve problems in capturing the sound of the musicians, not to threaten the artists' control over their product. In 2004, Albini summarized his opinions regarding record producers: "It always offended me when I was in the studio and the engineer or the assumed producer for the session would start bossing the band around. That always seemed like a horrible insult to me. The band was paying money for the privilege of being in a recording studio, and normally when you pay for something, you get to say how it's done. So, I made up my mind when I started engineering professionally that I wasn't going to behave like that." (Young, 2004).
Nevertheless, albums recorded by Albini bear a distinctive sonic signature. In
Our Band Could Be Your Life,
Michael Azerrad describes Albini's work on
Pixies'
Surfer Rosa, but the description applies to many of Albini's efforts: "The recordings were both very basic and very exacting: Albini used few
special effects; got an aggressive, often violent
guitar sound; and made sure the
rhythm section slammed as one." (Azerrad, 344) Another Albini trademark is his habit of generally keeping vocals "low in the mix," or much less prominent than is usual in rock music. This is said to have been a point of contention by the label during the recording of
Nirvana's
In Utero (Cameron, 2001).
On
In Utero one can find a typical example of Albini's recording practices. Common practice in
popular music is to record each instrument on a separate track at different times and then edit different recordings together at a later time; see
multi-track recording for more information. However, Albini prefers to record "live in the studio" as much as possible: the musicians perform together as a group in the same room. Albini places particular importance on the selection and use of
microphones in achieving a desired sound, including painstaking placement of different microphones at certain points around a room to best capture ambience and other qualities.
Punditry
Additionally, he's famous (or notorious) in the indie world as an opinionated
pundit on the music industry and on trends in indie music, beginning with his earliest writing for
zines such as
Matter and
Forced Exposure, to his commentary on the poor ethics of big record labels, and how their practices filter through to the independent labels. He has been a strong supporter of labels who have tried to break the mold, especially
Touch and Go Records, with whom all of his bands have released recordings. He is a supporter of
analog recording over
digital, as can be evidenced by a 1987 quote on the back cover of
Big Black's
Songs About Fucking: "The future belongs to the analog loyalists. Fuck digital."
Following
Albini is the subject of a tribute of sorts in the song "Steve Albini," by Los Angeles-area
indie rock band
The Black Watch, on their
Seven Rollercoasters EP (1997). The
Great Plains song "Letter to a Fanzine" (1986), cataloging 1980s
college rock fanboy obsessions, includes the spoken line
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Steve Albini. Also, a song titled "Steve Albini's Blues" appears on the album "Didn't it Rain" (2002).
Although not exactly a tribute, Albini is mentioned several times in the Fall track "50 Year Old Man", (on
Imperial Wax Solvent released on 28th April, 2008.) Mark E. Smith apparently accuses Albini of being "in collusion with Virgin Trains".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Steve Albini'.
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