The man who shaped the sound of American grunge and punk while working with Nirvana and the Pixies died at age 61, a week before the release of his group Shellac’s last album.
“Making records that are eternal… I take this aspect very seriously. I am sure that analog records will survive for a number of centuries. I’m not sure about anything digital.” Faced with the entrepreneur Kmele Foster who interviewed him some time ago, Steve Albini thus defined his vision of posterity. Rather than chasing the sound of the perishable moment, the American musician and producer preferred to take a long-term view. He’ll never know if all the music he’s contributed to will survive future modes of music consumption. On May 7, we suddenly learned yesterday, the American died of a heart attack at the age of 61.
Die in the studio
At least it happened at one of his favorite places, the Chicago Electrical Audio studio where he had mentored and starred since he opened it in 1997. His prices? 900 dollars per day on site, 1300 elsewhere. In any case, we can bet in his place: legend of global independent rock, Steve Albini will remain a reference in sound creation and his name will be celebrated as that of a man of integrity who did not give in to the sirens of mainstream pop and who will always have plowed the same furrow of electric and rebellious rock. He never received a Grammy Award but gained the respect of many music fans – one of the first to express his emotion was actor and fan Elijah Wood, speaking of “the heartbreaking loss of a legend”.
Yes, he ran a cooking blog for two years where he detailed the recipes he prepared for his wife Heather and was a very good poker player, even winning richly-prized competitions. But the life of Steve Albini, born in 1961 in Pasadena, is intertwined with his main and all-consuming passion, the one he nurtured for music. Rough, abrasive music, sometimes provocative and uncomfortable. As a kid, during a school trip, he received an electric shock when he heard the Ramones for the first time. The form taken by the songs of the fake punk brothers marks his mind and his ears. No need for frills, it’s better to go to the basics! After learning bass and then guitar, Steve quickly immersed himself in the Chicago punk scene while learning journalism, not far away, at Northwestern University in Evanston. In 1982, he took the plunge by borrowing a four-track tape recorder to record Big Black’s first EP with the sole support of a saxophonist friend and a drum machine. He plays the rest (bass, guitar) and sings, screams, belches.
Child of punk
For Albini, music constitutes an outlet, a means of transcending his human condition. With the reinforcement of guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, replaced after a few years by Dave Riley, Big Black became a real group. Two albums follow, Atomizer (1986) and Songs About Fucking (1987), crazy albums of brutality and radicality. Heir to the Ramones and Suicide, Big Black goes further with its metallic guitars and the transgressive lyrics of an Albini who digs into the darkest depths of the human psyche. Each selling a few thousand copies at the time, these two Big Black long-formats marked history with their savagery and anticipated future sound revolutions to come – industrial music, grunge.
When comes out Songs About FuckingBig Black already no longer exists and Albini founded with two musicians noise Texans another trio with a horribly provocative name, Rapeman – he would later apologize to victims of sexual violence for the stupidity of this choice. In line with Big Black’s bristling discography, Two Nuns and a Pack Mule, Rapeman’s only album shows how much Albini continues to like to go against the grain. At the same time, his name became more and more synonymous with underground success.
Intransigence and integrity
Because from the mid-1980s Albini developed the activity of producer-sound engineer with remarkable know-how coupled with impeccable ethics. One of his first achievements was Surfer Rosa by the Pixies, recorded in ten days in December 1987. Albini still experimented a little – recording Kim Deal’s voice in a bathroom – but established the philosophy that would guide him for the rest of his career. For him what is important is to get as close as possible to the groups and artists who recruit him, working very quickly to capture their music in the most faithful and raw way possible. As he explained at the end of his life, like an Alan Lomax of punk and rock, he sought to archive and document the culture that interested him through his unfiltered recordings. With Surfer Rosa, Albini also developed his signature by emphasizing drums and guitars. After the Pixies, Albini saw all the most exciting rockers of the 1990s using his services. P.J. Harvey (Rid of Me), the Breeders of Kim Deal, Slint, The Jesus Lizard, The Wedding Present, Helmet, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion…this long list also includes French groups like Sloy or the Thugs who will not necessarily have lasting memories of their collaboration (for Strike1996).
Albini’s XXL CV also includes Nirvana which, after the worldwide success of Nevermind (1991), needs to reconnect with the punk ethic. For several weeks the group and Albini communicated by fax in order to agree on their common objective. In a four-page document, Albini defines his approach: “I think the best thing you can do at this point in your career is put out a record in a few days with high-quality but minimal, interference-free production.” While other producers talk about projects, Albini wants to give primacy back to the artist and not intervene in his decisions, preferring to record him rather than direct him. As he enters the studio with Nirvana to In utero (1993), he signed a manifesto text, The Problem with Music, where he discusses the dangers for rock bands when they sign with a major. He does not hesitate to publicly speak ill of certain groups like the Smashing Pumpkins and even makes fun of those who have crossed his path. In a 1991 article, he mocked the Pixies: “I have never seen four cows so nervous about being led by the ring in their snout.”
A last orphan album
Uncompromising, independent, sometimes offensive, Albini remains in the midst of the MTVization of grunge, the compass that indicates independence. He also refuses to touch royalties on sales ofIn utero, something totally unthinkable for him. Which also fits with his final feeling from his experience with Nirvana. Disappointed by the group’s desire to remix certain songs without him, Albini partly disapproved of the final result. Fortunately, he maintains complete control over his own music, which he records with drummer Todd Trainer and bassist Bob Weston under the name Shellac. At Action Park (1994) reveals a new direction for Albini with heavy, repetitive rhythms and guitar riffs foreshadowing the math rock. Until his death, Albini devoted himself to Shellac in an almost recreational manner, hence the rare but notable tours of the trio. During his journey peppered with a number of artistic encounters, Shellac will remain for the last thirty years a hardcore refuge to which Albini will return to regenerate. Ten years after the album Dude Incredible (2014), the sixth Shellac is due to be released on May 17: To All Trains.
