Steve Albini dead: Nirvana producer was 61

Brian Cassella/Getty Images

Steve Albini, a singer and guitarist best known for producing some of the alternative rock genre’s most groundbreaking and influential albums, died of a heart attack at his Chicago recording studio, Electrical Audio. He was 61.

Albini’s death and cause of death were confirmed by Taylor Hales of Electrical Audio.

Albini was born on July 22, 1962 in Pasadena and moved to the Chicago area after high school to study journalism at Northwestern University. There he began writing for local punk rock zines and recording and engineering albums for local bands.

Albini stubbornly rejected the larger music industry and its exploitation of artists and founded the Chicago-based band Big Black in 1981. She recorded the first of several albums, an EP for Chicago’s Ruthless Records, a label he co-managed. This band lasted until 1987.

From 1987 to 1988, Albini sang and played guitar for Rapeman, named after a Japanese comic. The short-lived band broke up after one album, two singles and an EP. Albini later expressed regret over the band name, calling it “a careless decision”, “incomprehensible” and “indefensible”.

Albini founded Shellac in 1992, a band that continues to this day.

Although Albani is a long-time and active musician, his name is primarily associated with producing or what he prefers to call engineering. In a 2018 interview, Albini estimated that he had produced several thousand records, mostly by underground rock musicians. Albini’s better-known collaborations were with Pixies, The Breeders, the Jesus Lizard, PJ Harvey, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (as Page and Plant), Fred Schneider, The Stooges, Manic Street Preachers, Jarvis Cocker, the Fleshtones and The Membranes, Cheap Trick, Motorpsycho, Veruca Salt and The Auteurs.

But in the history of rock, Albini’s name will forever be associated with Nirvana. In 1993, Kurt Cobain founded the band, who was impressed by Albini’s production of the Pixie album Surfer Rosa and The Breeders Podhired Albini to work on his third album in 1993 In utero.

The six-day recording session went more smoothly than the ever-restless Cobain expected, although the frontman initially expressed dissatisfaction with the album and even considered re-recording it. Albini refused to re-record. The band hired REM producer Scott Litt to remix some of the songs. Albini later said the finished album sounded “not as much” as the record he had produced.

There have been varying reports over the years as to exactly how big the difference between the two versions is, but regardless of the insider baseball controversy: In utero would become a touchstone for the generation. Released on September 21, 1993, the album was a huge commercial and critical success and contained a list of songs that would become Nirvana’s best and most popular: “Serve the Servants”, “Scentless Apprentice”, “Dumb” and “Pennyroyal”. Tea.” ” and the big hits “Heart-Shaped Box” and “All Apologies”.

Albini purchased the Chicago studio Electrical Audio in 1995 and continued to work there until his death.

Complete information about the survivors was not immediately available.

VIDEO ON THE TOPIC ON THE TOPIC: