The alt-rock genre’s most innovative and essential recordings were produced by singer-guitarist Steve Albini, who died from a heart attack at his Chicago recording facility, Electrical Audio. He was sixty-one. Taylor Hales of Electrical Audio verified the death of Albini and the reason for his passing.
Steve Albini’s Cause of Death:
Steve Albini, who was known for many years as a unique recording engineer and musician, passed away on Tuesday night from a heart attack. Employees at Electrical Audio, his Chicago recording studio, confirmed his passing to NPR. Albini’s age was sixty-one.
He performed as the lead singer for two indie-rock groups that pushed noise and punk to extreme and harsh boundaries: Shellac and Big Black. Famously, Albini disliked the term “producer,” yet as a recording engineer, he worked on “a couple thousand” recordings, including hits like Surfer Rosa by the Pixies, In Utero by Nirvana, and Rid of Me by PJ Harvey.
Steve Albini: who was He? And His Profession
Born in Pasadena on July 22, 1962, Albini relocated to the Chicago region to attend Northwestern University’s journalism program following high school. He started writing for neighborhood punk rock zines and recording and producing records for nearby bands throughout his time there.
Relentlessly opposed to the broader music business and how it exploits artists, Albini started Big Black, a band headquartered in Chicago, in 1981. He recorded the first of multiple albums, an EP, for the label Ruthless Records, which he co-managed in Chicago. That group disbanded in 1987.
Albini performed guitar and vocals for Rapeman, a band based on a Japanese comic novel, from 1987 to 1988. The brief band disbanded after releasing one album, two singles, and an EP. Later on, Albini apologized for the band’s name, describing it as “a flippant choice,” “unconscionable,” and “indefensible.” In 1992, Albini started the band Shellac, which is still active today.
Albani has been a musician for a long time, but his reputation is most intimately linked to producing—or rather, what he called engineering. According to Albini’s estimation in a 2018 interview, he has engineered thousands of recordings, primarily for underground rock artists.
Among the more well-known groups with which Albini collaborated were the Jesus Lizard, the Breeders, the Pixies, PJ Harvey, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (together as Page and Plant), Fred Schneider, The Stooges, Manic Street Preachers, Jarvis Cocker, the Fleshtones, The Membranes, Cheap Trick, Veruca Salt, and The Auteurs.
But Nirvana and Albini’s namesake will always be connected in the annals of rock history. Kurt Cobain headed the group that engaged Albini for work on its third album, In Utero, in 1993 after being pleased with his production of the Pixie record Surfer Rosa and The Breeders’ Pod.
Though Cobain was often restless and expected the six-day recording process to be more complex, the frontman was initially unhappy with the album and even thought about redoing it.
Albini declined to record again. The band enlisted producer Scott Litt of R.E.M. R.E.M.ix for a few of the tracks; nonetheless, Albini said that the final album “didn’t sound all that much” like the record he had created.
Though accounts over time dispute the precise amount of change audible between the two versions, In Utero would go on to become a generational classic despite the inside-baseball controversy. The album debuted on September 21, 1993, and was a huge commercial and critical hit. It included several tracks that would go on to rank among Nirvana’s greatest and most well-known hits, including “Serve the Servants,” “Scentless Apprentice,” “Dumb,” “Pennyroyal Tea,” and the enormous hits “Heart-Shaped Box” and “All Apologies.”
In 1995, Albini purchased the Chicago studio Electrical Audio, where he worked and lived until his passing. It took some time for all the survivors’ details to become known.
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