American Rock Legend Steve Albini has Died, Aged 61

Albini, the record producer and audio engineer behind rock albums by Nirvana, the Pixies, and PJ Harvey, has passed away from a heart attack

Born in 1962 in California, Steve Albini’s family moved around often before settling in Missoula, Montana. Albini was introduced to punk rock as a teenager and drew influence from bands such as the Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Pere Ubu, and Devo. 

A pioneer in punk and experimental rock music since the 1980s, Albini’s catalog spans decades of records from bands and artists such as Slint, Jesus Lizard, Low, Mogwai, and Joanna Newsom. 

Albini often dismissed the term “producer,” and refused to take royalties from the albums he worked on, requesting that he be credited with “Recorded by Steve Albini,” a label which has since adorned the many albums he worked on. 

Creating records that have ultimately defied pop audio convention, his most notable projects include rock albums such as Nirvana’s album In Utero, the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, and PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me.

After moving to Chicago to study journalism at Northwestern University, Albini was soon drawn to the self-made punk music scene. In 1981, he formed the band Big Black, where he unconventionally used a drum machine rather than a live drummer; in the early 90s, he created the distorted noise-rock band Shellac.

In 1997, he opened Electrical Audio, his famed studio in Chicago. He also greatly advocated for artists — his famous 1993 essay in The Baffler, “The Problem With Music,” opined the duplicity of the major-label system.

“I have a straightforward, documentary approach to recording music, and I’ve never been tempted with my own bands or with anyone else’s band to suddenly go production-happy,” he said, according to the LA Times. “If you let the band sound natural, then the record will sink or swim on its own merits. ... The things I like most about rock bands are simplicity and straightforwardness, and those principles guide my recordings.”

“What matters to me is that I do things in a way that I feel is — for lack of a better word — righteous,” Albini expressed. “Everything that I do, I do basically with the same goal: I want to make better, cheaper punk-rock records today than I did yesterday.”

Albini wrote and recorded up to his death; Shellac was preparing to tour their first new album in a decade, To All Trains, which will be released next week.

“The recording part is the part that matters to me — that I’m making a document that records a piece of our culture, the life’s work of the musicians that are hiring me,” Albini told The Guardian in 2023. “I take that part very seriously. I want the music to outlive all of us.”

“Albini’s mark on Chicago’s music scene and the sound of rock n’ roll is indelible,” Ryan Dohoney, musicology professor at Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music, told us. “He shaped not only the sound of the city but also many of the essential records of the last few decades … His genius as a musician and producer is gone too soon.”

Mr. Albini is survived by his wife, Heather Whinna, a filmmaker. Our condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.