Legendary Alternative Rock Producer and Engineer Steve Albini Dies At 61 In Chicago

Steve Albini, who produced and recorded some of the most influential alternative rock music of all time, including Nirvana’s landmark In Utero and Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, has died at 61.

Taylor Hales of Electrical Audio, the studio in Chicago that Albini founded in 1997, confirmed to the New York Times that Albini died of a heart attack in his Windy City home.

Albini recorded some of the most acclaimed albums of the late 1980s and beyond. In addition to Nirvana and Pixies, he helped shape the sound of some of the most notable bands and artists of the era, including the Breeders, PJ Harvey, The Jesus Lizard, Urge Overkill, Superchunk, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Fugazi and more.

He remained a prolific producer – though he preferred the term engineer – and, in recent years, worked with artists ranging from Robbie Fulks to Laura Jane Grace to Ty Seagall.

He was as well known for being a witty and sharp critic of the music industry, including of some of the bands he recorded, and authored a legendary essay on the subject, “The Problem With Music,” in December, 1993 – just as he was about to become one of the rare broadly recognizable names beyond the liner notes among recording engineers.

In “The Problem With Music,” Albini bemoaned the state of major label machines that lured naive artists into deals that could make the labels millions while leaving the artist in debt. And he wasn’t afraid to turn his ire on other producers or even major acts. In “The Problem With Music,” for instance, he writes: “Nobody on earth could make the Smashing Pumpkins sound like the Beatles.”

In a memorable passage, Albini breaks down the earnings – and the payouts – of a baby band that has sold a quarter-million album copies, ending with tour merch:

“The … merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won’t have earned any royalties from their t-shirts yet. Maybe the t-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys.

Some of your friends are probably already this fucked.”

According to the NYT, he also wrote, after recording Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, “Never have I seen four cows more anxious to be led around by their nose rings.” Yet, Pixies bassist Kim Deal remained not only friendly with Albini, he went on to record The Breeders, her solo project.

Albini was also a musician, leading Shellac in the 1990s, and Big Black in the decade prior. Neither earned wide success, but were considered influential harbingers of a DIY era.