Steve Albini Gone at 61

Acclaimed music producer, audio engineer and performer Steve Albini has died.

Staff at his longtime recording studio Electrical Audio in Chicago confirmed to Pitchfork earlier today that the legendary indie rock and noise rock trailblazer suffered a heart attack. He was only 61.

The news of his passing comes as his band Shellac were preparing to go out on the road in support of their new album To All Trains, the trio’s decade-long follow-up to Dude Incredible, which comes out next week.

One of the first artists to pay homage on social media was Maureen Herman of Babes in Toyland, who wrote a touching tribute on Facebook:

It’s a sunny, beautiful day in Chicago, but the world is a darker place today. Steve Albini died of a heart attack last night. He leaves behind Heather, his wife of thirty years and an astounding music and recording legacy. Others can write about that. Just google him to see all he’s done.

Death is a bizarre reality. We live our lives each day thinking we have time. You just never know. I have lost another friend. His wife has lost the love of her life. So suddenly. When I found out I told my daughter, she’s been interning at his studio this semester. At first she was in disbelief and then she couldn’t stop crying.

I am still just sitting dumbstruck and open-mouthed like, “wwhhhhhhhaaaaat?” I have known Steve since 1989 and knew of him years before that through his music. We were just texting the other day. He was the person who welcomed me into the Chicago music scene when I moved there from Minneapolis. Introduced me to everybody. Spent holidays at his house on Francisco. He blew shit up with dynamite at a 4th of July party I had. Gave me the money to move into an apartment in L.A. when I was in a very bad spot. Just a very wonderful person on so many levels.

I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe he is gone. What a vast hole he leaves in the world.

Ken Kurson, Sea of Reeds Media founder and frontman for the celebrated Chicago power pop groups the Lilacs and Green, also penned an heartening Facebook post as well:

I was very sad to learn today that Steve Albini has died. He was a brilliant producer, a ferocious writer, a fearsome critic, a plus poker player, and actually, in person, a pretty nice guy. I was afraid of Steve before I ever met him. When he hated a band and would rip them up in Matter or Forced Exposure, it was pretty much a death sentence. He’d make it very personal, too. There was a hardcore band in Chicago called Articles of Faith and Steve’s relentless, personal criticism of their music and their singer was painful to watch.

At the same time, his tastes were unpredictable and usually right. Steve’s early embrace of Green (below) — a surprise given the sweet and melodic songs that were part of Green’s repertoire — gave permission to badass tastemakers across the country to appreciate the band. Steve later produced a few songs for Green, including my song “I Beg You Cry” and was just a total pro. He wasn’t a right fit for the band, for a bunch of reasons — his emphasis on live feel and first takes was so rock ‘n’ roll, but not in keeping with where the band was on harmonies and synthesizers. But man some of the actual SOUNDS he got on those demos, including on my bass, were never equaled on any other Green recording.

But my big takeaway from those sessions was the gap between the way Steve presented in his many public-facing roles vs how he was in the studio in his basement. Steve had the reputation as a brutal, take-no-prisoners critic, a verbal assassin who could cut you up with his words. He didn’t just “have” that reputation, he cultivated it. But as a producer — actually, he always preferred to be called an “engineer” and didn’t want to be perceived as directing the band’s sound so much as capturing it — he was just a very devoted and rather friendly guy to work with. He loved old TV shows and during the sessions would call me “lil buddy” cuz I looked goofy like Gilligan. When I told him I was getting as interested in writing as in music, he was super encouraging and that gave me the confidence to go down to the Maroon and ask for a music column at the U of C’s newspaper — a life-altering moment. I became friendly with a guy called Boche Billions who worked for Touch and Go Records and lived with Steve. Boche would sometimes invite me over to listen to a test pressing of Urge Overkill’s new record or whatever and if Steve was there, he’d tell us what was good and bad about it.

Steve’s production of great albums by important artists like Nirvana and the Pixies put him on the national radar but he really remained the loyal indie Chicago guy he became the day he left Montana for Northwestern. Some of his very best productions include records by bands that should have been bigger, like the Didjits’ Full Nelson Reilly and some of Urge’s earliest recordings, were every bit as “important.” And his impact in a whole bunch of adjacent areas — fanzines, graphic design, his own bands including Big Black and Shellac — and even these weird around-the-waist guitar straps he helped design … just a total American original.

Steve Albini wasn’t a friend and I doubt he would have recognized me, or approved of me if he knew me today. But he was a huge force in a Chicago indie rock scene that was very tightly knit and punched way above its weight for a couple decades.

“grateful to have seen steve albini play, to have my taste in music shaped by the incredible records he performed & engineered, & for his thoughts on recording and its business, which changed my worldview,” Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13 shared on X. “getting to meet him & check out electrical was a top 10 moment for me. RIP.”

“I love Steve so much,” wrote comedian Fred Armisen on Instagram. “We said it more often to each other in recent years. I’m so glad I got to tell him. He was so funny, all the time. He sent me this text a few days ago: ‘I shouldn’t admit this but I don’t get cymbals. Like I can tell the difference between this one and that one but if I’m honest they both sound like cymbals and I don’t care.’ 

“I always loved hearing him say ‘I don’t care.’ He was such a good friend to me, endlessly. I admired his work ethic and his warmth. And his opinions on national flags. On everything. I always cherish getting to spend time with him and Heather. This picture is from a few years ago, in Chicago. I’m really going to miss him. It’s a heavy loss.” 

This is a developing story and will be covered in greater depth with a longer eulogy in the next couple of days.

For now, play a round of poker in honor of this studio master and spin your favorite Albini-engineered classic, be it Surfer Rosa or Pod or In Utero or Rid of Me or At Action Park.

This is horrible news indeed.

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Ron Hart

Ron Hart is the Editor-in-Chief of Rock and Roll Globe. Reach him on X @MisterTribune.

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