Steve Albini

Steve Albini (born July 22, 1962, Pasadena, California) is an influential singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac. He is founder and owner of the company Electrical Audio, which operates two recording studios in Chicago.

Early life

Albini moved from his home in Missoula, Montana in 1980 to Evanston, Illinois, to attend college. He was active as a writer in local zines such as Matter and Forced Exposure, covering the then nascent punk rock scene, gaining a reputation for iconoclasm and outspokeness that continues to this day. Around this time he began his work as a recorder of groups.

As an artist

Big Black (1982-1987)

In 1982 Albini formed Big Black with former members of Naked Raygun, releasing a number of EPs and two sparse albums: Atomizer (1986) and Songs About Fucking (1987). Heavily influenced by PiL, Wire and Gang of Four they gained a reputation for confrontation, sarcasm and abrasiveness, breaking up in 1987 on the eve of the release of their second album.

Rapeman (1987-1988)

Albini went on to form the controversially titled Rapeman in 1988, with former members of Scratch Acid; Rey Washam (formerly of Didjits), and David Wm. Sims (later of The Jesus Lizard). They broke up after release of a single EP (Budd) and album (Two Nuns and a Pack Mule).

Shellac (1992 -present)

Albini formed Shellac in 1992. With fellow producers Bob Weston (formerly of Volcano Suns), and Todd Trainer (of Rifle Sport, Brick Layer Cake), they released three EPs before three angular, minimalist and typically cranky albums: At Action Park (1994), Terraform (1998), 1000 Hurts (2000). All were released, as before, on vinyl, as well as CD.

As a lyricist

As a lyricist, Albini demonstrates an interest in the seamier side of life, writing lyrics describing inter-personal injustice, dehumanization and personal crises, often written from the perspective of a central character.

Recording work

See List of Steve Albini's recording projects for a chronological list of Albini's recording work

He is currently most active as a record producer, but he dislikes the term and prefers to be credited as recording engineer (if the record company insists on any credit at all; Albini is comfortable with receiving no credit). Contrary to common practice, Albini does not receive royalties for anything he records or mixes: he charges a flat daily fee. Albini estimates that he has engineered the recording of over 1,000 albums. Bands that Albini has worked with include Pixies, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Low, Mogwai, Bush, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Mclusky, The Auteurs, Mono , The Jesus Lizard, The Breeders, Fugazi, F-Minus, Slint , The Wedding Present and Zao.

In Albini's opinion, putting producers in charge of recording sessions often destroys records, while the role of the recording engineer is to solve problems in capturing the sound of the musicians, not to threaten the artists' control over their product. In 2004, Albini summarized his opinions regarding record producers: "It always offended me when I was in the studio and the engineer or the assumed producer for the session would start bossing the band around. That always seemed like a horrible insult to me. The band was paying money for the privilege of being in a recording studio, and normally when you pay for something, you get to say how it's done. So, I made up my mind when I started engineering professionally that I wasn't going to behave like that." (Young 2004).

Albums recorded by Albini bear a distinctive sonic signature. In Our Band Could Be Your Life, Michael Azerrad describes Albini's work on Pixies' Surfer Rosa, but the description applies to many of Albini's efforts: "The recordings were both very basic and very exacting: Albini used few special effects; got an aggressive, often violent guitar sound; and made sure the rhythm section slammed as one." (Azerrad, 344) Another Albini trademark is his habit of generally keeping vocals "low in the mix," or much less prominent than is usual in rock music.

On Nirvana's In Utero one can find a typical example of Albini's recording practices. Rather than recording each instrument on a separate track in the manner common in recording popular music, Albini positions a variety of microphones of differing ambience at certain points around a room in which the whole band plays simultaneously. Albini places particular importance on the selection and use of microphones in achieving a desired sound and as such prefers to avoid overdubbing.

Other

Additionally, he is famous (or notorious) in the indie world as an opinionated pundit on the music industry and on trends in indie music, beginning with his earliest writing for zines such as Matter and Forced Exposure, to his commentary on the poor ethics of big record labels, and how their practices filter through to the independent labels. He has been a strong supporter of labels who have tried to break the mold, especially Touch and Go Records, with whom all of his bands have released recordings.

David Gedge of The Wedding Present was allegedly punched by Courtney Love because of his association with Albini.

In addition to his music and recording expertise, Albini is a huge baseball fan, currently supporting the Chicago White Sox, having previously rooted for the Minnesota Twins. He is a journalism graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where he worked as a radio DJ for the WNUR Rock Show.

References

Albini, 1993. "The problem with music". In The Baffler, vol. 5 and reprinted both in Maximum RocknRoll #133 and in Downhill Battle (en español) ^*. Commonly circulated with the title "Some of your friends are probably already this fucked".
Michael Azerrad, 2001. Our Band Could Be Your Life. Little Brown, ISBN 0316787531.
Andrew Young, 2004. Albini laments age of over-production. MTSU Sidelines Online. Article based on a lecture Albini gave to the Audio Engineering Society at Middle Tennessee State University.

External links

Three Pandering Sluts the transcript of a stormy exchange from 1993 he provoked in the letters page of the Chicago Reader, where he accuses music critic Bill Wyman of being a recording industry stooge.
Onion AV Club Interview
An interview in which Albini outlines his criteria for accepting offers to record musicians.
Electrical Audio Steve Albini's recording studio.
WNUR 89.3 FM the radio station Albini worked at during his time as a student at Northwestern University.

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