The Death Of Steve Albini

And the legacy of a life spent making things.

Photo by National Public Radio

Producer, and musician Steve Albini died this week of a heart attack at age 61. Albini played in the punk outfits Big Black and Shellac throughout his life, but it was his engineering and producing skills that made him a household name in the world of indie rock.

Although Albini worked with critically and commercially successful acts like Nirvana, The Pixies, and PJ Harvey, he eschewed the moniker of producer. Albini believed his role was to capture what the band brought to the studio. In many ways, he saw himself more as an archivist than artist in his role as producer, famously even forgoing his right to points on hit records like Nirvana’s LP, In Utero which would have netted him huge dividends.

In his more than four decades behind the mixing desk, Albini contributed to hundreds of albums. His impact on the entire genre of indie rock is intensely profound. Just the number of great bands to come through his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago are a livin…