Chicago, IL (May 8, 2024)—Steve Albini, longtime alt-rock musician, recording engineer, reluctant producer, studio owner and poker champion, died Monday, May 7, 2024, following a heart attack suffered in his studio, according to multiple press reports. While Albini led a variety of aggressive, often confrontational punk and post-hardcore acts like Big Black and Shellac, he was far more widely known for engineering and producing (a term he disliked) albums like Nirvana’s In Utero, the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa and literally thousands more, usually at his Chicago facility, Electrical Audio Studio. He was 61.
Over the course of a prolific recording career, he worked with the likes of PJ Harvey, Cheap Trick, Veruca Salt, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Bush, The Jesus Lizard, The Fleshtones, Foo Fighters, Jarvis Cocker, Gogol Bordello, The Wedding Present, The Breeders, Jawbreaker, Slint, Manic Street Preachers and countless others.
While well-regarded for his work behind the console, Albini had a long history as an outspoken critic of the music industry. Hand-in-hand with that, despite working with such notable acts, he pointedly avoided the title “record producer,” preferring to be credited solely as “recording engineer” (if at all). The philosophy behind this modesty was that producers often shaped and ruined the creation of recordings, while the role of an engineer was to facilitate an artist’s musical vision and make it happen without exerting control over the work.
Born in Pasadena, CA in 1962, Albini moved to Evanston, IL to attend Northwestern University, where he earned a journalism degree. Becoming part of the region’s music scene in the early 1980s, he wrote for zines and was involved in the Chicago punk label Ruthless Records, even as he played in a variety of bands such as Big Black. Albini founded Chicago’s Electrical Audio studio in 1995, and was known to be a staunch supporter of analog recording formats throughout his career.
In addition to his recording pursuits, Albini was an avid poker player and won World Series of Poker tournaments in both 2018 and 2022, taking home the events’ trademark gold bracelets in the process.
Albini’s passing comes just a week before the release of his band Shellac’s first album in a decade, To All Trains, due out May 14.
This article is subject to be updated as more information becomes available.
