As a musician, sound engineer and provocateur, Steve Albini was a dominant force across Chicago’s musical landscape for more than 40 years.
His influence as a recording engineer and punk sage spanned genres and all levels of the recording industry. He worked on more than 2,000 albums in his lifetime. Many of those were among the most important bands of his generation, from America’s punk underground — with bands such as Slint, Silkworm, Jawbreaker, Pegboy, Tar and the Jesus Lizard — to mainstream stars like Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Cheap Trick, Bush and the Pixies.
Albini died Tuesday at age 61.
In 1997 he opened Electrical Audio, a two-story recording studio in Avondale that became his home base. He also was a prolific musician who played in a series of bands — Rapeman, Big Black and Shellac.
“Since the late ‘80s until yesterday, Steve was one of, if not the sole torchbearer of integrity in independent music in Chicago and the world. There is no ‘Chicago sound’ without Steve,” said Ed Roche, former label manager with Touch and Go Records, the Chicago label that issued the majority of Albini’s personal recording projects.
Albini “inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of kids to pick up an instrument, try to sing, engineer and enter business ethically,” Roche said.
Rick Rizzo of Eleventh Dream Day posted on Instagram that Albini’s “influence on anybody that made music around here was profound. Anything [else] I could say would be an understatement.” Musician Jason Narducy said Albini’s influence was “astounding and carried across platforms.”
Metro owner Joe Shanahan, who had a tense relationship with Albini, said both men ultimately made peace in 2019. He called Wednesday “a dark day for Chicago and for the world.”
“Steve, as thorny as he could be, he was a fan of the music. Provocateur, troublemaker, firestarter, yes, but he was a big, big fan and thank God, he was a big fan of Chicago music because he helped put Chicago on the map,” Shanahan said. “He said a lot of things in the press that were very provocative, but he made people listen.”
Musicians who worked with Albini often hailed him for his precise understanding of sound, a passion for analog recording techniques and a healthy respect for genres that went beyond his own interests. Country singer and songwriter Robbie Fulks sought Albini out early in his career and the pair worked on six albums together.
“Antiquated technologies, marginal music, cruel wit, personal friendship and contrarianism make life worth living, and he embodied all of these otherwise unrelated things in his passions and personality,” Fulks said.
“He’d miss sleep, meals and leisure to make your record sound a little better. You’d be the recipient of extravagant gestures if you were his friend. If you were a president of a record company, he’d refuse your call or hang up on you,” Fulks said.
In the studio, Albini “embraced the sickly causes of analog tape and nonautomated mixing back in the 1980s and never let go,” Fulks added. “His advocacy was both principled and extreme, and it took a lot of grit, as well as some money, which he earned from his Nirvana record and many poker competitions, to keep the cause afloat.”
In his later years, Albini spent time on the professional poker circuit, was an avid Chicago Cubs fan and he was behind many charitable causes. Letters to Santa, an annual Christmas show at Second City he produced over two decades with his wife, Heather Whinna, raised money every year for Chicago’s neediest families through a 24-hour rotation of performances from both music stars and comedy improvisers.
He once described the moment he read a letter Whinna brought home from the post office.
“These weren’t impish requests for toys or a new bike; mostly, they were desperate pleas from heads of households asking for help. It was staggering,” he wrote. “I couldn’t help but be moved when I read it, and the realization that there were hundreds — no, thousands — of these letters changed something in me.”
