Foo Fighters have dedicated a performance of ‘My Hero’ to the late legendary record producer Steve Albini.
While performing at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, North Carolina as part of their ‘Everything or Nothing At All’ tour, the band took the time to dedicate their hit track to the great Albini.
The legendary record producer – who was the mastermind behind iconic albums such as Nirvana‘s ‘In Utero‘ and Manic Street Preachers‘ ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’– died on May 8 of a heart attack while at Electronic Audio, his recording studio in Chicago. His death was confirmed by the studio’s staff members.
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“Tonight I’d like to dedicate this song to a friend that we lost the other day, who I’ve known a long, long time,” Foos frontman Dave Grohl told the crowd. “He left us much too soon. He’s touched all of your lives, I’m sure. I’m talking about Steve Albini. For those of you who know, you know. For those of you who don’t know, just remember that name: Steve Albini. Let’s sing this one for him.”
Since his passing, an interview with Grohl hailing Albini has resurfaced. “He was the smartest, most cynical producer/music critic/band leader/pundit, everyone was scared of him. Then you see pictures of him and he just looks like this skinny little guy. He’s just smarter and funnier and better at everything than everyone else in the world,” Grohl told BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt in 2015.
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“And he had made so many records that we loved, he’d made Pixies records and Breeders records and Jesus’ [Lizards] records. So when we went to record with him I know I was nervous because I knew what kind of dude and I just thought he would hate me because I’m such an idiot. I think he treated me like a pet so we got along great because I was the drummer.
“But yeah he’s one of a kind and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to tell his story because I think he set’s a great example for not only musicians but also for the industry and how to think outside just conventional business. He lives to do things that are real and passionate and his level of integrity is unwavering, he just won’t bend and he’s stubborn for all the right reasons so I love him to death, I think he’s amazing.”
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Recalling working with the producer, former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic also previously told NME how Kurt Cobain was a big admirer of the late producer.
“Kurt was a fan of Albini. I remember being in a tour van in 1989 and Kurt was listening to Pixies. He raised his finger and said, ‘This shall be our snare sound!’ He wanted to do it with Steve for a long time,” he said.
Albini also previously spoke of how he was more of an “engineer” than a producer to Nirvana, and recalled how Cobain came to him as a vocal admirer of his work with previous band, Big Black.
“When my band Big Black did a farewell tour years before the ‘In Utero’ sessions, the final show was in some industrial space in Seattle,” he said. “It was in a weird building with a makeshift stage. It was a cool gig and at end we smashed up all of our gear. I distinctively recall some kid asking me if he could take a piece of my guitar off the stage and me saying ‘go ahead its garbage now’.
“Many years later when we were working on ‘In Utero’ at the studio in Minnesota, Kurt showed me this little piece of this guitar that he had saved. He had brought it with him after all those years. He had been that kid.”
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Meanwhile, Nirvana’s social media accounts shared the four-page letter Albini sent to them, proposing that he produce ‘In Utero’.
Following the news of Albini’s death, Pixies, Benefits and more have paid tribute to the late producer – you can read them here. Jarvis Cocker also recalled the impact that working with the producer during ‘Further Complications’ had on him, and The Cribs shared their fond memories of the icon. PJ Harvey also said he “changed the course of my life” during sessions for her 1993 LP ‘Rid Of Me’.
Elsewhere, Yourcodenameis:milo have spoken to NME about how the 20th anniversary of their LP ‘All Roads To Fault’ was made all the more profound by the passing of Albini who produced the album.
Remembering their time with the punk and production legend, Lockey said: “We paid attention, saw everything he did, asked questions that he would gladly spend ages answering”.
“He once stopped the session and proceeded to give us a lecture on how the peanut built America. He schooled us in billiards, then showed us his favourite cooking shows that he’d recorded. It was all so natural and encouraging, we could do what the fuck we wanted and he’d capture it. That’s the deal, and we fucking loved it.”
Comparing their experience to other bands who had told them that recording debut albums came with “re-recording with different producers, loads of different mixers, A&R bods cutting different versions, edits – all that shit”, Lockey said that the making of ‘All Roads To Fault’ was anything but a chore.
“We had absolutely none of that, just a week in a studio with the dude who made our favourite records steering the ship in the most hands-off but confident way imaginable,” he said. “We’d had the experience we wanted and what would eventually set us up to be the best band we could be.