Legendary producer Steve Albini is dead at 61 years old, Pitchfork confirmed today, May 8. The publication reports that per staff at Albini’s Electric Audio recording studio, Albini died of a heart attack.
While studying journalism at Northwestern University, Albini started the punk band Big Black and was later also a member of the groups Rapeman, Flour, and Shellac. He also started working as a producer in the mid-1980s and contributed to some classic albums by artists like Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey, and many others.
A new Shellac album, To All Trains, is set for release on May 17. The band was also preparing to go on tour this summer.
In a 2023 NME interview, Albini was humble when discussing his impact, saying, “I feel weird when somebody says I had a massive influence on anything. It’s like, if you’re in a stadium during a sporting event, you have no influence on the outcome, really. It was an experience for me. I was there when it happened, but I wasn’t on the field. I feel like I get a lot of undue attention for records that I worked on where the record was going to be good no matter who was sitting in the chair.”
In an August 2023 interview with The Guardian, Albini was asked if he has ever thought about his legacy. He responded, “I don’t give a sh*t. I’m doing it, and that’s what matters to me — the fact that I get to keep doing it. That’s the whole basis of it. I was doing it yesterday, and I’m gonna do it tomorrow, and I’m gonna carry on doing it.”