This is a big loss for the music community. He's engineers some great albums. And I love his bands Big Black and Shellac.
I just saw this. I was a huge fan of his work. I love watching interviews with him too where he gets into the nitty gritty of the music industry. The guy really stayed true to himself. Much respect.
Also, the influence Big Black had on grunge music, especially Nirvana, can't be understated. This song is still on my regular playlist.
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Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 05-08-2024 at 03:38 PM.
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Damn, that's a shock. I'm a huge fan, one of the few rock producers who had dignity and ethics. Has there ever been another producer who actually turned down points on a record? Even though he was producing, he considered himself an engineer first and didn't think it was right to continue getting paid for a job that was already completed.
The guy was incredible.
Or like how he didn't gouge other artists. He insisted on reasonable rates and did not accept residuals. He felt it was unethical to keep getting a cut after the work was done.
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His letter to Nirvana responding to them asking him to produce In Utero is great and lays out his philosophy. Here's the section on money/royalties:
Quote:
#5: Dough. I explained this to Kurt but I thought I'd better reiterate it here. I do not want and will not take a royalty on any record I record. No points. Period. I think paying a royalty to a producer or engineer is ethically indefensible. The band write the songs. The band play the music. It's the band's fans who buy the records. The band is responsible for whether it's a great record or a horrible record. Royalties belong to the band.
I would like to be paid like a plumber: I do the job and you pay me what it's worth. The record company will expect me to ask for a point or a point and a half. If we assume three million sales, that works out to 400,000 dollars or so. There's no ####ing way I would ever take that much money. I wouldn't be able to sleep.
I have to be comfortable with the amount of money you pay me, but it's your money, and I insist that you be comfortable with it as well. Kurt suggested paying me a chunk which I would consider full payment, and then if you really thought I deserved more, paying me another chunk after you'd had a chance to live with the album for a while. That would be fine, but probably more organizational trouble than it's worth.
Whatever. I trust you guys to be fair to me and I know you must be familiar with what a regular industry goon would want. I will let you make the final decision about what I'm going to be paid. How much you choose to pay me will not affect my enthusiasm for the record.
Some people in my position would expect an increase in business after being associated with your band. I, however, already have more work than I can handle, and frankly, the kind of people such superficialities will attract are not people I want to work with. Please don't consider that an issue.
I think he ended up taking $100K for it, which is about 1/20th of what he'd have gotten if he had taken a standard royalty rate. It's pretty rare that someone would stick to their principles like that in the face of a life-changing amount of money.
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Good for business though too. He gave up the royalties but so many big bands wanted to work with him knowing he only needed to paid for the actual work on the album.
It definitely does seem wrong that producers should get royalties. Session musicians I don't think ever get royalties and I'm sure they add some of their own ideas to songs written by the main artist.
Steve produced a record for local heroes Hot Little Rocket.
I was reading stories about how after riding the high of being the "Nirvana" guy, he bounced around between working for small bands, big bands, he didn't really care. After Nirvana, he worked with Bush and Plante/Page, while still taking on indie stuff for less money despite the demand for him.
I also recall some interesting stories about his DIY methods to producing ambience in a sound. For example, when working with the Pixies, he had Frank Black do the vocals inside a small bathroom to get his voice just right.
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Steve produced a record for local heroes Hot Little Rocket.
That's cool. I didn't know that.
One of the guys in the band, (Mark I think?) was a friend of a friend. We saw them at the Night Gallery I think, and he came up and told me that the halloween party I had at my house a year or two earlier was the best party he'd ever been to! I hadn't thought about that story in a good 15-20 years, but was pretty proud of it at the time, lol!
Rex had an amazing ability to tell a tale and make a point, unfortunately in more recent years I felt him become a bit more unlikeable with some of his positions but still respected his style. Uniquely Canadian.
Good for business though too. He gave up the royalties but so many big bands wanted to work with him knowing he only needed to paid for the actual work on the album.
It definitely does seem wrong that producers should get royalties. Session musicians I don't think ever get royalties and I'm sure they add some of their own ideas to songs written by the main artist.
Some producers have a huge impact on the music. Brian Eno, love him or hate him, has his fingerprints all over some Bowie, U2, and Taking Heads albums. I think he would deserve royalties - those artists never sounded like that before.
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Rex had an amazing ability to tell a tale and make a point, unfortunately in more recent years I felt him become a bit more unlikeable with some of his positions but still respected his style. Uniquely Canadian.
Some producers have a huge impact on the music. Brian Eno, love him or hate him, has his fingerprints all over some Bowie, U2, and Taking Heads albums. I think he would deserve royalties - those artists never sounded like that before.
How the hell can you hate Brian Eno?
Anyway, Albini considered himself an engineer who would use his knowledge to help a band get the sound they're looking for. Eno is more of a collaborator who often added creative input. He definitely deserves credit for a lot of the records he produced sounding like they do.
I'm glad to see all of the tributes to Albini from artists he worked with. He had strong opinions about certain things that could rub people the wrong way, but he was well-liked.
He'll definitely be missed a lot more than Rex ####ing Murphy.
Anyway, Albini considered himself an engineer who would use his knowledge to help a band get the sound they're looking for. Eno is more of a collaborator who often added creative input. He definitely deserves credit for a lot of the records he produced sounding like they do.
I'm glad to see all of the tributes to Albini from artists he worked with. He had strong opinions about certain things that could rub people the wrong way, but he was well-liked.
He'll definitely be missed a lot more than Rex ####ing Murphy.
I hope we get to hear the original In Utero record one day. In Utero has unmistakable "Albini" sounds and effects. Like you can really tell the difference between Butch Vig's Nevermind album and In Utero, engineered with Albini.
Unfortunately, even though Nirvana made the album they wanted, the record company thought it was not commercial enough and pressured Nirvana into allowing some re-engineering and mixing. I would love to hear the original version though... the one that freaked out the record execs and that Nirvana actually wanted to release. I bet it's awesome and would have sold just fine.
For the record, I also like a lot of Butch Vig's work, but it's a lot more polished I guess you could say which depending on the band, doesn't necessarily mean better. For Nirvana, I just think Albini's approach worked for their sound better.
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I hope we get to hear the original In Utero record one day. In Utero has unmistakable "Albini" sounds and effects. Like you can really tell the difference between Butch Vig's Nevermind album and In Utero, engineered with Albini.
Unfortunately, even though Nirvana made the album they wanted, the record company thought it was not commercial enough and pressured Nirvana into allowing some re-engineering and mixing. I would love to hear the original version though... the one that freaked out the record execs and that Nirvana actually wanted to release. I bet it's awesome and would have sold just fine.
For the record, I also like a lot of Butch Vig's work, but it's a lot more polished I guess you could say which depending on the band, doesn't necessarily mean better. For Nirvana, I just think Albini's approach worked for their sound better.
I mean, the released version of In Utero was Albini's mix other than Heart Shaped Box and All Apologies which were remixed. It was mastered after being mixed, which is standard procedure for commercial releases, though they went a bit more heavy handed than normal to try to polish the sound a bit. They reduced the dynamics, added a bit of reverb, and adjusted the EQ to try to boost the vocals.
The Albini version (without the heavy-handed mastering) was actually released accidentally on a vinyl re-release 20 years ago or so in Germany, and I've heard a rip of that. Because it's the same mix (other than the 2 songs) it really doesn't sound all that different. It's a bit drier, a bit duller, and the vocals do sound slightly buried in parts. But honestly, if I was listening to it casually I don't think I'd really notice a difference other than with the 2 remixed songs.
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