Steve Albini Quotes

Steve Albini (19)

Birth:	22nd July, 1962
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Founder, Guitarist, Journalist, Owner, Record Producer, Singer, Sound Engineer

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Births

• 1953 - Stan Sakai
• 1939 - Ian McKellen
• 1764 - John Mason Good
• 1945 - Priscilla Presley
• 1969 - Anne Heche

Deaths

• 1986 - Chester Bowles
• 1085 - Pope Gregory VII
• 1937 - Henry Ossawa Tanner
• 2003 - Sloan Wilson
• 1899 - Rosa Bonheur

• I moved to Chicago in 1980 to go to college.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in College

  Tags in Chicago

• It betrays hubris on the part of the artist to think his medium is limiting him, and I think we all recognize this.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Hubris, Betray

• The woman I am currently crazy about was a vegetarian for a year until I started dating her. As is the case with most vegetarians, she had never eaten properly prepared meat, only commercially packaged or otherwise abused flesh.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Vegetarian, Crazy

• Many rock musicians are excellent cooks, I’ve found, and those that are prefer to eat their own cooking in the studio. I encourage this behavior as I also enjoy the benefits of fresh food.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Food, Cooks

• I’m busy doing my job, and being a loudmouth doesn’t appeal to me as much as when I was younger and had the youthful delusion that I was smarter than everybody else.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Delusion, Busy

• Doubt the conventional wisdom unless you can verify it with reason and experiment.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Experiment, Verify

• Buy groceries and feed yourself, even on the road.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Groceries, Feed

• There is a lot of use of ProTools in professional studios, but this is mostly for the special effects it allows, not for sound quality. These special effects soon fall out of fashion, and I don’t think this trend will define studios permanently.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Permanently, Fashion

• We have no general conceptual thrust for the band, other than trying to make music that keeps our interest. When things are novel, they are probably things we have discovered by accident or investigation rather than by design.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Discovered, Thrust

• A more important reason is that the bands will intuitively trust someone they think is a peer, and who speaks fondly of the same formative rock and roll experiences.

  Steve Albini

  Tags in Intuitively, Formative

• By now all rock bands are wise enough to be suspicious of music industry scum.

  Steve Albini

  Tags in Scum, Suspicious

• Find people who think like you and stick with them. Make only music you are passionate about. Work only with people you like and trust. Don’t sign anything.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Life

  Tags in Passionate

• For less than the cost of a Big Mac, fries and a Coke, you can buy a loaf of fresh bread and some good cheese or roast beef, which you will enjoy much more.

  Steve Albini

  Tags in Fries

• I don’t think anyone has exhausted the range of sound possible in a conventional rock band, but people do become slaves to their own easiest techniques.

  Steve Albini

  Tags in Conventional, Easiest, Exhausted

• If the label presents them with a contract that the band don’t want to sign, all the label has to do is wait. There are a hundred other bands willing to sign the exact same contract, so the label is in a position of strength.

  Steve Albini

  Tags in Label

• In 1980, I moved to Chicago, and I recorded demo tapes for my friends’ bands, and in 1981, the first Big Black record – the first thing I did that was an actual record.

  Steve Albini

  Tags in Demo, Tapes

• Know what you’re trying to do before you do it. Turning knobs at random isn’t enlightening any more than throwing paint at a wall blindfolded will let you paint a nice picture.

  Steve Albini

  Tags in Enlightening

• Make no mistake about it: once a band has signed a letter of intent, they will either eventually sign a contract that suits the label or they will be destroyed.

  Steve Albini

  Topics in Mistake

• The band cannot sign to another label or even put out its own material unless they are released from their agreement, which never happens.

  Steve Albini

  Tags in Label