Trivia / Steve Albini

• Creator's Oddball: He's known for his harsh production for loud indie and punk bands, so this is what happens when he departs from his stereotypical production style, and works with people like Joanna Newsom, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Cheap Trick.
• Doing It for the Art: He works for a flat fee and accepts no royalties, believing it to be an insult to the artist. In addition, he exclusively records in analog, does work for a lot of unknown/underground bands, charges artists on major labels more than those on indie labels, called the CD "The rich man's 8-track." and doesn't like to be credited on albums, only agreeing if the label insists, and even then as "engineered/recorded by" instead of "produced by".
• Irony as She Is Cast: From 1982 to 1987, the man notorious in alternative rock for his Brutal Honesty and dark subject matter had a day job as, of all things, a photograph retoucher; he was paid to take photos of car crashes and death scenes, and remove or obscure too-graphic details, so that they could be published in a newspaper. Yes, he was once paid to tone things down.
  • The flipside of this was that he spent much of his time staring at photographs of things that would turn most people's stomachs, making him something of a Shell-Shocked Veteran.
• Money, Dear Boy: According to an interview with Kerrang, Albini has said that he plays poker competitively purely for the money, stating "It's a fascinating game, and it stimulates my brain, but if I didn't make money from it, I wouldn't do it".
• Referenced by...: The band Songs: Ohia named their song "Steve Albini's Blues" after him, although his name does not appear within the song itself. Albini would later work with the band and its successor, Magnolia Electric Co.

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