There’s nothing to say about Steve Albini that hasn’t been already said. Between the records he recorded for other artists and the music he created across the years, he made a huge impact on me. In honor of what would have been his 62nd birthday, here’s my Steve Albini story.
In the spring of 2006, I was working at The Indy, Illinois State University’s independent newspaper. It was our 100th issue, and I wanted to highlight the important of independent music journalism and do a piece about zine culture. I had big ambitions; I wanted to talk to heavy hitters in the zine scene, which included some of my favorite musicians and critics.
So on a whim, I called Electrical Audio and asked to speak to Steve. The voice on the phone said, “This is Steve.”
My heart skipped a beat. It’s not every day you talk to a legend on the phone.
We set up time to chat the next day. This is all pre-cell phones, so I called him the following day on my brown touchtone phone in my dorm room.
I went into the interview with some pre-canned questions. Mind you I was 20 years old and didn’t really know how to do an interview. But I loved hearing him talk about zine culture and his experience with it. I recall his answers sounded mathematical and precise. This was long before he took his trademark wit to Twitter.
I’ve since misplaced the audio and the transcription of the interview, but I do remember one quote specifically.
I asked him about how zines were spread pre-internet and he replied “Samizdat.”
I recall there being a very pregnant pause. He then said, “Do you know what samizdat means?”
I stuttered out a “No.”
He then explained it to me. So thank you Steve not only for all of the incredible music and never compromising, but for expanding my vocabulary.
