Nirvana share letter from Steve Albini outlining his approach to ‘In Utero’

nme.com:

Nirvana‘s social media accounts have shared the four-page letter Steve Albini sent to them, proposing that he produce their landmark album ‘In Utero’.Today (May 9), Nirvana’s X (formerly Twitter) account published the four-page proposal, in which Albini wrote of his approach and methodology to music and how he planned to handle the recording of ‘In Utero’.The post comes after it was revealed yesterday (May 8) that Albini had died at the age of 61 due to a heart attack.

The legendary producer and musician’s death was confirmed by his recording studio, Electronic Audio.In Albini’s four-paged proposal, he famously declared that “if a record takes more than a week to make, somebody’s fucking up”.“I think the very best thing you could do at this point is exactly what you are talking about doing: bang a record out in a couple of days, with high quality but minimal ‘production’ and no interference from the front office bulletheads,” he wrote. “If that is indeed what you want to do, I would love to be involved.” Steve Albini.

pic.twitter.com/DzYjvJykdx— Nirvana (@Nirvana) May 9, 2024“If, instead, you might find yourselves in the position of being temporarily indulged by the record company, only to have them yank the chain at some point (hassling you to rework songs/sequences/production, calling-in hired guns to ‘sweeten’ your record, turning the whole thing over to some remix jockey, whatever…) then you’re in for a bummer and I want no part of it.”He continued: “I’m only interested in working on records that legitimately reflect the band’s own perception of their music and existence.

If you will commit yourselves to that as a tenet of the recording methodology, then I will bust my ass for you. I’ll work circles around.