Steve Albini Quotes

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.

The single best thing that has happened in my lifetime in music, after punk rock, is being able to share music, globally for free.

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.

In heaven, after antipasti, the first course will be pasta.

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

I don't feel like embarrassing Kurt by talking about what a psycho hosebeast his wife is, especially when he knows it already.

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

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.

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

I stopped drinking almost immediately after I had ready access to liquor, when I got to college. It almost immediately lost its appeal for me.

Im busy doing my job, and being a loudmouth doesnt appeal to me as much as when I was younger and had the youthful delusion that I was smarter than everybody else.

Buy groceries and feed yourself, even on the road

The bands that have been the most important to me, and the records that have been the most important to me as a fan, have been records that surprised me for one reason or another.

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

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.

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

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

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

It always offended me when I was in the studio and the engineer or the assumed producer for the session would start bossing the band around. That always seemed like a horrible insult to me.

Clip your year-end column and put it away for 10 years. See if you don’t feel like an idiot when you reread it.

When people are absurdly tall, they command everyone's attention when they walk into a room. Nobody's ever dismissive of somebody for being too tall.

If I were a gambling man I would put all my money on there not being anything other than this universe.

I'm not a particularly good cook. Part of it is that it is the kind of cooking anybody could do if they bothered. It's improvisational. I cook with whatever I have laying around.

I want to be in cahoots with bands who want to make the record of their dreams.

The only kind of restaurant I could imagine doing would be the extraordinarily snooty restaurant with three or four tables, and I would cook what I felt like cooking. And you could eat it or not.

New York has magnificent eating available, both in restaurants and in the materials available to home cooks in the many specialty markets.

When I'm in a restaurant, I don't eat red meat. It doesn't taste like anything. But if a friend of mine is grilling stuff at his house, its almost always great.

I learned to cook from my mom. Most of what I ate growing up was Italian cooking.

What's the most outrageous thing I've ever done? Let's just say I don't think I've done it yet. The most outrageous thing is yet to come.

I wouldn't mind being taller, because when I'm in the company of people who are absurdly tall, there's something about them that I can't help admiring.

Almost any decent cook will make food by eye and taste. Virtually all of my family cooked that way.

I moved to Chicago in 1980 to go to college

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.

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