Legendary audio engineer Steve Albini built his Chicago studio brick by brick
Steve Albini on World Cafe
Steve Albini John Semley/WXPN hide caption
Steve Albini
John Semley/WXPNSet List
- Nirvana, "Serve the Servants"
- The Stooges, "My Idea of Fun"
- Cloud Nothings, "Nothing Without You"
Electrical Audio in Chicago doesn't seem like much from the outside. Inside, the brown brick building is a two-studio complex that opened in 1997. There's a door with a small plaque that simply reads "Electrical Audio."
If you didn't know it was there, you'd never guess that it's the headquarters of one of music's most renowned engineers: Steve Albini.
In the latest installment of our Sense of Place series, the World Cafe team is exploring Chicago's music scene. In this episode, you'll get a look inside the recording space where Albini engineered albums by bands like The Breeders, PJ Harvey, Jarvis Cocker and the Pixies. Oh, and a little album by Nirvana called In Utero.
World Cafe producer Miguel Perez contributed to this post.