Steve Albini Quotes

I basically was in charge of the Jackson 5 - all their creative, when it came down to the studio, and all their musical endeavors.

I produce the records. I don't hand over control to some really expensive producer who then talks to the record company and then tries to bend me to their will - for commercial purposes.

When we came into the studio I became more and more me, making the tracks and choosing the musicians, partly because a great deal of the time during Bridge, Artie wasn't there.

I like to make records sound good. I'm more like a reducer than a producer. If an artist cannot produce themselves, what's the point?

I didn't want the Ramones being told what to be doing, and I wanted the Ramones being presented in the right light - the remaining Ramones.

Puffy produced four of the tracks on the album. Those are the four songs that are collaborations between Puffy and me. And he gives me my space to work even when we work together, like with my producer and my vocal coach.

In general, I don't feel artists should need producers.

The hardest part, for me, is being in the band and knowing the way I want certain things to sound, but also having to listen to opinions, and very valid opinions, of my bandmates. So, sometimes, I'll have to have conversations with them as a producer and then conversations with them as a bandmate.

I had to beg to get out of my contract with Capitol. They wanted me to work with big producers. I wanted to produce my music, and they weren't having that. I'm sure they were happy to let me go. I just didn't want to do what they wanted me to do.

The producer should decide what kind of music is being made, what it's going to sound like - all of it: the why, when, and how.

I do not run my band like The Eagles, for sure. I've never had to be heavy handed.

Paul forced the Beatles to work a lot harder than they would have otherwise, and he did the same thing with Wings.

Some of the earlier stuff I did in studio with producers was very pop-directed, which I was uncomfortable with.

Rick Rubin was able to do things that Dave Fortman could never do. I'm not trying to take anything away from Dave Fortman as a producer. He's extremely talented. He wasn't able to get nine people together on the same page and, to me, that's the most important thing in making a Slipknot record.

I'm not interested in being the producer of somebody else's song.

There's no rush to ever put out a new Cheap Trick record. We put it out when we feel like it.

All musicians are potential band leaders.

I've never had anybody produce my records. I've always produced my own records. I've worked with a guy for a while who was an engineer who helped me produce records, but I've always made my own records. I'm a control fanatic. I've got to control everything.

We were the only band in history that was directed by an ass.

From Jay-Z to Nas to Kanye to whoever, I'm just not the type to say, 'Hey, let me get on your album.' If they want me, they're going to reach out and say, 'I need a joint from you.'

Because I write the music, I write the lyrics, I write the vocal melody lines - I write everything. Just because I let somebody sing something doesn't mean they're more important than the bass player or the keyboard player or the drummer.

Here's the way Static-X has always worked: I write all the songs by myself - totally and completely by myself - I give demos to the other guys, and then they add their parts to it, and then we argue about stuff and compromise and it turns out being Static-X.

Artists who are passionate about their music and in love with their art go independent because they want to continue making music and serving it to the world.

I love directing my music videos and writing video treatments, and I think it's all just because I love the visual aspect of it as well.

And if somebody's going to produce me, they should be producing my sound for me. And that's something I have to come up with myself.