Amanda Palmer Instagram – I’m gutted to hear about the sudden death of the iconic punk musician and engineer/producer Steve Albini…heart attack, he was only 61. He was a master of sonic economy and had such incredible ethics about keeping sound simple and bullshit-free; he knew how to get songs into your heart via your ears. We had our squabbles (famously around my kickstarter) but we’d made our peace. A lot of what those squabbles taught me, in the end, was about how much punk is lost in semantics. Sometimes “DIY” absolutely doesn’t mean “Do It Yourself”, it means “Do It With Whoever is Around”, and I sometimes think that Steve and I were just a quarter-turn away from one another. He was a close friend of my longtime producer @congletonjogn (read John’s feed, there’s a beautiful post). John and I would talk a lot about Steve and his grumpy ways but beautiful soul. Steve suffered no fools and openly gave no fucks about over-decorating. He was known for capturing the alchemy of musicians slaying live. He produced – literally – THOUSANDS of records. He lived and breathed music-making. A few of the albums he produced had a profound effect on my head-world of music-understanding: @pjharveyofficial’s “Rid of Me”, @pixiesofficial’s “Surfer Rosa” and The Dirty Three’s “Ocean Songs” (still one of my all time favorite instrumental records to write and drive to). All massive influences on the @dresdendolls and my approach to sound. It’s sad when someone so good at their job leaves the planet so early. My best Steve Albini story: I once called him in 2007 about finishing the production of an album, since my producer had gone AWOL. He said: “Sure, when?” I said: “Don’t you want to hear the demos first, the songs? Don’t you want to make sure you like the material?” He said: “Nope, I give no fucks about your demos. Just come to Chicago if you wanna make a record”. I was so vain and grumpy with his lack of desire to listen to my half-finished record that I didn’t work with him. I regret it. I’ll never get the chance now. Rest in reverb, beautiful Steve. Thank you for giving us so much beautiful music. Thank you for birthing so many great albums into the world. Thank you. 🙏🎤♥️