Watch Steve Albini tell Anthony Bourdain about his “healthy suspicion of capitalism” and love of Chicago
Following the passing of Steve Albini, fans have been re-sharing a clip of the producer talking to the late Anthony Bourdain about his politics, career and love of Chicago.
The legendary record producer – who was the mastermind behind iconic albums such as Nirvana‘s ‘In Utero‘ and Manic Street Preachers‘ ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’– died yesterday (May 8) of a heart attack while at Electronic Audio – his recording studio in Chicago. His death was confirmed by the studio’s staff members.
Albini appeared as a guest on season seven episode three of the Emmy-award-winning show Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. In the episode, Bourdain explores the sights of Chicago, stopping to dine on breaded steak sandwiches at Ricobene’s with the music producer.
In the video clip, Bourdain asks Albini: “Unusual for the music industry, remarkably lenient, Views on music sharing your pricing structure, as a producer is, you know, somewhat against the grain of the usual business model and you are not living in LA or New York or living on a mountaintop and peeing downwards from a great height though, what are you some kind of a communist split?”
yes there is a Steve Albini interview with Anthony Bourdain. I could only find a shitty Tiktok rip, but worth it to see Bourdain giggle at Albini saying “jagoff” pic.twitter.com/ftb1v4YDEA
— claire shaffer (@claireeshaffer) May 8, 2024
The music producer replies: “I have a healthy suspicion of capitalism as a method I feel like left unchecked, capitalism is a kind of cultural sociopathy, like for a business to be successful in capitalist terms it has to do the best possible job of exploiting everyone that does interaction with the end game of capitalism is that everything is crappier and crappier and people are more and more exploited. And I have a healthy suspicion of that. So I feel like the social model that I’m comfortable with, it suits my business practices, which is that we’re all in the same game. We’re all trying to do the same thing. We just want to make sure that things get better for everybody.”
Bourdain then asks if he thinks that mindset is a “Chicago attitude” to which Albini responded with: “Well, in my circles, it is yeah, In the punk rock scene and the people who are influenced by the punk rock scene, that’s a very common notion is that you’re not trying to extract the maximum, you’re trying to make sure that everything carries on.”
The late chef goes on to say as if “there is less douchery in Chicago,” to which Albini replies: “You can find jag-offs – that’s a uniquely Chicago word. If you look for him, you can find jag-offs of all type in Chicago. But the people who are productive and content and part of an enterprise that is righteous for lack of a better term. They tend to not just give lip service to the notion of egalitarianism or fairness, but they tend to embody it.”
“What about the musicians? How much money does a Guitar Hero deserve to make?,” asked Bourdain. Albini responded: “All of it obviously, because that’s what people are listening to. People are listening to somebody’s creative expression.”
Speaking to NME last year, Albini opened up about teaming up with the Manics for their 2009 album ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ and how they bonded over their similar political beliefs. “I’m a leftist, they are leftist, so we aligned that way socially,” he explained. “More importantly, we’d had similar foundational experiences of being in bands, touring, being broke and having to make do, and doing things in a kind of home-made way.
“They had achieved enough success where they were sort of on this professional plain. They appreciated it all the more for having had to work their way up through it, you know busking on the street, playing crappy gigs, playing squats, working their way up to a point where they were a headline act. They were enjoying that, and they deserved to.
“No qualms whatsoever about just spitting on their hands and making their record, they didn’t need fluffers or hangers-on!”
He also opened up about feeling buoyed by the recent victory for the Democrat Brandon Johnson in the recent Chicago mayoral election – describing the mayoral race as “a kind of watershed” but also “just a minor victory in Chicago” for the city.
“The Republican candidate Paul Vallas, who is an extraordinary piece of shit, had enormous amounts of money put into his campaign,” he argued. “He’s a typical Republican; pro-police, conservative law and order, the typical right-wing Chicago politics. He came up against a guy who was a former educator, county commissioner and teacher’s union member.
“Johnson represented the progressive wing of the political scene in Chicago, the part that I identify with. It was really gratifying to see the political will of the people of the city overwhelm the kind of machine politics where you just infuse enough money into the chosen system and that guy wins. It was really great to see that defeated, it gives you hope.”
And of his own future, he added: “As long as I have got all my facilities about me, I want to keep working.”
In other news, PJ Harvey payed tribute to Albini by sharing “He changed the course of my life”. He produced Harvey’s 1993 LP ‘Rid Of Me’.
Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker also paid his respects, sharing: “Listen to the music he was involved in & read what he wrote about it. It’s worth it.”
The Cribs also offered their condolences to the legendary producer, writing “It’s hard to imagine Steve Albini being gone”.
Elsewhere, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic told NME last year about Kurt Cobain’s decision to have him work on their classic album ‘In Utero’.
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Anagricel Duran
NME
