Steve Albini's 'In Utero' Pitch Included With Reissue

The super deluxe 20th anniversary edition of In Utero comes with lots of extra goodies for superfans but few are as fascinating as the included proposal from legendary audio engineer Steve Albini to work on the album (above).

The reproduced letter is classic Albini, who believed his role was to record the music being played in the most faithful way possible (much like recording pioneer, Thomas Edison).

The engineer (he famously despises the word 'producer', as it implies that he is changing the final form of the music in some way) detailed his process and walked the band member's through what he wanted to do with In Utero. Namely, whatever the band wanted, as quickly as possible.

He also refused royalties on the final product, asking to be paid for his services and that be the end of it:

I think paying a royalty to a producer or engineer is ethically indefensible. The band is responsible for whether it's a great record or a horrible record. Royalties belong to the band.

 I would like to be paid like a plumber.... If we assume three million sales, that works out to 400,000 dollars or so. There's no fucking way I would ever take that much money. I wouldn't be able to sleep." 

Also, he ends the letter with "If a record takes more than a week to make, somebody's fucking up. Oi!" which is just awesome.

(H/T to Buzzfeed)