STEVE ALBINI

"It was often assumed that Big Black had a dictator (and that he was me), but having actually been in the band, I can assure anyone who gives a shit that this was not the case. We would get together a few times a month and weed-out each others ideas until only the good ones were left. Nobody ever said, "I've written this song fellas, and it goes like this..."

It seems preposterous now, but at the time, people seemed overly concerned about the literal meaning of our lyrics. I know we never discussed it among ourselves. Lyrics seemed a necessity, so we had them, but the subject matter was an extension of our interests--not part of a political or aesthetic battle plan. Theylyrics were subject to change at whim once the subject had been decided on anyway. Anybody who thinks we overstepped the playground perimeter of lyrical decency (or that the public has any right to demand "social responsibility" from a goddamn punk rock band) is a pure natural dolt, and should step forward and put his tongue up my ass. What we sing about is none of your business anyway.

Organizationally we were committed to a few basic principles: Treat everyone with as much respect as he deserves (and no more), Avoid people who appeal to our vanity (they always have an angle), Operate as much as possible apart from the "music scene" (which was never our stomping ground), and Take no shit from anyone in the process.

It meant nothing to us if we were popular or not, or if we sold a million or no records, so we were invulnerable to ploys by music scene weasels to get us to make mistakes in the name of success. To us, every moment we remained unfettered and in control was a success. We never had a manager. We never had a booking agent. We never had a lawyer. We never took an advance from a record company. We booked our own tours, paid our own bills, made our own mistakes and never had anybody shield us from either the truth or the consequences.

The results of that methodology speak for themselves: Nobody ever told us what to do and nobody took any of our money."

-Steve Albini, liner notes from Big Black's Pig Pile