In Utero (album) - Recording

Recording

The members of Nirvana and Albini decided on a self-imposed two-week deadline for recording the album. Wary of interference by DGC, Albini suggested the band members pay for the sessions with their own money, which they agreed to. Studio fees totaled US$24,000, while Albini took a flat fee of $100,000 for his services. Despite the suggestions of Nirvana's management company Gold Mountain, Albini refused to take percentage points on record sales, even though he stood to earn approximately $500,000 in royalties. While a common practice among producers in the music industry, Albini refused to take royalties because he considered it to be immoral and "an insult to the artist".

In February 1993, Nirvana traveled to Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota to record the album. Albini did not meet the band members until the first day of recording, though he had spoken to them beforehand about the type of album they wanted to make. Albini observed that "they wanted to make precisely the sort of record that I'm comfortable doing". The group stayed in a house located on the studio grounds during the recording sessions. Novoselic compared the isolated conditions to a gulag; he added, "There was snow outside, we couldn't go anywhere. We just worked." For most of the sessions, the only people present were the band members, Albini, and technician Bob Weston. The band made it clear to DGC and Gold Mountain that it did not want any intrusion during the album production, going as far as not playing any of the work in progress for its record label A&R representative. To prevent the group's managers and label from interfering, Albini instituted a strict policy of ignoring everyone except for the band members; the producer explained that everyone associated with the group aside from the musicians themselves were "the biggest pieces of shit I ever met".

The album sessions began slowly but would ultimately gain momentum; the band arrived at Pachyderm Studio without their equipment, and spent much of the first three days there waiting for it to arrive by mail. However, once recording began on February 13, work moved quickly. On most days the group began work around midday, took breaks for lunch and dinner, and continued work through midnight. Cobain, Novoselic, and Grohl recorded their basic instrumental tracks together as a band. The group utilized this setup on all songs except for faster compositions like "Very Ape" and "tourette's", where the drums were recorded separately in a nearby kitchen due to its natural reverb. Albini surrounded Grohl's drum kit with approximately 30 microphones. Cobain added additional guitar tracks to about half the songs, then added guitar solos, and finally vocals. The band did not discard takes, and kept virtually everything it captured on tape. Albini felt he was more an engineer than a producer; despite his personal opinions, he ultimately let the band judge which were decent takes. He said, "Generally speaking, knows what he thinks is acceptable and what isn't acceptable He can make concrete steps to improve things that he doesn't think are acceptable." Cobain reportedly recorded all his vocal tracks in six hours. The band completed recording in six days; Cobain had originally anticipated disagreements with Albini, whom the singer heard "was supposedly this sexist jerk", but called the process "the easiest recording we've ever done, hands down". The only disruption occurred a week into the sessions, when Courtney Love arrived because she missed Cobain. The band, Love, and Albini refused to go into specifics, but Weston's girlfriend—who served as the studio's chef—stated that Love created tension by criticizing Cobain's work and being confrontational with everyone present.

The mixing process for the album was completed over the course of five days. This rate was quick by Nirvana's standards, but not for Albini, who was used to mixing entire albums in a day or two. On occasions when work on a song mix was not producing desired results, the band and Albini took the rest of the day off to watch nature videos, set things on fire, and make prank phone calls for amusement. The sessions were completed on February 26.