"It's easy to create window dressing. It's difficult to change your behavior"

As a big fan of the man and his work and yet someone who feels distinctly queasy about his decision to name a band Rapeman, I was somewhat relieved to read Steve Albini's reflective mea culpa on Twitter: "A lot of things I said and did from an ignorant position of comfort and privilege are clearly awful and I regret them. It's nobody's obligation to overlook that, and I do feel an obligation to redeem myself. A project I've undertaken piecemeal as I've matured, evolved and learned over time. I expect no grace, and honestly feel like I and others of my generation have not been held to task enough for words and behavior that ultimately contributed to a coarsening society. For myself and many of my peers, we miscalculated. We thought the major battles over equality and inclusiveness had been won, and society would eventually express that, so we were not harming anything with contrarianism, shock, sarcasm or irony."

Albini was man enough to admit "I certainly have some 'splainin to do, and am not shy about any of it. ... I'm overdue a conversation about my role in inspiring 'edgelord' shit" - so Mel's Zaron Burnett III took him at his word. The result is a frank and honest interview in which he refuses to shirk responsibility or make excuses, but also avoids performative self-flagellation. The pair talk about the impulse to make confrontational art that flies in the face of convention and popular acceptance, the need to be (or become) aware of privilege, and the difficulty of finding "the balance between listening to others and taking their opinions and feelings into consideration but also not becoming a prisoner to their opinions".