Few figures shaped the modern indie landscape across the Pacific Northwest more profoundly than Steve Fisk. Though he logged time in groups such as Pell Mell and Pigeonhed, his reputation rests chiefly on production work for Nirvana, the Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, and Beat Happening. By the time he first appeared on record in 1980 via the compilations Sub Pop 5 and Life Elsewhere, Fisk had already passed through a string of short-lived ensembles. He resurfaced in 1985 within the instrumental unit Pell Mell, which went on to deliver several favorably received albums for SST. That same year marked his initial foray behind the console with the Screaming Trees’ Other Worlds, followed a year later by their Clairvoyance. Credits on Sub Pop and K releases soon multiplied, among them Beat Happening’s Jamboree and Soundgarden’s Fopp.
In 1990 he oversaw Nirvana’s Blew EP and worked with Some Velvet Sidewalk, Treepeople, Unwound, and the late Steven Jesse Bernstein. Two years afterward Fisk joined vocalist Shawn Smith to form the electronic duo Pigeonhed, which issued a self-titled album on Sub Pop; K simultaneously put out Over and Thru the Night, a collection of his own studio experiments. Major-label work arrived in 1994 with the Wedding Present’s Watusi for Island and the 360’s Strawberry Stone for RCA. The following year a reconstituted Pell Mell released Interstate on DGC, while Fisk produced the Geraldine Fibbers’ Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home, the Posies’ Amazing Disgrace, and Boss Hog’s self-titled set for the same imprint. Later sessions included Low, Soul Coughing, Damien Jurado, and Witchy Poo. His third solo effort, 999 Levels of Undo, appeared on Sub Pop in early 2001.
