My Bloody Valentine's chief noise maker Kevin Shields has announced that the reformed rockers are recording two albums. One will be chock-full of brand new material, but the other is a revisit to the infamous unfinished third LP.
The album was aborted in 1997 due to the band's label, Island Records, cutting off finances. Shields, who was still legally tied to Island until 2001, reportedly delivered another 60 hours worth of material, which also never saw the light of day. "It just got dumped," Kevin told KUCI radio in 1999, "but it was worth dumping. It was dead. It hadn't got that spirit, that life in it."
Now, it would appear that the guitarist has changed his mind. The NY Times caught up with Shields before My Bloody Valentine's headlining slot at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in New York: "I realized that all that stuff I was doing in 1996 and 1997 was a lot better than I thought."
As for the new material, Shields hints at an altogether more upbeat affair than previous work: "I definitely don't think you need to suffer to be creative. I've written some of my best songs when I've been happy."
How much!?
Shields has long been dubbed as a 'perfectionist' by fellow band members, which might explain how he spent an incredible $366,000 on equipment for this tour. My Bloody Valentine's ambient drone depends heavily on the many "hundreds" of effects pedals in Shields' arsenal, although he "only uses 30 onstage." Only? That's a pedal board we need to see…
