Random Album Facts: Loveless

My Bloody Valentine released their magnum opus,Loveless in 1991 after a grueling two-year recording process. Since its release the Irish shoe gazers have been silent. No follow up album, no live performances since 1995, and pretty much nothing holding the band’s reputation together but rumor, hype, and the fact that Loveless remains one of the most innovative and untouched experimental albums out there.

This year MBV embarked on its first world tour (or really first tour) in over ten years. The band is currently scheduled for an appearance at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom–one of five U.S. cities on the band’s lineup. So far setlists from the band’s recent shows look to be rooted primarily from MBV’s two studio albums–Loveless and Is this Anything–along with a handful of EPs including Tremolo and Glider. In interviews the band’s talking head, Kevin Shields claims that a new album is three-quarters of the way finished but whether or not new material will be unleashed on the eager audience of shoegazers awaiting the band’s arrival is up in the air.

While most serious music lovers are probably familiar with MBV and most likely escape into the world of Loveless on a semi-regular basis, I thought it would be cool to uncover some of the secrets and random trivial facts that went into recording and releasing this album.

• My Bloody Valentine got its name from an obscure Canadian B-Slasher film of the same name. Kevin Shields has said in interviews that the band had toyed with earlier names for the band including Burning Peacocks.
• The recording process of Loveless was a long, grueling experience that took over two years, in 19 different recording studios, and cost Creation Records nearly £250,000 almost bankrupting the label all together.
• While past MBV endeavors were collaborative between the band members, Loveless was hands down Kevin Shields baby. The control freak musical mad scientist played all of the guitar and bass parts, wrote 2/3 of the album’s often undistinguishable lyrics, and even recorded many of the drum tracks.
• MBV’s drummer and co-founder Colm Ó Cíosóig only contributed to two of Loveless’ tracks, the punch the gut opener “Only Shallow” and “Touched.” While Shields need for creative control played into this outcome, Ó Cíosóig was also extremely ill during most of the recording stages for Loveless and was at one point homeless. The other remaining tracks were produced from pre-recorded drum loops from Ó Cíosóig.
• Loveless was the first project for then new vocalist Bilinda Butcher. It is said that Shields was inspired by Butcher’s dream like vocals but still made her endure bizarre recording practices such as closing off the window between the studio and the control room, thus not allowing anyone to watch the musicians at work.
• MBV moved from one cheap studio to the next over the recording process and listed every single person involved in the liner notes for Loveless. Shields once said that, “even if all they did was fix tea, that might have had an effect on the album’s outcome.” In reality Shields only trusted himself and producer Alan Moulder with the important recording procedures thus giving him near complete control.
• MBV deliberately did not include lyrics to Loveless in the album’s liner notes since the mystery of the sound is an important element of the sound. In the Japanese release there are printed lyrics (a requirement in Japan) but they are supposedly not even close to being correct. Likewise internet lyric sites all differ in some way with their interpretations.
• While it’s assumed that the band took copious amounts of drugs–specifically psychedelic substances such as ecstasy–while recording Loveless, the truth is Shields main mind-altering drug was lack of sleep. Shields was interested in dreams and achieving the hypnagogic state, which is experienced between wakefulness and sleep and can produce hallucinatory events. Much of Loveless was created or imagined late at night while Shields was alone in the studio.
• While much of Loveless’ “swirling guitars” sound like a dozen or so instruments being used, the majority of the effects used during the recording was simply realized with a tremolo arm or wammy bar.
• The large budget for Loveless nearly bankrupted the band’s label, Creation Records. Creation would later be propelled from Indie status to mega stardom with its work with the U.K. band Oasis. Shields has said in interviews that most of the money spent was actually for living expenses over the two years and that the music itself only cost a couple thousand pounds. MBV believes Creation exaggerated greatly how much the album actually cost.
• Loveless was recorded almost exclusively in mono.
• Shields and Butcher both had a fascinating obsession with chinchillas and during the recording of Loveless it wasn’t uncommon to have up to 14 little critters running around the studio on a give day.
• Shields once said in an interview, “My whole memory of making [Loveless] was just this constant sense of presence, like it was a mixture of angels and, funnily enough, cow ghosts, ghosts of cows. I don’t know why, but I kept having this impression of bloody animals and cows all the time–really big, weird faces with big brown eyes. But not like aliens.”
• For a quick, highly informative read about Loveless and My Bloody Valentine check out Mike McGonigal’s book Loveless, which is part of Continuum’s 33 1/3 series.