My Bloody Valentine: The Band That Broke Music
There are bands that define a genre. Then there are bands that are the genre. My Bloody Valentine is the latter. They didn’t just pioneer shoegaze; they’re synonymous with it. If you’ve ever listened to a song where the vocals are buried under six layers of fuzzed-out guitars, where the drums sound like they’re underwater, and where the lyrics are more of a vibe than actual words, you have a short-list of bands to thank for that, one of them being My Bloody Valentine.
But how did a group of Irish misfits go from scrappy, post-punk/jangle pop weirdos to releasing Loveless, an album so mythic that people are still arguing about whether it’s overrated or the best thing since Pet Sounds? And why did they disappear for nearly two decades only to come back and drop m b v, a follow-up that somehow lived up to the impossible hype? Buckle up, because this is the story of the loudest, most perfectionist, and most accidentally influential band in alternative music history.
The Early Days: Post-Punk Flops
Rewind to Dublin, 1983. Kevin Shields and Colm Ó Cíosóig meet at a karate tournament (yes, really). After becoming fast friends the two decided to start a band, that band was The Complex, featuring future Hothouse Flowers frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí. They covered the Ramones and Sex Pistols, played a few gigs, and then *poof* it was over. Shields and Ó Cíosóig weren’t done, though. They pivoted into a post-punk outfit, A Life in the Day, which was about as successful as its name was exciting.
By 1983, they formed the first iteration of My Bloody Valentine, with vocalist David Conway and bassist Mark Loughlin who would be in the band for a cup of coffee only to be replaced by a 2nd bassist and 3rd bassist who had their own brief stints with band. The band name (major upgrade imo) was courtesy of a late-night VHS viewing of a 1981 Canadian slasher flick My Bloody Valentine. (Though, to this day, Shields insists he had no idea the movie even existed when the name was suggested.)
The first few releases? Rough as sandpaper. If you’re not expecting the iconic sound the band would go on to pioneer, maybe you could get a decent experience out of the earliest work which is a odd mix between rockabilly and The Jesus & Mary Chain. If you are expecting anything resembling what the band would eventually become, This Is Your Bloody Valentine (1985) and Geek! (1985), are to this day, rather disappointing listens.
As mentioned earlier, MBV’s early years were a mess of lineup changes and frustration. They rehearsed in small spaces and were so loud the neighbors nearly lost their minds. Bassists came and went like Spinal Tap drummers. Guitarist Stephen Ivers left the band while original vocalist David Conway’s girlfriend Tina Durkin joined in on keyboard. In 1984, after recording a rough demo in Shields’ parents’ house, they somehow landed a contract with Tycoon Records. Record deal aside, the Irish music scene didn’t want them. So, in true chaotic fashion, they left. First to the Netherlands, where they lived in near-poverty for nine months, opening for R.E.M. once. Then to Berlin, where they recorded the previously mentioned This Is Your Bloody Valentine Ep.
By 1985, they gave up on mainland Europe and made their way to London. It was a pivotal move because London was where they’d finally start becoming the band we now know. It wasn’t until they moved to London, recruited bassist Debbie Googe and, most importantly, found Bilinda Butcher that MBV became MBV. Butcher’s ethereal vocals meshed perfectly with Shields’ increasingly warped guitar work, and suddenly, things started clicking. But wait, i’m getting ahead of myself.
Taking Shape
In 1985, My Bloody Valentine finally made it to London,where all good bands across the pond went to either make it big or die in obscurity. At first, it looked like they were heading toward the latter. The members lost track of each other while scrambling for places to crash, and keyboardist Tina Durkin, plagued by self-doubt, quietly bowed out. To add to the bands increasing list of worries, they still needed to fill the role of full time bassist which had been an ongoing issue from the start.
Enter Debbie Googe. Shields got her number through an acquaintance, invited her to audition, and just like that, MBV had a proper bassist. Googe juggled rehearsals with her day job, and the band started practicing at Salem Studios, which was connected to the indie label Fever Records. The label liked what they heard and agreed to release an EP on the condition that MBV funded the recording themselves (classic indie label move). So, in December 1985, they dropped Geek!, a record that, let’s be honest, didn’t exactly set the world on fire. But it got them onto the London gig circuit, playing alongside bands with names like Eight Living Legs and Kill Ugly Pop, so you know small victories.
But things were moving way too slow for Shields, who was getting antsy. He even considered bailing to New York, where he had family connections. Instead, a lifeline arrived in the form of Joe Foster, co-founder of Creation Records, who had just started his own label, Kaleidoscope Sound. Foster saw something in MBV (probably some raw, noisy potential buried under all that fuzz) and convinced them to record an EP. The result? The New Record by My Bloody Valentine (1986), which finally got them some real attention, peaking at #22 on the UK Indie Chart.
It wasn’t a breakthrough yet, but it was a step. Suddenly, they were playing more shows, building a small but dedicated following. They hadn’t quite cracked the code of their signature sound, but something was starting to take shape. The noise was getting louder. And soon, everyone was going to hear it.
Finding Bilinda
By early 1987, My Bloody Valentine had landed at Lazy Records. Their first release for Lazy was Sunny Sundae Smile, a jangly, fuzz-drenched single that actually made some waves, hitting number 6 on the UK Indie Singles Chart. For a band still trying to figure out exactly what they were, that was a big deal. Suddenly, they were on tour, playing all over the U.K. But, because nothing comes easy in MBV land, March of ’87 brought a serious curveball: David Conway, their original frontman and source of much of their early weirdness, decided he was done. Burned out, sick, and dreaming of becoming a writer, he jumped ship right in the middle of a tour. The band was left frontman-less, and for a minute there, things were looking bleak.
So Shields, Ó Cíosóig, and Googe did what any desperate band would do: they put out an ad for a new singer. Here’s where it gets hilarious (and painfully relatable for anyone who’s ever tried to form a band). Shields, being a fan of melodies, mentioned The Smiths in the ad. Which, in ’80s London, was basically an open invitation for every Morrissey wannabe and bedroom crooner to show up. Shields later described the auditions as “disastrous and excruciating,” and said he was bombarded with “fruitballs” (Kev’s words, not mine) trying to join the band.
Out of this mess, two names emerged: Bilinda Butcher and Joe Byfield, both recommended through mutual musician friends. Butcher was hardly a seasoned rock singer—her musical background was limited to childhood classical guitar and casually singing with friends while playing tambourine (as you do). But something about her dreamy, breathy voice clicked. Legend has it she auditioned by singing Dolly Parton’s “The Bargain Store.” (Yes, imagine hearing that and thinking, “Perfect. You’re in.”) Shields agreed to take her on, with the added bonus that they could now do dual vocals. Byfield, meanwhile, didn’t make the cut.
Of course, this wasn’t just about plugging a hole in the lineup. Butcher brought a softness and mystique that MBV had been missing—her and Shields’ voices would become part of the swirling, almost genderless haze that defined their future sound. But it didn’t come easy. Shields admitted he wasn’t exactly thrilled about singing himself but had “always sung in rehearsal” and knew the melodies inside out. So, reluctantly, he became a frontman, too.
The newly formed MBV debated dropping the name My Bloody Valentine altogether but in true MBV fashion, they couldn’t agree on an alternative, so the name stuck. “For better or for worse,” as Shields would later say (and honestly, can you imagine them being called anything else?).
Still under pressure from Lazy Records to deliver a full-length album, the band struck a compromise: they’d release a single and a mini-album first, giving them time to settle in with this revamped lineup. Strawberry Wine dropped in November 1987 and did decently well, hitting number 13 on the indie singles chart. A month later, they followed it up with Ecstasy, a mini-album that peaked at number 12 on the indie albums chart.
But if you think this was MBV hitting their stride—think again. Ecstasy was a mess behind the scenes. The band was broke, funding everything themselves, and it showed. The record was riddled with production issues, including a famously botched mastering job. Critics at the time described it as sounding like “a group who appeared to have run out of money halfway through recording”—which was, in fact, exactly what happened.
Even worse? Lazy Records later re-released Strawberry Wine and Ecstasy on the 1989 compilation Ecstasy and Wine without the band’s permission. Nothing says indie solidarity like re-releasing your band’s work without asking.
Still, MBV’s star was rising. Rough Trade Records saw potential and offered to fund a full album. But in a move that would set the tone for the rest of their career, MBV said no. Why? Maybe they sensed that bigger things were on the horizon—or maybe they just didn’t want anyone rushing them. Either way, they were about to take all that chaos, confusion, and half-formed sound and turn it into more chaos, confusion and something revolutionary.
Because right around the corner? You Made Me Realise, and everything was about to change.
You Made Me Realise: The EP That Changed Everything (and Possibly Destroyed a Few Eardrums)
By early 1988, My Bloody Valentine was a band teetering on the edge of something massive — they just didn’t know it yet. After a chaotic few years of lineup changes, label issues, and half-baked releases, they finally caught the attention of Creation Records’ (aka the indie label that would later make Oasis obnoxiously famous.) head honcho Alan McGee. After an impressive string of live shows the band was being dubbed the“the Irish equivalent of Hüsker Dü”, leading to McGee offering them a shot at recording for Creation. Honestly, what better compliment could an up-and-coming 80s noise band ask for?
So, MBV took their chance and hit a studio in Walthamstow, East London. They cranked out five songs in less than a week On August 8, 1988, they released You Made Me Realise, their first EP for Creation, and—let’s be real—the release that made people finally sit up and say, “Wait, who are these people?” Up to this point, MBV had been searching for a sound, but with You Made Me Realise, they didn’t just find it — they practically invented a new one.
The title track is a blitz of jagged guitars, barely-there vocals, and enough distortion to make your stereo weep. The band had clearly leveled up. Kevin Shields later admitted that around this time, he became obsessed with experimenting—especially with reverse reverb, which he had used before but now discovered could completely melt reality if you hit the strings just right. Oh, and apparently, smoking a lot of weed might have helped unlock this revelation. Because of course it did.
Shields also name-dropped his influences in later interviews: Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis were huge for him—basically the Mount Rushmore of noisy indie guitar gods. But as much as MBV borrowed, they transformed it into something entirely their own: louder, weirder, and way more beautiful in that disorienting kind of way that makes you feel like you’re floating in a hurricane.
Peter Kember of Spacemen 3 saw them live around this time and recalled a now-legendary moment when they played You Made Me Realise: “They’d transformed. I don’t know quite what had happened, but sometimes bands hit a certain quantum shift. The noise was overwhelming.” That “quantum shift” was real — MBV had gone from jangle-pop oddballs to the scariest, dreamiest wall of sound anyone had ever heard.
The EP itself is stacked. Beyond the title track, you’ve got Slow (a woozy, erotic groove that could melt walls), Thorn, Cigarette in Your Bed, and Drive It All Over Me — all shimmering with that now-signature mix of delicate vocals and blistering guitar haze. And if you were lucky (or unlucky?) enough to catch them live around this time, you’d be treated to You Made Me Realise’s infamous live version — complete with a “holocaust” section, where they would hammer one single chord forever. Okay, maybe not forever, but definitely for 15 minutes, sometimes 30. Audience reactions ranged from awe to agony. Billy Corgan (yes, Billy Corgan) said about seeing them live: “For the first three minutes it’s like ‘oh okay this is kind of cool.’ Then you’re like ‘This is really too much. I wish they’d f***ing stop.’ And then at about 7 minutes it actually became kind of funny. And about 10 minutes in you start actually getting into it.” Iconic.
And when I say it was loud, I mean L-O-U-D. Later reunion shows would clock in at ear-splitting 130 decibels — basically, the sonic equivalent of standing on an airport runway — all while the band stood motionless, heads down, embodying peak shoegaze energy.
You Made Me Realise wasn’t just some random EP that got filed away in record bins — it was a statement. It hit number 2 on the UK Indie Chart and had critics foaming at the mouth. Spin magazine called it “astonishing.” AllMusic praised it as the moment when critics finally realized MBV was onto something huge. And in case you think this was just hipster noise for noise’s sake, Stylus Magazine ranked the song’s bassline as one of the greatest of all time — number 24, to be exact.
The success of You Made Me Realise set the stage for what was coming next — a debut album that would take that storm of sound and turn it into something even bigger. But make no mistake: You Made Me Realise was the moment the world first heard MBV fully arrive, armed with distortion pedals, reverse reverb, and enough volume to make the walls shake.
Loveless: The Beautiful Disaster that Redefined Indie Rock
By February 1989, MBV had momentum. Their debut album had changed the game, and Creation Records was hungry for more. “Five days,” the label said confidently. Five days to record their second album—easy, right? Spoiler alert: not even close.
Instead, Loveless became a two-year sonic odyssey, stretching across nineteen different studios and chewing up engineers like guitar strings. At the center was Kevin Shields—part genius, part mad scientist—taking total creative control. He drove engineers to the brink of sanity, famously declaring, “We’re so on top of this, you don’t even have to come to work.” Harsh? Maybe. Effective? Absolutely.
To keep fans happy during this painstakingly slow process, the band dropped two EPs: Glider (1990), with the mesmerizing track “Soon,” and Tremolo (1991), featuring “To Here Knows When,” a single so strange NME dubbed it “possibly the strangest single ever to chart.” Shields was knee-deep in samples, reverse reverb, and his now-iconic “glide guitar”—a technique that warped chords into dreamlike swirls of sound.
But behind the scenes, things were unraveling. Shields took control of virtually every instrument on the album; bassist Debbie Googe didn’t even play on the record, though she still got credited. She admitted feeling “pretty superfluous” as Shields painstakingly translated the sounds in his head directly onto tape. Butcher stepped away from guitar duties altogether, happily admitting she was “never a great guitarist anyway.” And drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig? He barely played at all, contributing mostly sampled drum loops due to illness—except on tracks like “Only Shallow” and “Come in Alone.”
As if the musical chaos wasn’t enough, Shields and Butcher’s vocal recording sessions were equally bizarre. Lyrics were scribbled last-minute in bleary-eyed, overnight marathons. Butcher’s dreamy vocals—captured around 7:30 a.m., often after she’d been woken from sleep—blended with Shields’ to create a ghostly choir that became another instrument. When the right vocal take proved elusive, Shields layered multiple attempts, creating the lush, indistinct soundscape that defines “When You Sleep.”
Influences ranged from Neil Young’s raw intensity to The Cure’s melodic melancholy, evident on tracks like “What You Want,” Shields’ homage to “Just Like Heaven.” But perhaps most remarkable was Shields’ insistence on minimalism. The “hundreds of guitars” listeners assumed they were hearing? Actually fewer tracks than most amateur demo tapes, just processed obsessively through Shields’ glide-guitar wizardry.
When Loveless finally dropped on November 4, 1991, it was more than an album—it was an event. Critics immediately hailed it as revolutionary. “A virtual reinvention of the guitar,” wrote Q Magazine. Rolling Stone declared Shields had given the instrument another decade of relevance. Creation Records, however, was less thrilled. The prolonged sessions reportedly cost upwards of £250,000, though Shields insists it was much less. Label head Alan McGee had enough, dropping MBV shortly after, exhausted by the band’s perfectionism. Yet, despite the label’s financial pain, the impact of Loveless was undeniable.
Loveless didn’t just inspire; it created an entire blueprint for a new kind of music,dreamlike yet intense, abstract yet accessible. Bands from Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins to Mogwai and Nine Inch Nails openly worshipped at its altar. Brian Eno admired its visionary quality, while critics compared its impact to landmark albums like Pet Sounds.
Ultimately, Loveless was the album My Bloody Valentine had risked everything to make—and it nearly destroyed them. But decades later, its legacy is untouched. Shields and company didn’t just capture lightning in a bottle—they invented a whole new way of hearing music. It was chaotic, it was obsessive, and yes, it nearly destroyed them—but they probably wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Long Silence: How My Bloody Valentine Fell Apart After Loveless
After releasing Loveless in 1991. My Bloody Valentine signed to major label Island Records in 1992 with a hefty advance of £250,000. This should have marked their moment of mainstream triumph, but instead, it kicked off one of rock’s most legendary disappearing acts.
The band poured their advance into building their own home studio in Streatham, South London, hoping to follow up Loveless quickly. But the studio quickly became a money pit, plagued by technical problems and escalating frustrations. Kevin Shields himself admitted the band entered a “semi-meltdown” period. Rumors swirled that Shields was battling severe writer’s block—though he’d later clarify it wasn’t as dramatic as it sounded. According to Shields, it was simply a matter of knowing when his creative switch was “on” or “off,” and unfortunately, that switch stayed stubbornly off for years.
During these tense, inactive years, My Bloody Valentine released only two cover songs: Louis Armstrong’s “We Have All the Time in the World” and Wire’s “Map Ref. 41°N 93°W.” By 1995, bassist Debbie Googe and drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig had enough, departing to pursue other projects—Googe briefly drove a taxi and later formed the indie supergroup Snowpony, while Ó Cíosóig relocated to the U.S. to start Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions.
Left with just vocalist Bilinda Butcher, Shields struggled to finish their third album. He later confessed that they’d accumulated enough material for multiple albums, but it lacked the vital spark: “It was dead. It hadn’t got that spirit, that life in it.” The press gleefully compared Shields to famously reclusive figures like Brian Wilson and Syd Barrett, framing him as a tortured genius spiraling into isolation and inaction.
Ultimately, Butcher left in 1997, leaving Shields alone and unable to finalize the record. Shields himself described this period bluntly: he “went crazy,” eventually giving up and joining Primal Scream, dabbling in remixes, and contributing to film soundtracks—including Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. It seemed the band that changed indie rock forever was finished, their follow-up to Loveless permanently shelved.
For fans and critics alike, My Bloody Valentine’s prolonged silence was mystifying and maddening. Stories circulated of Shields missing deadlines, obsessively tweaking unfinished tracks, and delivering over 60 hours of unusable recordings to Island Records. The mythology grew around the album-that-never-was, transforming My Bloody Valentine’s silence into something almost as legendary as the music they’d actually released.
But, against all odds, the story wasn’t quite over yet. In 2007, a decade after their breakup, rumors surfaced about a reunion. Could Shields and company really bring My Bloody Valentine back from the brink? Or was the promise of new music just another myth?
That chapter, incredibly, was still to come.
The Impossible Comeback: m b v and the Resurrection of My Bloody Valentine
In 2007, rumors suddenly became reality. My Bloody Valentine announced their reunion, confirming appearances at major festivals and igniting excitement among fans who had waited nearly two decades for something—anything—from the elusive band.
Initially, Kevin Shields wasn’t sure the new music they’d started working on back in 1996 was worth finishing. These sessions had begun shortly after Googe and Ó Cíosóig had left, with Shields laying down guitar riffs and foundation tracks alone. But revisiting these tracks in 2006 made him realize the unfinished album held something special. Combining recordings from the original 1996-1997 sessions with fresh overdubs and vocals recorded between 2011 and 2012, Shields found new inspiration. “She Found Now” became the only track recorded entirely from scratch during these later sessions.
Completing m b v wasn’t easy. Original analog tapes had degraded significantly, altering pitch unpredictably and complicating the recording process. Shields humorously recalled spending days just getting the bass and guitar in tune with each other, a maddening ordeal compared to standard studio work. Despite these challenges, Shields remained committed to a purely analog recording and mixing process, finishing the album without any digital processing.
Compositionally, Shields described m b v as more “elongated” and “raw” compared to the circular, folk-blues influenced structures of Loveless. Drawing inspiration from The Beach Boys’ unfinished Smile, he embraced an impressionistic approach, deliberately avoiding traditional song structures with clear beginnings, middles, and ends. Influences from drum and bass and jungle music, which had captivated the band in the mid-’90s, notably shaped songs like “Wonder 2.”
Finally, on February 2, 2013—after years of whispers, rumors, and last-minute delays—m b v dropped without warning on the band’s website, immediately crashing due to overwhelming traffic. The album marked their first original full-length release since Loveless in 1991, and remarkably, it lived up to decades of impossible hype.
Critics universally praised m b v. The Guardian described it as “more melodically complex and intriguing than anything My Bloody Valentine had done before,” while Pitchfork awarded it a glowing 9.1 out of 10. Tracks like “She Found Now,” “Only Tomorrow,” and the anxiety-laden “Nothing Is” showcased a band that hadn’t lost their edge, effortlessly blending their trademark waves of distorted guitars with fresh experimental sounds.
Shields revealed that the album’s themes connected deeply with ecological anxieties and societal change, feelings he had grappled with since the mid-’90s. Despite the heavy subject matter, Shields approached these topics with optimism, viewing the album as an acknowledgment of necessary change rather than a grim reflection of decay.
Following its release, the band embarked on extensive global tours, selling out venues and festivals worldwide, from Tokyo and Seoul to London and Los Angeles. Audiences old and new flocked to witness the legendary live experience that had defined My Bloody Valentine—ear-splitting volumes, hypnotic visuals, and a visceral intensity few bands could match.
Against all odds, My Bloody Valentine had not only returned—they’d reminded everyone why they mattered so much in the first place. m b v was more than just a comeback; it was a stunning reaffirmation of their status as sonic visionaries, proving that even decades of silence couldn’t dull their revolutionary spirit.
So, Do MBV Still Matter? (Spoiler: Yes.)
Let’s be real. Shoegaze wouldn’t exist without My Bloody Valentine. They didn’t just influence the genre—they defined it. Every time you hear a band like DIIV, Beach House, or even Smashing Pumpkins layering dreamy vocals over waves of distortion, you’re hearing echoes of Loveless.
Their live shows are still ridiculously loud. Their albums still hold up. And despite Kevin Shields’ perfectionism-induced studio exile, he still claims there’s more music on the way. Will it actually happen? Who knows. But MBV already did the impossible once.
They weren’t just a band. They were a revolution. And whether they ever release another album or not, their legacy is locked in. They made music that sounded like the future—only to watch the future spend 30 years trying to catch up to them.
