Earlier this week three My Bloody Valentine reissues were released in the U.K. - Isn't Anything, Loveless, and EPs 1988 - 1991 (import versions in North America will be released starting May 15th.) Not only is it awesome to have this material finally re-released, but Kevin Shields has been doing some interviews to promote the reissues. So far, the best interview to come of this publicity tour is an interview posted today in The Quietus. Taylor Parkes sat down Shields for two hours and the result is a fascinating read.
In the interview Shields made a great argument for being sleep deprived--he revealed that many of the band's songs were written with an altered state of mind that had nothing to do with drugs:
"...it definitely wasn't about drugs. Pot, maybe. But very few of the songs were even written when I was stoned. And we certainly never played or mixed or recorded stoned. Mainly because we were too tired. The You Made Me Realise EP and the Feed Me With Your Kiss EP, that was when we got really into sleep deprivation...it's not that altered states of mind weren't involved, they were, big time. I had some pretty weird experiences. But that's what it was, sleep deprivation. That's what happens when you don't sleep much. It brings the subconscious into the present world."
Another topic discussed was MBV's influence on other bands:
...if I was to look out and see what we were doing then reflected now, I see it everywhere. Some of the better appropriations of ideas that we had, they've turned up in music that has nothing to do with our sound...I think we were definitely a bit ahead of our time though, in that we were synergising something that was going to happen anyway. It wasn't that these things were so influenced by us, just that that energy was being born anyway, and we were one of the first puppies out. I don't know if it came from us, but it came through us."
My Bloody Valentine fans - stop what you're doing and read the entire article Not Doing Things Is Soul Destroying: Kevin Shields Of My Bloody Valentine Interviewed in The Quietus, then watch a full MBV concert filmed in 1989.