The Daily Swarm

UPDATE: My Bloody Valentine 2008 live gigs first dates announced

UPDATE: Watch the first part of the interview.

Kevin Shields, the mercurial and elusive leader of My Bloody Valentine, confirmed that the legendary band has reunited in the studio for the first time since 1995, recorded new material, and that an album release is forthcoming, possibly as soon as this year. In an exclusive interview set to air Monday, Nov. 12 on VBS.tv, Shields speaks at length with Ian Svenonious on Soft Focus about his career and art, including some tantalizing hints about the next phase of My Bloody Valentine.

When The Daily Swarm first reported on the upcoming My Bloody Valentine reunion in August, our sources insisted on remaining anonymous, and Kevin Shields’ own statements came only in the form of fans’ personal encounters culled from a variety of message boards. Some accused us of rumormongering (see The My Bloody Valentine ‘Reunion’: Total Bullshit Or Complete and Total Bullshit?), but we were confident in our work and that after years of false starts and dashed hopes, one of our favorite bands of all time was truly gearing up for a return to action.

The reunion is, in fact, happening. In the Soft Focus interview – Shields’ first on-the-record utterances since last year’s sit-down with Magnet magazine, recorded over the summer at a London pub – he speaks, albeit briefly, about the band’s return to the studio and how a new record is due sometime before the end of this year.

We were making a record in the 90s, around when the band broke up in 1995…and I continued with Belinda. We kinda made we made most of an album….It’s going to be this ‘96/‘97 record half-finished record finished, and then a compilation of stuff we did before that in 1993–94, and a little bit of new stuff.

I pretty much know what the one that’s going to come out this year is going to sound like because its already pretty much 3/4’s done already…it sounds like what we sounded like – different but not radically different. People will go, “Yeah, it sounds like My Bloody Valentine.”

The 30 minute interview is part of the second season of Soft Focus, VBS.tv’s musician interview series hosted by Ian Svenonious. Recorded entirely in London, upcoming broadcasts feature in-depth discussions with Penny Rimbaud of Crass; Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream; Billy Childish; Terry Hall of The Specials; Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays and Graham Coxon out of Blur. The season premiered this week with Svenonious’ interview with The Fall and Von Sudenfed’s Mark E. Smith.

While Shields claims a My Bloody Valentine album is due this year, he gives no indication of exactly when or how it will be released. When the group split up in 1995 they had already left Creation Records and signed a legendarily ill-fated deal with Island, but it is unlikely that the contract remains in effect after all this time. The band recently activated mybloodyvalentine.co.uk and Shields’ manager confirmed the the site is being built by Debbie Goodge, the band’s bass player. It is possible that the album will see an independent, Internet-only, Radiohead style release, and a release date could be announced at any time.

As for My Bloody Valentine’s return to the stage and possible appearance at Coachella 2008, we have no new news to report (the subject does not come up in the Soft Focus interview). According to sources close to the band and the festival, discussions are ongoing and no final decisions have yet been made.