Turn My Head Into Sound: A History Of Kevin Shields And My Bloody Valentine

by Andrew Perer

Turn My Head Into A History Of Kevin Shields And My Bloody Valentine tells the story of one of the great sonic innovators of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.


My Bloody Valentine have released only three albums in their forty-year career, but each of them has made a seismic impact. Isn’t Anything (1988) is often cited as an Ur-text of shoegaze and dream rock; Loveless (1991) is an undisputed masterpiece heralded by many as the greatest album of the 1990s; m b v (2013) is one of the best-loved comeback albums in recent memory.


For those who know Kevin Shields and his work already, he is an indie-rock icon, but by other measures he’s still a relatively obscure figure in the musical mainstream, and to date there has been no full-length appraisal of his work or his band’s career. Until now.


Turn My Head Into Sound is based on research gathered over decades as well as interviews with people who were there, some of them speaking on the record for the first time. Longtime fans of the band will find plenty of new information here, including the full story of the tumultuous period at Island Records following the release of Loveless.


Shields is truly a one-of-a-kind musician, and this book—which fills in the gaps, corrects errors, and takes an objective look at his and the band’s entire career, warts and all—paints the full picture of one of the most revolutionary sonic artists of our time, including his work outside of MBV as an engineer, producer, remixer, and auxiliary member of Primal Scream, as well as his contributions to several films by Sofia Coppola.

Genres: Music

264 pages, Paperback

Published December 16, 2025

Reviews

[Skrot · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic biography and history of Kevin Shields and My Bloody Valentine. It digs beneath the rumors and mythology to tell the story in a straightforward and engaging way. It does a great job of analyzing the techniques and tools that Shields and the band used to create their groundbreaking sound and songs, without getting bogged down in minutiae. You leave the book with a renewed sense of what makes the music so unique. It often embeds you in the position of the listener as the music would’ve been experienced when it first came out, putting you in that headspace so you can feel how alien and exciting it all was (and remains). I like that there was emphasis on the interpersonal relationships within the band and how important every member is, especially in terms of the live setting and the overall spirit of the group. The interlude on hypnagogia helped me to better understand Shields’ mindset and inner world. And the discussion of Shields’ fascination with unorthodox, irregular forms of musical timing, when combined with assessments of Colm Ó Cíosóig’s unique drumming style, helped me to appreciate the rhythmic approaches underpinning the music. All in all, this book is a success, both for fans of the band and for people who just enjoy reading about innovative music in general.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you love My Bloody Valentine you will love this book. If you don't love MBV there is something fundamentally wrong with you.

The book tells the story of Kevin Shields and the band in terms of who they are as people and the relationships between them. It tells of how the songs were written and how the band's unique, innovative sound was created. It tells the story of the painstaking process behind producing the music and why that led to only three albums being released in 20-odd years. It also gives a remarkable insight into how Shields' one-off musical brain works.

An absolutely fascinating account of one the last true geniuses of modern rock music. Read loudly.

[Ian Mathers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. Wrote about it at some length for Dusted, here.