39 Facts About Kevin Shields

Kevin Patrick Shields was born on 21 May 1963 and is an Irish-American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, who achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine.

Kevin Shields contributed several original compositions to the soundtrack of Sofia Coppolas 2003 film Lost in Translation, which earned him nominations for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Irish Film and Television Academy awards.

In 2008, Kevin Shields released a collaborative live album together with Patti Smith entitled The Coral Sea.

The album was composed entirely by Kevin Shields and had been in production since the late 1990s, when Kevin Shields was rumoured to have been suffering from writer's block.

Kevin Shields has since been featured in several publications' best-of-lists, including Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Guitarists and Spins 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Kevin Shields is the eldest of five siblings born to Irish parents; his mother was a nurse and his father was an executive in the food industry.

Kevin Shields' parents had emigrated from Ireland to the United States in the 1950s, when the couple were teenagers.

Kevin Shields attended Christ the King, a Roman Catholic primary school which he described as "a really horrible school run by psychopathic nuns".

In 1973, Kevin Shields moved to Dublin, Ireland, with his parents and siblings due to financial conditions and in order to remain close to their extended family.

Kevin Shields was raised in Cabinteely, a suburb in Dublin's Southside.

Kevin Shields received his first electric guitar, a Hondo SG, as a Christmas present from his parents in 1979.

Kevin Shields befriended drummer Colm O Ciosoig in south Dublin during the summer of 1978, and together they answered an advertisement placed by a 12-year-old musician to form punk rock band The Complex.

Kevin Shields later said that The Complex had formed out of "what all the nerds and weirdos actually do as opposed to the cool people with the leather jackets," who were forming fictional groups around Dublin in the late 1970s.

Kevin Shields has since claimed that he was unaware at the time that My Bloody Valentine was the title of a 1981 Canadian slasher film.

The EP received little attention, and due to the band's slow progress Kevin Shields contemplated relocating to New York, where members of his family were living.

Creation Records had believed that the album could be recorded in five days, but several unproductive months followed during which Kevin Shields took control of the musical and technical aspects of the sessions.

Kevin Shields relocated to a total of 19 other studios and hired a number of engineers, including Alan Moulder, Anjali Dutt and Guy Fixsen.

Several technical problems with the studio sent the band into "semi-meltdown", according to Kevin Shields, who was rumoured to have been suffering from writer's block.

Kevin Shields contributed guitar loops to two Experimental Audio Research albums: 1996's Beyond the Pale and 1997's The Koner Experiment.

Kevin Shields was a frequent collaborator with indie rock band Dinosaur Jr, appearing on and producing Hand It Over and Ear-Bleeding Country: The Best of Dinosaur Jr.

Kevin Shields produced Dot Allisons Afterglow, Joy Zippers American Whip and The Beat Up's Blackrays Defence.

Between 1998 and 2006, Kevin Shields became a frequent collaborator and semi-permanent touring member of Primal Scream.

Kevin Shields contributed guitar, produced and mixed tracks on two of the band's studio albums: XTRMNTR, and Evil Heat.

Kevin Shields plays guitar the way that nobody else in the world plays guitar," adding that Primal Scream considered Shields to be "part of the family, very much so.

Kevin Shields became involved with the score after being contacted by the film's music co-ordinator Brian Reitzell while in Tokyo, Japan.

In July 2008, Kevin Shields collaborated with the American musician Patti Smith to release the live album The Coral Sea on the PASK label.

In October 2011, Kevin Shields launched the independent record label Pickpocket together with Le Volume Courbe frontwoman Charlotte Marionneau, and considered releasing a collaborative "ten minutes of noise" single on the imprint.

Kevin Shields has since announced intentions to release remastered analogue cuts of My Bloody Valentine's back catalogue followed by two releases of new material that were most recently expected to release in 2019.

Kevin Shields has referred to The Beatles and the Ramones as his favourite bands of all time.

Later Kevin Shields has cited The Beach Boys as an influence and expressed admiration for modern artists like Tame Impala.

Kevin Shields said that the use of stereo in the 1980s was part of a "weak, corporate sound".

Kevin Shields has expressed admiration for producer Joe Meek and the French electronic duo Daft Punk.

Kevin Shields's sound uses "texture more than technique to create vivid soundscapes".

Kevin Shields used a number of alternate and open tunings that together with his tremolo manipulation, according to Rolling Stone Michael Azerrad, achieved "a strange warping effect that makes the music wander in and out of focus".

Kevin Shields's rig is connected to a large number of amplifiers which are often set to maximum volume to increase sustain.

Kevin Shields has mild dyslexia, "mild to extreme" tinnitus, and tendonitis in his left hand.

Kevin Shields contracted tinnitus during the mixing of Loveless in 1991.

Kevin Shields has been outspoken about the corporate influence in the music industry.

Kevin Shields's youngest sister, Eileen, is a shoe designer who has designed for Bono, Drew Barrymore and PJ Harvey.