Kevin Shields

Songs and music are so simple in many ways. But there's a special ingredient that you have no control over, which is just playing something because you enjoy it. It's very simple and very obvious, but it can actually sort of get the music to work. Whereas if you contrive something, and only make it up and play it because you want it for an intellectual reason, it doesn't seem to have that magic ingredient anymore. Show less «

I don't have strong feelings about particular songs that are unreleased, because I know at some point they will exist, and if I don't release it, then it's not lost to the world forever. The creative process doesn't feel that personal to me, because I don't think it's just about me. Show less «

Everything I do is a bit like myself in the end. I've recorded a lot of music over the years that never came out, so there's a gap between where we were and where we're going. You notice it more when you play live because you feel the way it feels in relation to the audience. You learn your own music through that. Show less «

My mind is nearly like an infinite tunnel of potential ideas, but the ideas are all a part of what is already there. In my imagination, I always think there are more parts to record. Then when I work it through, I make it to a certain point and I'm like, "Actually, that's enough." Show less «

I'm not really organized, and I've never really done anything the way I would have preferred to. I have a huge backlog, but I've also had a realization from writing music for most of my life. When I write music, it's all contextual, as if every song has its own little soul. Show less «

Hearing is very much a mental process as much as a physical process - partly, you learn to listen in different ways. For example, even people with quite bad hearing have got a certain threshold - there's a certain volume where they can hear things quite well. When I'm working in the studio or mastering, I still tend to be the one who picks up on problems first or pick up on distortions. That's not necessarily a component of good hearing from a technical perspective. It's just the way I hear sound. Show less «