Part of Series
THE FIRST TIME I HEARD MY BLOODY VALENTINE is Part VI in an ongoing series where musicians and writers tell their stories of first hearing the music of an iconic artist or band. In this sixth volume (following the first five installments, which covered Joy Division/New Order, Cocteau Twins, David Bowie, The Smiths, and Kate Bush), forty different musicians and writers remember their initial experiences with hearing My Bloody Valentine, the groundbreaking Irish alternative rock band, led by Kevin Shields, known for their sonic experimentation, blistering live shows, and classic "shoegaze" masterpiece, Loveless. Contributors to the My Bloody Valentine edition include musicians such as Bob Mould, Christian Savill (Slowdive), Louise Trehy (Swallow), Peter Silberman (The Antlers), Geoff Sanoff (Edsel), Jonathan Segel (Camper Van Beethoven), Jonas Munk (Manual), Mia Clarke (Electrelane), Matt Schulz (Holy Fuck), Scott Cortez (lovesliescrushing), Adam Pacione, Andrew Prinz (Mahogany), Ian Masters (Pale Saints), Matt Elliott (Third Eye Foundation), EJ Hagen (Highspire), Ryan Policky (A Shoreline Dream), James Chapman (Maps), Gazz Carr (God Is an Astronaut), Sally Robertson (The Sunshine Factory), Hank Starrs (Animals That Swim), Hobey Echlin (Majesty Crush), Michael Savage (The Fauns), Alap Momin (dalek), John Loring (Fleeting Joys), Jon Attwood (Yellow6), Mat Flint (Revolver, Deep Cut), Aidan Baker, Ron Gibbs (Auburn Lull), Jeff Kandefer (The Daysleepers), Kellii Scott (Failure, Veruca Salt), Nick Keech (One Unique Signal, The Telescopes), Michael McCabe and David Read (Coldharbourstores), and Kimber Lanning (Half String); Amber Crain of the shoegaze blog When the Sun Hits; and writers Nick Burd, Evan Garza, Roy Christopher, Kevin C. Smith, and Steven Karl. The "First Time I Heard" book series is edited by Scott Heim, a novelist (Mysterious Skin, We Disappear) who is also a longtime music fan. Other installments in the series (or those forthcoming soon) include books on Joy Division / New Order, David Bowie, Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush, The Smiths, R.E.M., Kraftwerk, Abba, Roxy Music, and others.
Author
Scott Heim was born in Hutchinson, Kansas in 1966. He grew up in a small farming community there, and later attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, earning a B.A. in English and Art History in 1989 and an M.A. in English Literature in 1991. He attended the M.F.A. program in Writing at Columbia University, where he wrote his first novel, Mysterious Skin. HarperCollins published that book in 1995, and Scott followed it with another novel, In Awe, in 1997. Scott has won fellowships to the London Arts Board as their International Writer-in-Residence, and to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab for his adaptation of Mysterious Skin. He is also the author of a book of poems, Saved From Drowning (1993). After living eleven years in New York, he relocated to Boston in 2002. Mysterious Skin was adapted for the stage, premiering in San Francisco; it was subsequently adapted to film by director Gregg Araki and Antidote Films. Scott's third novel is We Disappear (HarperCollins), published in February 2008.
