Love Letter to a Record: Mittere on my bloody valentine’s ‘loveless’

July 24, 2023

Music Feeds’ Love Letter to a Record series asks artists to reflect on their relationship with the music they love and share stories about how it has influenced their lives. Here, Sydney artist Mittere celebrates my bloody valentine’s shoegaze classic loveless (1991).

Sydney-based recording engineer Dan Frizza is the brains behind ambient music project, Mittere. Frizza’s day job has led to work with Delta Goodrem, Tone and I, King Princess and loads more. But on Boy, his latest album as Mittere, Frizza abandons the pop format in favour of prog and ambient-influenced soundscapes reminiscent of Mort Garson and Brian Eno.

Mittere’s Dan Frizza on my bloody valentine’s loveless

Mittere: I remember coming across loveless in my early twenties. At the time I felt I was sifting through a lot of heavier guitar music but it all just felt too aggressive. This album had a strange allure from the get go for me. Not much info about how it was made or who the band were behind the record. I couldn’t even find definitive lyrics.

First listen, I remember the opening track, ‘Only Shallow’, kind of stunned me with that all-in, wall of guitars, something I had never heard before. As soon as the vocals kicked in, I knew I was in. It was like a rush around me, a feeling of organised chaos, as if I was in the centre of a tornado and all around me was some swirling, chaotic twist, whilst I was sat in an almost meditative state in the middle of it all.

Soon after, I read that Kevin Shields played a Fender Jaguar, so I immediately went out and bought one for myself, which I use on almost all my recordings to this day.

I remember buying this album from a record store in Lismore. The lady behind the counter stopped me and told me how she used to buy frozen vegan dinners off my bloody valentine in London before they broke through – must have been late-80s – an encounter that just fuelled that elusive mystique they seemed to have to me.

This album opened my eyes to the world of shoegaze and explained a lot of things that I didn’t know about myself. I believe Kevin Shields once said “distortion is truth” and I agree.