Update: Drowned in Sound conducted this interview with Debbie Googe in September, before Shields announced that he'd release the album before the end of the year.

My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields recently claimed that a new record-- the two decades in-the-making followup to Loveless-- would be out this year. According to a recent Drowned in Sound interview with MBV bassist Debbie Googe, the album is progressing, but still very slowly.

The release hinges on the idiosyncratic work patterns and decisions of Shields, Googe explained. "It will definitely come out as it's pretty much finished," she said. "I mean, it's impossible to talk about time with Kevin, but in terms of percentage-wise, he's got one more track he wants to do then that's it. Everything else is recorded."

Still, Googe-- who's been playing with Primal Scream lately-- doesn't know what the final product is shaping up to sound like. "I really couldn't [tell you what it sounds like] at all," she said. "I've heard more of the new Primal Scream record than I have the new My Bloody Valentine one!"

Googe told Drowned in Sound that she doesn't play on the album. "Most of it is stuff Kevin has done, certainly guitar wise. It's been a long process, you know. The drums have been added then taken off at least once. His brother did them at one point, then Colm [O'Ciosoig] came in and redid them. There's some things Kevin can't do, like the drums or Bilinda [Butcher]'s vocals, but everything else he can, and I'm certainly happy for him to do that."

She also said that the band is in the process of booking shows for next year in addition to the already announced UK dates, Japan shows, and ATP Australia, but it's unclear whether the band will play the new material live.

"We haven't played together since ATP in 2009," She said. "I'd like to think there'll be new material in the live set. I know he doesn't want to play the whole of the new album. One of the reasons we booked Japan and Australia first was because they're territories we never got to play the first time around, bar the one festival, so I'd expect those sets to be very similar to the ones we've been playing over here and in America. But then by the time we get back here, I'd expect there to be newer songs incorporated into the set that we haven't played live before."

Shields has said he'll release the record by posting it on his website soon after it's actually finished, which could literally be at any point in the future.

"I guess it would be very easy for me to take some of the credit [for My Bloody Valentine's success], but nearly all of it is down to Kevin. He's very single-minded," Googe said.

Read our interview with Shields from earlier this year, talking about the My Bloody Valentine reissues and the new album.

"Only Shallow":