In the liner notes for Nirvana’s 1992 compilation, Incesticide, Kurt Cobain wrote about how he was so obsessed with the post-punk group the Raincoats that he once traipsed through London to find “the very-out-of-print first Raincoats LP.” An explosion of artsy violin, unusual rhythms, and ear-turning harmonies, the album was unlike any other record of the era. Its unpredictable and adventurous spirit comes through in Cobain’s music. He was unsuccessful but he did meet Raincoats vocalist-guitarist Ana da Silva, who mailed him a copy of the 1979 self-titled LP.
“It made me happier than playing in front of thousands of people each night, rock-god idolization from fans, music industry plankton kissing my ass, and the million dollars I made last year,” Cobain wrote. “It was one of the few really important things that I’ve been blessed with since becoming an untouchable boy genius.”
Cobain’s ardor translated to talk of a Raincoats record deal at Nirvana’s label, DGC, that included reissuing The Raincoats, as well as two follow-up LPs, Odyshape (1981) and Moving (1984), in 1993. His support also paved the way for discussions of the Raincoats supporting Nirvana on the road (which ultimately didn’t happen because of Cobain’s death) and releasing a new album, something da Silva and vocalist-bassist Gina Birch were unprepared for at first.
A new book about the Raincoats, Shouting Out Loud, by Audrey Golden — due out July 15 — recounts how difficult it was for the Raincoats to sign to DGC and write and record what would become 1996’s Looking in the Shadows, two years after Cobain’s death. An excerpt recounts the hoops they had to jump through to satisfy the label, their difficult search for a drummer, and why they considered John Cale as producer but opted not to work with him. It also shows how they overcame those hurdles.
Negotiating a Geffen Production
By May 1994, Kurt [Cobain], one of the Raincoats’ biggest supporters associated with DGC was gone, yet [A&R rep] Ray [Farrell] was still interested in bringing the Raincoats into the DGC fold.
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“We had not thought of doing another record,” Ana says definitively. “We weren’t really a band at the time — me and Gina had just done a few gigs that were supposed to be for the tour with Nirvana … So when we were asked to do an album, I had a few songs I’d written and played with [the post-Raincoats band] Roseland, and Gina had a few as well, so we thought, let’s give it a try.”
Gina agreed, and when the thought of a new album came into view, she was really excited. “It all seemed like a mad offer, a series of mad offers! Tour with Nirvana, make an album on DGC. But why would we ever think of throwing that away? We started to take it really seriously and knew we wanted to do it, and Ray Farrell was saying things to us like, ‘Oh, you’re going to sell millions! It’s going to be this, it’s going to be that’ — all these ideas of how brilliant it’d be. So for a while it was really exciting.”
Ray wanted DGC to move forward with a new Raincoats studio album “because Kurt had encouraged it,” but the process was markedly different from the band’s Rough Trade days. The Raincoats would have to jettison their commitment to the DIY ethos and comply with DGC norms: hiring a New York–based law firm, shockingly high budgets, complicated negotiations, impersonal communications.
With Geffen involved, there was also a need for a U.S. manager. As early as August ’94, Ray brought this up with Shirley [O’Loughlin, the Raincoats’ U.K. manager], but she tried to head it off. Ultimately, the issue had to be addressed. Ray suggested the Raincoats work with Sheri Hood. Sheri was based in New Jersey and had already done U.S. management for British bands, including the Cranes, Slowdive, and Stereolab — she had that 4AD connection. For DGC, U.S. management was a necessity if the Raincoats were going to do a record and tour in the States.
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Back in London, Shirley felt diminished, with an ache in her heart. Sheri assumed it was all kosher — she’d done this before — but soon realized there were significant feelings at stake; this was more than just a business arrangement. The first time Shirley and Sheri spoke was on December 8, 1994, and Sheri talked with Gina and Ana after the New Year on February 7. It was clear to Sheri that London was the Raincoats’ center, both literally and metaphorically. She understood she’d be handling U.S. matters — working directly with Geffen, setting up the touring team, working on budgets — but that she didn’t have the same degree of input as Shirley. There was never a question for her that Shirley was the main manager, but the situation felt fraught and fragile on both sides.
Sheri and Ray were in what seemed like constant contact as the DGC negotiations were taking place. “There were lots of meals with Ray,” Sheri laughs. And Ray was, she emphasizes, “the biggest support the Raincoats could have within a label.” He was able to push internally at Geffen in ways that other A&R people wouldn’t have been able to at other majors, and certainly in ways Sheri herself couldn’t. In the end, he got the contract through. But before that could happen, some practical matters needed to be resolved.
The Raincoats Need a (Riot Grrrl) Drummer
Ahem. The Raincoats needed a drummer.
It was Ray’s sense they needed a Riot Grrrl. How better to bring the band firmly into the politics and spirit of the Nineties female-fronted music story?
Ana got in touch with [Bikini Kill’s] Tobi Vail first. “They asked me if I wanted to play drums with them,” Tobi says, “and I remember thinking, ‘I do not know how to do that!’ I’d never learned anyone else’s songs. I’m also a four-four-time kind of drummer, and their songs are … not that at all! So I didn’t think I’d even be able to do it.” Shirley remembers thinking Tobi “was a bit freaked out, and said something like, ‘Oh, God. I don’t think I could do this!’” As a riotous Raincoats fan, it’s a little surprising Tobi declined the offer, but as she explains it, “I still would have no idea how to play that music. I’m a pretty straightforward minimalist, rock & roll drummer. I know I’m good, but I don’t know how to do that.”
Once Tobi turned her down, Ana reached out to Delia Sparrow of Mambo Taxi. “Ana asked me to drum in the Raincoats,” Delia says, “but at the time I’d never drummed in a band and I didn’t have the confidence, so I turned her down. It’s one of my I-wonder-ifs.” Tobi recommended Heather Dunn, former Tiger Trap drummer extraordinaire who was touring with Lois Maffeo at the time. “Heather was one of the best drummers I could think of at the time,” Tobi says. Ana remembers Kim Gordon also recommending Heather.
Slim Moon of Kill Rock Stars also takes credit for Heather. “It sounds like I’m bragging,” he laughs, “and really the person who should brag is Ray Farrell, but Ray called me and said the Raincoats need a drummer and asked about women drummers. I suggested Heather, and she ended up playing with them, so I have this teeny part of the story.” Jon Slade heard the Raincoats had asked Tobi and Molly Neuman of Bratmobile. Heather remembers getting a call from a DGC rep who told her, “We’re looking at Tobi Vail and Molly Neuman, but do you want to go over to London and audition for the Raincoats?” Molly says she definitely wasn’t asked.
Ray was set on finding a female drummer who was in “the same sphere of musical influence” as Riot Grrrl. “I don’t know that Heather would have called herself a Riot Grrrl exactly,” Sheri says, but there’s no doubt that anyone associated with the Riot Grrrl movement “worshipped the Raincoats,” she adds. Ray had seen Heather playing with Lois on more than one occasion, and each time, he became more impressed. “Part of it was that it wasn’t like anything I’d seen before from a drummer,” he explains. “She was having fun.” Heather was also drumming on a range of Lois’s songs that “weren’t straightforward, weren’t four-four signature time, and even when they were,” Ray says, “Heather found ways of adding these little elements in.” He thought if the Raincoats were into her playing, she could work really well with the band.
Heather got the call in 1994 while recording with Lois. “She’s incredible,” Heather says of Lois. “While I was playing in Tiger Trap, I was a fangirl of Lois’s shambly music. When I had an opportunity to move to Portland after Tiger Trap broke up, Lois asked me to play.” Although she was already drumming with one of her idols, Heather was especially apprehensive about auditioning for the Raincoats. “I don’t know if it was because it was Geffen,” Heather says, “[but] I was super nervous. Being such an indie rocker, I thought, ‘Should I even try to do this?’ Would it even be OK if I was on a major label?” She remembers discussing it with Lois, and later Tobi, who invited Heather over to listen to Raincoats records. At that point, Heather thought, “OK, this is awesome.“ Tobi encouraged her to do the audition, and Heather promised, “I’m gonna go for it.”
Unlike Lois and Tobi, but akin to Anne Wood, Heather wasn’t among the “original Raincoats superfans.” As a result, she was worried she wouldn’t be able to play the songs in the same way Tobi or another drummer would. On top of it, she knew Steve Shelley had joined the band for their 1994 tour dates. “Could I really fill those Sonic Youth shoes?” she remembers fearing. “It was just mind-boggling, and even the amount of the ticket over to London was so much, the definition of ‘big money’ at the time.”
But she did it. Ana and Shirley met her at Heathrow and Shirley drove the three of them back to their flat.
“I was a little weirded out by them,” Heather laughs, explaining that it was because she knew how much older they were than her. “I’m using ‘weird’ in an ultra-loving way,” she says, “now that I’m 50. But being a 20-year-old kid then … and I knew they were being called the grandmothers of Riot Grrrl, but they did not seem like grandmas, not at ALL.” Back at the flat, Heather got the sense “we were trying to get a vibe on each other, figure one another out,” all while she felt extremely uncomfortable. “It took us a little while to warm up, in part because I had this sense of ‘here I am, the dumb, young American.’” But they became fast friends, and Heather immediately fell in love with “their cute and dreamy little flat off Portobello Road, right by the market and the Rough Trade shop!” She got an inside look into the way the Raincoats experienced family life and went about their everyday lives.
They immediately jumped into rehearsals. Heather had practiced some of her new favorite Raincoats songs before she got to London, but Ana or Gina would say, “We don’t really do those songs anymore … we do these songs.” Heather tried to listen and play to the beats of the band. She felt like she’d become part of a Raincoats fairytale she knew about from Lois, Tobi, and other friends in Olympia and Portland. “Being behind that drum set with them in person, in front of me, it was just like, Wow, this is a dream come true and it’s actually happening, mind-blowing.‘” She wasn’t sure about the impression she’d made on them when she returned to Portland, but for Heather it felt like “a magical 10 days.”
Shortly after she got back, Shirley called to let her know they were going to have a Raincoats discussion. The waiting was painful, but Heather jumped back into her work on the West Coast and tried to put it out of her mind. She didn’t know what to think. She felt pretty certain Molly Neuman wasn’t going to head to London to play with them, and Heather knew Tobi had already declined. She’d also heard Geffen wanted “a woman drummer who was current, a kind of Riot Grrrl who had been playing with other women.” So in that sense, she thought she stood a chance of getting the job — “But it really could have gone either way,” Heather says. More time passed, and then she got a transatlantic phone call. The Raincoats wanted her to return to London for some live gigs and to record the LP that would become Looking in the Shadows.
On September 28, 1994, Shirley wrote to Ray confirming plans to go ahead with Heather on drums:
Ray: Heather left yesterday, and I just want to let you know that we all love her and her playing. I’ve discussed the situation with her, and she definitely wants to play with us. So that is resolved. All we have to do now is discuss the fine details which are mainly to do with finalizing the contract and working out cover to records.
Ray knew Heather was apprehensive about her own abilities as soon as she got the go-ahead. “She was very nervous that this was even the situation, as if she didn’t deserve it,” Ray says. In a lot of ways, Heather was the best person for the job. “Heather was a perfect fit in terms of her enthusiasm … the dynamic she brought was fun, and she brought Ana and Gina together in that they laughed,” Sheri remembers. “And she brought that spirit of ‘Oh, my GOD, THE RAINCOATS, we’re gonna do this, let’s fuck shit up!’” Sheri laughs. “I know she became a liability later on,” Sheri continues, referring to issues such as Heather showing up late for rehearsals, forgetting her drumsticks, and other related antics. “But she also made them come alive.”
“She was 21 going on … 13 at that time,” Ana says. “We are quite open to some craziness, but it was a bit too much. I always had to bring drumsticks and a drum tuner because she’d forget to bring them. I love her, and we’ve seen her since and we’re friends, but back then, it was all just a little bit too much!” Tensions would manifest once Heather got back over to London, but first, the Raincoats needed to confirm a producer for their Geffen album.
John Cale
John Cale initially agreed to produce Looking in the Shadows, and the Raincoats even got to the point of sorting out a production budget with him on board.
Cale is best known as the cofounder, with Lou Reed, of the Velvet Underground in 1965. Cale gave the band one of their most distinctive sounds with his viola, and that sound inspired the Raincoats to add Vicky to their lineup in 1979. That connection alone would have been enough to get the Raincoats interested in working with Cale. But in his post-Velvets years, he made his name as an innovative and experimental producer on records as wide-ranging as the Stooges’ The Stooges (1969) and Patti Smith’s Horses (1975) to those by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers and the Happy Mondays on Factory Records. He could go seamlessly, it seemed, from lo-fi punk to acid house. By the mid-Nineties, he’d worked with Siouxsie and the Banshees on a comeback album and had produced personal music with Lou Reed.
Behind the controls, he seemed to understand divergent needs of experimental and pioneering artists, and he wasn’t one to kowtow to corporate desires. Music critic Amanda Petrusich wrote that “Cale has always thought of art as fluid rather than static — he has rarely been satisfied by recapitulations of the status quo.” Who better to help bring the Raincoats back to life?
“The Raincoats really wanted John Cale to produce them, and I wanted John Cale to produce, too, and we actually got him to agree,” Ray says. But when he asked trusted confidants if they thought it was a good idea, “I got drastically different responses,” he says. “One person told me it’s really chaotic, and if the band doesn’t know exactly what it wants and is ready to fight for it, this could end up being a disaster.” He also heard from a musician who’d worked with Cale recently: “As long as you have a good engineer, you’ll be good. He really doesn’t get that engaged.” But another said, “Just be prepared for the possibility of drama.” While Ray was excited at the prospect of potentially getting Cale on board, he wondered if it was going to make for a difficult recording session. “I thought, well, I’m still gonna give it a shot,” he remembers. He contacted Cale, who indicated he was “really interested.” Soon, Cale’s engineer did most of the talking for both of them. He told Ray they had a New York studio in mind, and that Cale “really likes the Raincoats’ music” and wanted to find a way to work with them.
By early late January 1995, Cale provisionally agreed to produce Looking in the Shadows for $20,000 — nearly a third of the budget the Raincoats would be getting from DGC.
The plan was to have the Raincoats meet in New York, where they’d record. Cale insisted on New York — nowhere else would do. Logistically, it seemed like it might get too complicated, especially with Ana, Gina, and Anne in the U.K. While the Raincoats had a long history with and connection to the city, logistics were raising eyebrows. Every time Ray got Cale pinned down to a schedule, there’d be changes due to Cale’s other commitments. “He’d say, ‘Oh, I’ve got to take four days off to play a festival in Spain,’ and here I’d be, paying for the Raincoats’ hotel rooms in New York while John Cale is over in Spain. I thought if we agreed, he might not come back when he said he would, might not ultimately finish their release,” Ray explains. “So I thought we really couldn’t do it. I’m sure the Raincoats would have loved to have been in John Cale’s discography of the productions he’d done, but ultimately the logistics stopped me from moving forward with him.”
Meanwhile, Ana and Gina were also having second thoughts.
They took the Eurostar from London to meet with Cale in a Paris café. When they showed up, he’d set aside only 20 minutes for them — there wasn’t time for more than a quick tea. He insisted they’d need to do the album on his schedule, and he emphasized that the Raincoats would need to come to New York; he wouldn’t produce the record in London. “We had both been huge fans, but he was cold, wasn’t particularly nice, and didn’t seem interested,” Ana remembers. “He didn’t want to do it, so we didn’t want to do it,” Gina says, and Ana adds definitively, “If you don’t like me, I don’t like you. That’s my motto … He wasn’t for us.”
“It was disappointing,” Ana reflects. “I love the Velvet Underground, and it would have been a nice thing to do, but …”
Shirley remembers when Ana and Gina returned from that Parisian jaunt and reported the brevity of their meeting. “It just wasn’t right,” she says. “It was really disappointing because he was a big hero, but better to go down that route at that point and be disappointed early than end up somewhere else.”
By April 8, plans for John Cale to produce had been scrapped. Shirley reached out to PJ Harvey to see if she was interested, but while they waited for an answer, the Raincoats went to meet with Paul Tipler at the legendary Blackwing Studios. Sheri was already familiar since Stereolab had made a name for itself there, and Shirley faxed a note to tell her they “also met Tim from Stereolab.” Shirley was also looking into other options. “Ana, Gina, and myself were really impressed at that time with PJ Harvey’s To Bring You My Love, which was produced by Flood.” She sent a fax to Flood’s agent. “He was unfortunately involved in another project, but his agent worked with Ed [Buller],” Shirley says, “and suggested Ed. And I’m so happy we had that opportunity.”
As Ray remembers it, “Ed Buller’s name came up because he was very quick in the studio.” Ed says Steve Mackey put his name forward to Ray. Ed had been a member of the Psychedelic Furs and had become a prominent producer of Britpop bands Lush, Pulp, and Suede. As the bassist of Pulp, it made perfect sense Mackey would have suggested Ed.
Although Ed had never met Ana or Gina, he says knew of them, “obviously,” noting the “buzz about them because Kurt Cobain had said things in the press.” Ed was nervous about producing their new DGC album, because it “wasn’t the sort of thing I’d normally get asked to make,” he says. It became his “first experience working with two leaders of a band, and two really strong women.” On the whole, it was an interesting learning experience, but Ed remembers how the record was “a little tricky to make.”
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The Raincoats entered into a production agreement with Ed for his production services on July 1, 1995. They’d have three weeks to do the album in Trident Studios. Finally, with a producer on board, the full DGC contract could be executed.
Excerpted from the book Shouting Out Loud by Audrey Golden. Copyright © 2025 by Audrey Golden. Reprinted with Permission of Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.
