This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist Interviews
Q&A: Swans
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 16 September 2010
Influential post-punk band Swans was formed in 1982 by multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira, and they went on to release eleven studio albums before splitting in 1997.
Subsequently, Gira formed a new band, Angels Of Light, and expanded his Young God record label, originally set up purely for Swans releases, most notably signing Devendra Banhart. Having reformed earlier this year, Swans are set to release a new album, ‘My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky’, via Young God on 20 Sep, while a UK tour is scheduled for October.
Ahead of all that, we caught up with Gira to ask the Same Six.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
I, like a million other so called “punk rockers” was in art school, when I heard The Sex Pistols on the radio. I quickly discovered there was a punk scene in LA, where I lived at the time (1977? 8?) and I went to a gig, which included The Screamers, X, The Germs, Weirdos, etc etc… Compared to the academic environment of the art school, there was no contest. I started a very vile magazine called NO Magazine, which was a fanzine, but worse – it delved into some pretty disgusting stuff. Then, when I got bored with that, I started my first band. What a waste! Ha ha!
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Nothing in particular “inspires” me at this point, after thirty years of making music. One thing just leads to another. I have no choice in the matter. I do what I do. If you don’t like it – goodbye.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It’s like writing a long entry in the dictionary on your stomach with a razor blade while eating vanilla ice cream. Or, it could be a long process wherein I think of various ways in which to place my tongue in your ear.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
I am very fond of Otto Dix, Francis Bacon, Willie Nelson, and Gorecki…
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
I would say nothing. I would hug them very tightly, and promise them a reach-around.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
My only hope is to continue making music and to NEVER ever succumb to routine and the horrors of consumerism.
MORE>> www.myspace.com/swansaredead
