PRESS » M. Gira
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‘Young God’ Author Katherine Faw Morris Interviews Michael Gira of Swans (Flavorwire)
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‘Young God’ Author Katherine Faw Morris Interviews Michael Gira of Swans BY JASON DIAMOND MAY 7, 2014 10:15 AM Young God, the debut novel by Katherine Faw Morris, is a dirty book. It’s full of the the kind of grit you can only pick up in the South, and it sticks in your teeth no matter how hard you try and get it out, with its lightning-quick paragraphs that sometimes take up entire pages. It’s a book with this crazy energy and angst, the type that has always made the South (where Morris is originally from) the region that produces some of America’s most intriguing fiction. The book follows 13-year-old Nikki, who navigates her way through places children shouldn’t wander, seeing things they shouldn’t see, and learning that “smoking heroin’s harder than it looks.” It’s at times a waking nightmare the likes of which David Lynch or Bruno Schulz could have contrived if they lived in North Carolina, combined with that eerie and exciting feeling writers like Flannery O’Connor and Harry Crews — or contemporary author Scott McClanahan — conjure up.And, as I noticed the second I looked at the cover, the book takes its title from a song and EP by the band Swans. That, I should point out,......
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SWANS’ MICHAEL GIRA SOUNDS OFF (Electronic Beats)
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Swans frontman Michael Gira sounds off on electronic music's inherent flaws, his time in Israeli jail, and cosmic unity in an interview with A.J. Samuels. BY A.J. SAMUELS Swans frontman Michael Gira sounds off on electronic music’s inherent flaws, spending time in Israeli jail, and his violent past in an interview with A.J. Samuels. Since reforming in 2010, New York noise-rockers Swans have experienced something of a renaissance. But unlike the resurrected projects of so many rock contemporaries, the group surrounding songwriter Michael Gira has lost exactly none of its pathos and only increased in volume. While the band has churned out one critically acclaimed album after the next—most recently 2014’s To Be Kind—it’s their explosive, overtone-rich live performances that have cemented their reputation as arguably the most formidable and influential rock band around today. The last time I saw Swans was here in Berlin at the Volksbühne a few years ago, and— No, I know. We’re one of the best rock bands ever. I know that. I just know it. Swans have congealed and are one of the most volcanic, eruptive, virile rock outfits ever. I think one of the things that makes what we do so powerful is......
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Swans live in Shanghai
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Photo gallery from Smart Shanghai...
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Swans wing in for concerts to support new album To Be Kind (Sydney Morning Herald)
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Twenty minutes into Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture, the epic 34-minute track on Swans' latest album, To Be Kind, Michael Gira shouts loudly 'Toussaint! Toussaint!', invoking the name of Toussaint L'Ouverture, leader of the 18th century slave rebellion in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Gira demurs on whether there's a deeper resonance between the rebellion led by Toussaint L'Ouverture's and his own iconoclastic, occasionally confrontational musical style. The thematic context for Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture, Gira says, arose almost inadvertently. Conceived originally as the extension of The Seer, the title track to Swans' 2012 album, Gira "needed some words" to punctuate the intense, dynamic rhythm of the fledgling track. "I was reading a biography of Toussaint so I started to invoke his name in the song," Gira says. Once present in the fledgling song, Toussaint "became something [Gira] felt inhabited by as a performer", and the track morphed into a sonic representation of the violent and bloody Haitian rebellion. "Violence was perpetrated on both sides, with great vigour," Gira says. The frontman, who ran away from home in his teens and was imprisoned in Israel at 16 for selling hashish, has a colourful history. Returning to the US, Gira immersed himself in the LA punk community of the late 1970s before moving......
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Michael Gira on Swans, religion and the hubris of Matthew Barney (The Guardian)
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The Swans frontman on why performing is like long-distance running: ‘You keep pushing and pushing and finally you break through into something else’ On stage, Michael Gira’s body is barely able to contain his energy. In person, he is all amiability, his voice sweet, his manner courteous. Not what you would expect from the frontman of the Swans, one of the most confrontational bands to emerge from the No Wave post-punk 1980s in New York City. With their penchant for experiment and their industrial, take-no-prisoners tonality, the band inspired the likes of Nirvana and Sonic Youth to push their limits musically – and otherwise. Having exhausted their own potential, however, they disbanded in 1997 and Gira went on to form the more lyrical Angels of Light. Still, the notion of returning to those extremes haunted him. And in 2010 the Swans re-formed and wasted little time in releasing five records, two recorded live. It’s their studio albums that had critics drawn in. Bordering on Wagnerian, The Seer and To Be Kind are epic explorations of belief, violence, religion, lust and desire, featuring such highlights as the 34-minute Bring the Sun/Toussaint L’Ouverture, an intense ode to the leader of the 1880s......