PRESS
-
Get In To This Interview
()
Michael Gira – “I’m just an amoeba prodded by a pin on a tray under a microscope” – death, time and the future of Swans Michael Gira of Swans sat down with Getintothis’ Rick Leach to chat about the approaching cataclysm of death, the impossiblity of time and whether or not he is into sport. It seemed somehow appropriate, in an odd sort of way, that Getintothis were speaking with Michael Gira, founder and driving force behind Swans, on the very day that the Rosetta space probe was being deliberately crashed onto the surface of a comet. Not only the very same day, but it was almost to the minute that we’d arranged to speak via Skype as the probe ended its life on a comet in cold,deep space. It was appropriate because just like the carefully and precisely calibrated destruction of Rosetta, Michael Girahad already announced some time ago that Swans, at least in their current iteration, were to be no more. A deliberate crashing of a band. One last album, The Glowing Man, a farewell tour and that would be it. Swans would continue however, but just in a different, and as yet unknown, format. How could they......
-
Louder Than War Interview
()
INTERVIEW : Swans talk in depth on eve of UK tour Written by johnrobb8 October, 2016 Swans tour the UK this week – we are hoping to the show at the Ritz in manchester on Sunday but there are other shows…all details and tickets from here Swansong! (Of a sort) The mighty Swans are just about to end one of the most creative cycles in rock history, the band whose last four albums have stretched music into stunning, visceral and hypnotic shapes are about to throw everything in the air and change. They are not so much splitting up as going through a high decibel conscious uncoupling with main man Michael Gira changing the band’s line up and direction in a way that even he does not know yet.This means that this week’s mini tour of the U.K. will be the last chance to see this greatest of bands in their current powerhouse formation and we urge you to get to one of the concerts to see one of the most creative and thrilling bands at the peak of their powers with their live show and current album The Glowing Man both being enthralling.The future of the band is in......
-
The DA Glowing Man Review
()
U92 on the review: Swans' "The Glowing Man" by Nick Koban-Hogue Swans, in their current form, are finished. Four studio albums in total constitute the second chapter of the post-rock group’s career, and these albums have all been critically acclaimed. Thankfully, “The Glowing Man” lives up to the high standard set by the previous three, and the band's career as a whole. Fortunately, frontman Michael Gira said Swans will continue in another form with a higher focus on collaborations. In its original form, Swans was raw. The group's simplistic and powerful playing style highlighted the aggression delivered by Gira, and cemented it in the “No-Wave” scene of New York City in the mid ‘80s. After a hiatus ended in 2010, the band's musical tone shifted from one of unending rage with no hope for the future to one of lofty hatred, repressed in a monastic showing of patience and self-control. Swans did what most of us hope to do as we age: Took its virile energy and refined it into something more. This transition came with the 2010 release of “My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky.” This release redefined how the group's unrelenting anger sounded.......
-
Impose Interview
()
MICHAEL GIRA of SWANS TALKS MUSIC, PROCESS, AND INSANE ENERGY LEVELS “I’m comatose from having been on tour essentially for seven weeks.” by MEREDITH SCHNEIDER Swans has existed – in some form or another – since 1982. In its early inception, the music project was praised as unique avant-rock/post-punk sounds, and held that description to some extent through the band’s breakup in 1997. In 2010, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira – the founding member of, and creative force behind, Swans – decided to make the project a living, breathing work again. In that sense, Swans was reborn, and they’ve been going full throttle ever since. Through thick and thin, Gira has been making music since before the inception of Swans. From his days as a backpacking harmonica player, to the tour Swans is currently on in celebration of their most recent work and the disbanding of the band as it currently is, Gira has held music in the most high regard. You can hear it in the music, you notice it in the excitement in his voice, and you can see it – above all else – in his insane live performance. We got the lucky chance to catch up......
-
Rawckus Glowing Man Review
()
SWANS - THE GLOWING MAN MUSIC, REVIEWSSBY ERIC KOENIG Surrendering to powers greater than yourself is terrifying and ecstatic; once you do, you are opened to a whole universe of possibility, in all its enormity. With The Glowing Man, Swans and band leader Michael Gira have finally given full surrender to their musical impulses and released a powerful culmination of their career—and my album of the year. It is, to make a horrible pun, their swansong. Announced as the last album of this incarnation of Swans, The Glowing Man feels in many ways like a climax to both their career and a musical trilogy, started with 2012’s The Seer, and continued with 2014’s Magnum Opus To Be Kind(TBK). Those two albums are behemoths of noise and feeling and reward the patient listener. The Glowing Man, somehow, adds something to their particular yin and yang, and gives a legitimate sense of resolution. In contrast to those two efforts, The Glowing Man is, in many ways, a straightforward album. It follows a narratively tight ascent. Each track builds on the previous track in tension, and power. The hallmarks of this group’s sound are here: violent bone crunching loudness; typhoon dynamics of loud......