Swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments. — Michael Gira Beautiful Copy Share Image
I'm a producer in the old-school way - not just some slacker working on Pro Tools. — Michael Gira Old school Copy Share Image
I like loud electric guitars because I like how you can just lose your entire being in the sound. — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I have my own record company. I have to answer to God, basically. I'm not young, so I want to make the… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I never wrote poetry, just prose. I don't really consider songwriting a form of poetry either. The words are important, of course,… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
The sexuality of children - there's a lot friction there. That tension interests me a lot. — Michael Gira Children Copy Share Image
Playing an old record doesn't interest me at all. It's exactly the opposite of what I want to do. — Michael Gira Interest Copy Share Image
Maybe in the future I'll put out someone's one-off project, but generally I don't have time. — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
You find ways to push yourself into the sound through repetition. It doesn't stay the same. It morphs constantly. — Michael Gira Push yourself Copy Share Image
The music takes you. It has to be alive. It's like you hammer something, and the way it happens to bleed leads… — Michael Gira Alive Copy Share Image
I went to art school and never thought I'd be a musician, but then punk rock came along in the late 70s… — Michael Gira Art Copy Share Image
Nina Simone was an entertainer. Bob Dylan was an entertainer. Anyone that can occupy a piece of music and make the air… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I got involved, for the most part, in the actual song construction, lyrics even. I didn't want to write the lyrics, but… — Michael Gira Construction Copy Share Image
When I walk around New York now, there are so many ghosts. I find it very uncomfortable. There were many hard years,… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I'm the band leader. That's not to say that the other people are my minions - they all put in a tremendous… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I could never release something on the label I didn't personally love. The label's really an extension of my own musical career,… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I'm just as comfortable performing solo with just my acoustic guitar and vocal as I am with a band. The main thing… — Michael Gira Acoustic guitar Copy Share Image
I'm more interested in pulling out strands of joy from both myself and the audience. I'm not saying the music or songs… — Michael Gira Audience Copy Share Image
“I never could read Foucault. I find philosophy tedious. All of my knowledge comes from reading novels and some history. I read… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I am definitely less and less interested in music made by people that exist today, people that are living. I just see… — Michael Gira Business Copy Share Image
“An oiled young stud does sit-ups on his Soloflex machine, eviscerates himself with an impossibly honed and gleaming kitchen knife, flings his… — Michael Gira Children Copy Share Image
I like loud electric guitars because I like how you can just lose your entire being in the sound. But I can't… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
“When my sister was released from the mental hospital, she came to live with me in the tilting and crumbling one-bedroom house… — Michael Gira Empathy Copy Share Image
As far as playing playing festivals and everything, I feel like that's what I was born to do. I'm an entertainer, hopefully… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I really wanted to get to the animal core of rock music and eliminate anything that wasn't necessary. — Michael Gira Animal Copy Share Image
I used to routinely break my ribs doing stupid things onstage, but I have a healthy fear of breaking my bones now. — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
You make your work and you can't ask for approval when you're doing it. Otherwise, it's going to be untruthful in some… — Michael Gira Approval Copy Share Image
I don't throw my body down on the stage at all anymore because I'm sure I'd snap like a twig. — Michael Gira Body Copy Share Image
“I like Sade. I’m re-reading Juliette. I skip the philosophy and read the salacious bits. His descriptive imagination is incredible.” — Michael Gira Philosophy Copy Share Image
Making those CDs, signing them, numbering them, packing them. It takes hundreds of hours, but it's worth it because I'm able to… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I'm pretty confident that people are going to come along for the ride. If they don't, tough. — Michael Gira Along for the ride Copy Share Image
It wouldn't interest me to try to sound like Cop or something. It would be silly and soul-crushing. — Michael Gira Being silly Copy Share Image
“It was a kind of sado-masochism. I would take the things that were painful to me and elevate them and, through the… — Michael Gira Mantra Copy Share Image
When I first started doing the quieter, more acoustic material in Swans, there was a lot of derision and outright hatred from… — Michael Gira Copy Share Image
I wanted to challenge myself and move into something new. I felt that using the name Swans and the sonic attitude that… — Michael Gira Attitude Copy Share Image
I'm always trying to push myself into unfamiliar places with the music, sometimes without success, I have to admit. But I'd rather… — Michael Gira Always trying Copy Share Image
It's good that people come to the shows because there's nothing fashionable about Swans. Never has been, really. We've never been part… — Michael Gira Fashionable Copy Share Image
Many of the songs were written as a way of paying tribute to specific people, but in the end the songs took… — Michael Gira Accuracy Copy Share Image
