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 of a scene. So the people that come are really there for the music. Fortunately, there's a lot of young people and a burgeoning female contingent, which is good as well.

I don't want to sound like everybody else.

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 way.

I could never release something on the label I didn't personally love. The label's really an extension of my own musical career, and I'm intensely involved with every aspect personally, so it'd be a betrayal to myself if I released something simply because I thought it would make money.

I have my own record company. I have to answer to God, basically. I'm not young, so I want to make the best possible work I can before I exit.

I like loud electric guitars because I like how you can just lose your entire being in the sound.

I'm more interested in pulling out strands of joy from both myself and the audience. I'm not saying the music or songs are "light," just that when they're performed with the correct commitment it's a source of real pleasure, for me anyway.