I wanted to challenge myself and move into something new. I felt that using the name Swans and the sonic attitude that that engenders was what I needed to move forward musically, and it's led to lots of new things.

I'm pretty confident that people are going to come along for the ride. If they don't, tough.

Playing an old record doesn't interest me at all. It's exactly the opposite of what I want to do.

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.

Maybe in the future I'll put out someone's one-off project, but generally I don't have time.

It wouldn't interest me to try to sound like Cop or something. It would be silly and soul-crushing.

Many of the songs were written as a way of paying tribute to specific people, but in the end the songs took on a life of their own and I didn't worry about accuracy or biographical truth, so it's not a problem.