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.

Swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments.

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.

The music takes you. It has to be alive. It's like you hammer something, and the way it happens to bleed leads you into new directions.

I never wrote poetry, just prose. I don't really consider songwriting a form of poetry either. The words are important, of course, but they're dependent on the music.

When I walk around New York now, there are so many ghosts. I find it very uncomfortable. There were many hard years, and I never really achieved any kind of comfortable financial success, so I just associate it with struggle. When I had a chance to get out, I was elated.

Making those CDs, signing them, numbering them, packing them. It takes hundreds of hours, but it's worth it because I'm able to do the thing I love.