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.
Michael GiraPlaying an old record doesn't interest me at all. It's exactly the opposite of what I want to do.
Michael GiraI went to art school and never thought I'd be a musician, but then punk rock came along in the late 70s and kind of ruined my life. So I quit art school to get involved in music and I've been doing it ever since.
Michael GiraI like loud electric guitars because I like how you can just lose your entire being in the sound. But I can't find myself in a situation where our band Swans is doing typical chord progressions - it just seems clichรฉ to me. Even changing chords sounds like a clichรฉ sometimes, though it happens occasionally in our music. But you find ways to push yourself into the sound through repetition. It doesn't stay the same. It morphs constantly.
Michael Gira