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Howl on the prowlFrom Swans through Angels of Light and his
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Bands like Sonic Youth and Fugazi have often been cited as the portal to underground and experimental music for many a music fan. For me, thanks to an intrepid young DJ on CBC’s Brave New Waves, it was the crushing dirge of the 1983 Swans song “Raping a Slave” that suddenly made my sacred second side of Black Flag’s My War seem puny by comparison. At the helm of this nihilistic pummelling was Michael Gira, spewing vitriol over the slow, torturous, primal beats and extreme frequencies oozing out of a guitar and bass. Gira eventually led us all by the sleeve into the dense orchestration, dark ambiance and less violent moments of later Swans work before finally pulling the plug in 1997. Gira quickly regrouped and burst out with Angels of Light, with help from co-conspirators Akron/Family, which maintained the cushioned blows of latter-day Swans but had Gira’s folk, blues and even pop roots further exposed, and his barbed lyrical pearls were still able to draw blood. For his upcoming show in Montreal, Gira will be performing in his most challenging and satisfying role, as a solo acoustic act. The Mirror reached this underground music icon by phone at his home in upstate New York. Mirror: Not only are you a prolific songwriter but you have also released records by Akron/Family, Devendra Banhart and others on your label Young God. Do you find this to be a conflict as an artist? Michael Gira: Well, I started this label so I could avoid that humiliating process of being ignored and rejected, and I guess I’ve gone from one gruelling situation to another because a lot of my time is spent packing up CDs. It’s really gratifying to do the label but it’s also like having a job. I also had a baby two and a half years ago so finding time to be alone to write has been hard, but it’s starting to open up now, and after I finish one last song, it’ll be time to start scraping up the money to go back into the studio. M: What do you think the common thread is that links your early work with the Swans to your solo work and Angels of Light material of today? MG: I suppose the common thread is that I still need to howl. Swans was a really physical thing and a purging, and what I do now is a lot more spiritual. I’m writing a new record, though, that will be called a Swans/Angels of Light album. It’s going to be kind of a hybrid between the grandiose feel of the last Swans record, the rhythmic sound of earlier stuff and the more delicate stuff that I’ve been doing with Angels of Light. I’ll be playing about six or seven of the newer songs for the Montreal show. M: What keeps pushing you musically? MG: I am never really satisfied. You spend all this time trying to get to this place and once you get there, it disappears. Once you’ve finished working on a record, after a week, it just sounds artificial or like dead air. I hope I’m never happy with anything I do. If you attain something, you’re never going to move forward. WITH JAMES BLACKSHAW AND GREG |
