Latest Michael Gira Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I 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 cliché to me. Even changing chords sounds like a cliché 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

  Sometimes, Push Yourself, Progression

  Source: pitchfork.com

• At a certain age, children are total Id - they're anything but beautiful little flowers. That always interests me. The place where the ego and the superego start, and where guilt and socialization and morality takes place, the true root of it.

  Michael Gira

  Beautiful, Children, Flower

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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.

  Michael Gira

  People, Female, Scene

  Source: pitchfork.com

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

  Michael Gira

  People, Tough, Ifs

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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.

  Michael Gira

  Way, Approval, Asks

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I got involved, for the most part, in the actual song construction, lyrics even. I didn't want to write the lyrics, but if there was a howler in there, I definitely pointed it out. Just trying to bring it up to a higher level. Of course, after a couple records, people get fed up with that. That's fine.

  Michael Gira

  Song, Couple, Writing

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I'm the band leader. That's not to say that the other people are my minions - they all put in a tremendous amount of personality, and push the music in ways I would never expect.

  Michael Gira

  People, Personality, Leader

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I'm a producer in the old-school way - not just some slacker working on Pro Tools.

  Michael Gira

  School, Tools, Way

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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.

  Michael Gira

  Cds, Things I Love, Able

  Source: pitchfork.com

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

  Michael Gira

  Projects

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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.

  Michael Gira

  New York, Struggle, Years

  Source: pitchfork.com

• Nina Simone was an entertainer. Bob Dylan was an entertainer. Anyone that can occupy a piece of music and make the air catch on fire at that moment is a true entertainer. That's how I view it. That's what I was meant to do. I love doing it. That's why I'm on earth.

  Michael Gira

  Fire, Air, Views

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I really wanted to get to the animal core of rock music and eliminate anything that wasn't necessary.

  Michael Gira

  Animal, Rocks, Rock Music

  Source: pitchfork.com

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

  Michael Gira

  Crush, Silly, Soul

  Source: pitchfork.com

• As far as playing playing festivals and everything, I feel like that's what I was born to do. I'm an entertainer, hopefully in the best sense.

  Michael Gira

  Festivals, Born, Feels

  Source: pitchfork.com

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

  Michael Gira

  Opposites, Records, Want

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I'm always trying to push myself into unfamiliar places with the music, sometimes without success, I have to admit. But I'd rather be there than relying on a style that people recognize and want to follow.

  Michael Gira

  Always Trying, People, Style

  Source: pitchfork.com

• 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.

  Michael Gira

  Attitude, Moving Forward, Swans

  Source: pitchfork.com

• The sexuality of children - there's a lot friction there. That tension interests me a lot.

  Michael Gira

  Children, Sexuality, Friction

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I don't throw my body down on the stage at all anymore because I'm sure I'd snap like a twig.

  Michael Gira

  Body, Twigs, Stage

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I used to routinely break my ribs doing stupid things onstage, but I have a healthy fear of breaking my bones now.

  Michael Gira

  Stupid, Healthy, Ribs

  Source: pitchfork.com

• You find ways to push yourself into the sound through repetition. It doesn't stay the same. It morphs constantly.

  Michael Gira

  Sound, Way, Push Yourself

  Source: pitchfork.com

• The goal is ecstasy, but I don't want to make some sort of saccharine pop music. I want to make something that's completely uncompromising: the best possible music ever made.

  Michael Gira

  Goal, Want, Made

  Source: pitchfork.com

• I don't want to sound like everybody else.

  Michael Gira

  Sound, Want

  Source: pitchfork.com

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

  Michael Gira

  Guitar, Sound, Loud

  Source: pitchfork.com