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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.

Michael Gira

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Michael Gira
Age: 70
Born: 1954
Born: February 19
Composer
Guitarist
Musician
Poet
Record Producer
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Writer
LA
California
Michael Rolfe Gira
Ends
Paying
Truth
Specific
Problem
Songs
Many
Took
Way
Worry
Life
Written
Biographical
People
Song
Accuracy
Didn
Tribute

More quotes by Michael Gira

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I don't throw my body down on the stage at all anymore because I'm sure I'd snap like a twig.
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I 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.
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I'm a producer in the old-school way - not just some slacker working on Pro Tools.
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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.
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I could never release something on the label I didn't personally love. The label's really an extension of my own musical career, and I'm intensely involved with every aspect personally, so it'd be a betrayal to myself if I released something simply because I thought it would make money.
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Playing an old record doesn't interest me at all. It's exactly the opposite of what I want to do.
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I have my own record company. I have to answer to God, basically. I'm not young, so I want to make the best possible work I can before I exit.
Michael Gira
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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.
Michael Gira
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Maybe in the future I'll put out someone's one-off project, but generally I don't have time.
Michael Gira
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Swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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I'm pretty confident that people are going to come along for the ride. If they don't, tough.
Michael Gira
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I like loud electric guitars because I like how you can just lose your entire being in the sound.
Michael Gira
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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.
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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 Gira
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The sexuality of children - there's a lot friction there. That tension interests me a lot.
Michael Gira