Biography
Best known as the founder and co-leader of the avant-garde rock band Swans, Michael Gira has consistently avoided extensive solo work under his own name, aside from published writings and spoken-word performances, and has instead favored directing an array of group endeavors while producing other artists. Following the initial dissolution of Swans, projects such as the Body Lovers and the Angels of Light remained collective undertakings in which he guided an extensive roster of contributors. Nevertheless, a handful of recordings have appeared under his individual billing, and these, like his band output, underscore his command of emotionally charged songwriting and performance.
Drainland, released in 1995, marked his first official solo album, although it carried the designation “Swans Related Product” and functioned explicitly as a counterpart to the solo album Sacrificial Cake by his longtime collaborator and partner Jarboe. Early in 1999 a limited live set billed as “Michael Gira with Guests” was issued solely to offset Jarboe’s medical expenses incurred after contracting an illness during a trip to Israel the year before. Also in 1999 Gira launched the first Angels of Light album, New Mother. Near the close of the century he assumed full command of his career by establishing the Young God Records label, which issued his own projects alongside those of Devendra Banhart (first three albums), Windsor for the Derby, Akron/Family, Lisa Germano, Flux Information Sciences, Ulan Bator, Mi & l’Au, James Blackshaw, Charlemagne Palestine, Larkin Grimm, and Wooden Wand, with Gira personally supervising every aspect of production, distribution, and promotion.
The following decade opened with the spoken-word collection Somniloquist. In 2001 Gira joined Windsor for the Derby’s Dan Matz for the collaborative album What We Did, after which he issued the solo recording Solo Recordings from Home. Both Living ’02 and the largely live-to-DAT set I Am Singing to You from My Room appeared in 2002. Subsequent activity centered on Angels of Light, yielding Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home in 2003, The Angels of Light Sing Other People in 2005, and We Are Him in August 2007. That same year the Lumberton Trading Company, a one-off Young God subsidiary, released the 2,000-copy limited LP Songs for a Dog, containing solo demos, CD-R-only tracks, earlier Angels of Light outtakes, and two new songs; Gira’s site stated it would remain unavailable in any other format.
Two thousand nine proved decisive when Gira first issued the solo/demo collection I Am Not Insane. Later that year he placed Angels of Light on indefinite hold, sensing the same creative stagnation that had prompted the original end of Swans. In January 2010 the phrase “Swans Are Not Dead” appeared on the band’s MySpace page, signaling its return with a lineup that retained several former members (Jarboe excepted) while adding new personnel. The revived group’s first release, My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, drew on material that had first surfaced in rougher form on I Am Not Insane, the acoustic solo disc having been sold expressly to fund the Swans sessions. In similar fashion, Gira reissued Songs for a Dog in 2011 as a CD and digital download. To finance the 2012 double album The Seer, Swans released the limited double-CD set We Rose from Your Bed with the Sun in Our Head, comprising live recordings and demos; the ambitious studio album became one of the band’s most widely praised and commercially successful to date, broadening its audience through both critical acclaim and its intense live performances.
Not Here/Not Now, another website-exclusive limited edition, preceded the 2014 double album To Be Kind, which featured guest vocals from St. Vincent and Cold Specks and reached the top 40 of the album charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom—Swans’ strongest commercial showing to that point. In 2015 the band issued the limited double-CD The Gate, a collection of works in progress and live recordings, while Gira announced that the next album and tour would conclude the group’s current incarnation. Swans released the double album The Glowing Man in 2016.
Drainland, released in 1995, marked his first official solo album, although it carried the designation “Swans Related Product” and functioned explicitly as a counterpart to the solo album Sacrificial Cake by his longtime collaborator and partner Jarboe. Early in 1999 a limited live set billed as “Michael Gira with Guests” was issued solely to offset Jarboe’s medical expenses incurred after contracting an illness during a trip to Israel the year before. Also in 1999 Gira launched the first Angels of Light album, New Mother. Near the close of the century he assumed full command of his career by establishing the Young God Records label, which issued his own projects alongside those of Devendra Banhart (first three albums), Windsor for the Derby, Akron/Family, Lisa Germano, Flux Information Sciences, Ulan Bator, Mi & l’Au, James Blackshaw, Charlemagne Palestine, Larkin Grimm, and Wooden Wand, with Gira personally supervising every aspect of production, distribution, and promotion.
The following decade opened with the spoken-word collection Somniloquist. In 2001 Gira joined Windsor for the Derby’s Dan Matz for the collaborative album What We Did, after which he issued the solo recording Solo Recordings from Home. Both Living ’02 and the largely live-to-DAT set I Am Singing to You from My Room appeared in 2002. Subsequent activity centered on Angels of Light, yielding Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home in 2003, The Angels of Light Sing Other People in 2005, and We Are Him in August 2007. That same year the Lumberton Trading Company, a one-off Young God subsidiary, released the 2,000-copy limited LP Songs for a Dog, containing solo demos, CD-R-only tracks, earlier Angels of Light outtakes, and two new songs; Gira’s site stated it would remain unavailable in any other format.
Two thousand nine proved decisive when Gira first issued the solo/demo collection I Am Not Insane. Later that year he placed Angels of Light on indefinite hold, sensing the same creative stagnation that had prompted the original end of Swans. In January 2010 the phrase “Swans Are Not Dead” appeared on the band’s MySpace page, signaling its return with a lineup that retained several former members (Jarboe excepted) while adding new personnel. The revived group’s first release, My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, drew on material that had first surfaced in rougher form on I Am Not Insane, the acoustic solo disc having been sold expressly to fund the Swans sessions. In similar fashion, Gira reissued Songs for a Dog in 2011 as a CD and digital download. To finance the 2012 double album The Seer, Swans released the limited double-CD set We Rose from Your Bed with the Sun in Our Head, comprising live recordings and demos; the ambitious studio album became one of the band’s most widely praised and commercially successful to date, broadening its audience through both critical acclaim and its intense live performances.
Not Here/Not Now, another website-exclusive limited edition, preceded the 2014 double album To Be Kind, which featured guest vocals from St. Vincent and Cold Specks and reached the top 40 of the album charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom—Swans’ strongest commercial showing to that point. In 2015 the band issued the limited double-CD The Gate, a collection of works in progress and live recordings, while Gira announced that the next album and tour would conclude the group’s current incarnation. Swans released the double album The Glowing Man in 2016.
Albums
