Michael Rolfe Gira (/dʒəˈrɑː/;[6] born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author and artist. Now based in New Mexico,[7][8] he founded the band Swans, in which he sings and plays guitar, in New York City in the 1980s at the height of the no wave movement. He is also the founder of Young God Records and previously fronted Angels of Light.
Early life
Michael Rolfe Gira was born February 19, 1954, in Los Angeles[9] to Alice (née Shulte), originally from Iowa, and Robert Pierre Gira. His mother was an alcoholic, and Gira spent much of his early life caring for his younger brother.[10] Gira has commented that his parents were "not around much" during his early childhood.[10]
As an adolescent, Gira was arrested in California several times for petty crimes.[10] Facing the risk of being incarcerated in a juvenile hall, he relocated with his father to Germany[10] following a short stay in South Bend, Indiana.[11] While in Germany, Gira ran away and hitchhiked across Europe, lived in Israel for a year, and spent four and a half months in an adult jail in Jerusalem for selling hashish.[12] He turned 16 while in jail.[13]
Returning to California around age seventeen, Gira worked at a bakery on Redondo Beach Pier, completed his GED, went to community college, and then attended Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.[10] He moved to New York in 1979, where he played in a band called Circus Mort, before forming the band Swans.[14][15] In Manhattan, Gira found employment as a construction worker, doing demolition, sheetrock installation, and plastering.[16]
Initially, Swans' focus was raw rhythm and abrasive textures, usually eschewing melody for visceral power, becoming known for their abrasive experimental and post-industrial sound. Their commercial success was limited, but Swans earned critical notice and had a devoted following.
The band's lineup and sound evolved over time, and their music became somewhat more conventional. A marked shift in Swans' music came with inclusion of Gira's partner, Jarboe, who added her ethereal voice and synthesizers to the group in 1985. Gira and Swans spent the next twelve years releasing studio, live, and side-project albums. Gira's frustration with various record labels grew over time, and he disbanded Swans in 1997.
However, in 2010, Gira decided to revive the band, with members new and old. They released a new album titled My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. A second post-revival album, The Seer, was released in 2012. A third, To Be Kind, was released in 2014. All three were met with increasing critical acclaim. The Glowing Man followed and was released in 2016. Leaving Meaning followed in 2019.[17] Swans' 16th studio album, The Beggar, was released in 2023.[18]
Solo career and Angels of Light
Michael Gira performing at The Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, Oregon on March 3, 2009
After dissolving Swans in 1997 Gira released a solo album under his own name and began a new musical direction with Angels of Light, which are a quieter, more acoustic-based group than Swans.
Gira also spent time experimenting with soundscapes, found sound, and loops with The Body Lovers / The Body Haters project. He has also released several albums under his own name including Drainland (1995), a spoken word album called The Somniloquist (2000), and What We Did (2001), a collaboration with Windsor for the Derby's frontman Dan Matz.
Gira founded his own record label, Young God Records, which has released albums from such artists as Devendra Banhart, Mi and L'au, and Akron/Family as well as Swans, The Angels of Light and The Body Lovers' back catalogues.
Gira has spoken of his decision to shift his focus from The Angels of Light back to Swans as a move based on impassivity. He has stated, "I had been doing this band Angels of Light for thirteen years, and had reached a kind of impassivity with that, sorta like I had reached an impassivity with Swans when I initially stopped it."[19]
Writings
Gira's first short story collection The Consumer (ISBN1-880985-26-8) was published in 1995 by Henry Rollins's 2.13.61 publications. It is divided into two parts, the first being "The Consumer", a series of short stories from the early 1990s, the second, "Various Traps, Some Weaknesses", made up mostly of prose-poems and vignettes, all dating from 1983 to 1986. (Many of these earlier stories had previously been published by SST Records as Selfishness, with illustrations by Raymond Pettibon.) In a Spike Magazine review of The Consumer And Other Stories, Jordon Leigh Bortle writes, "the squeamish may wish to armour themselves before entering these pages [...] Here, all taboos are annihilated — incest, alcoholism, obscene torture, rape, cannibalism, and perverse murder have all but become the norm in which these tragic tales occur."[20]
In February 2018, Gira released his second short story collection, The Egg. Limited to 2,500 hand-signed copies, The Egg compiles seventeen stories written over 2016. Included with the release is a disc containing narrations of a handful of stories from The Egg as well as a few from The Consumer.[21]
In 2022, Gira released a collection of Swans lyrics, stories, and journals titled The Knot, in a collector's edition of 3,000 hand-numbered copies. The Knot is 408 pages long, and additionally contains 101 color images. The Knot contains all of the lyrics from the first Swans EP to Leaving Meaning, as well as lyrics from Angels of Light and World of Skin, among Gira's other projects, and includes archived writings dating back to 1974.[22]
Personal life
Gira dated pop singer Madonna before she was famous.[23][24]
Michael Gira is known for using a Guild antique burst electro acoustic guitar, and a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus Guitar Amplifier during his solo concerts. With Swans, Gira has used a variety of instruments including Ovation acoustic guitars and a Westbury Track II bass guitar during early performances. During the Soundtracks for the Blind and Swans are Dead era, Gira can be seen with a Gibson Lucille (which has since become his main guitar for the Swans reunion), a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson Les Paul. Recent shows have seen Gira using Orange amplifiers and cabinets, as well as Mesa Boogie cabinets.
Discography
Michael Gira on stage at Stylus, Leeds University, 5 April 2013
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