Ep498: Birthing the End – Closing a Chapter of SWANS with Michael Gira

The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds

Nate Goyer

Music, Music History, Music Interviews

4.7 • 579 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

SWANS founder Michael Gira discusses his final orchestrated album "Birthing," his creative process, and plans to transition to a simpler musical approach after decades of creating intense, transcendent live performances.

Topics Include:

Michael introduces "Birthing" as SWANS' final orchestrated album.
Future SWANS work will be much simpler.
He's 71 and finds intense performances physically demanding.
No clear vision yet for his next musical phase.
SWANS will tour US in October, then Europe.
He finds Australian tours difficult due to jet lag.
Triple vinyl/double CD includes concert film and documentary.
Marco Porzia filmed the SWANS documentary.
Christopher Nicholson filmed a solo performance in Norway.
Great shows happen when "the music plays us."
Natural venue acoustics enhance the performance experience.
Songs transform and lengthen throughout tours.
One song evolved to 82 minutes during tour.
Three-hour sets leave performers exhausted afterward.
Songs begin on acoustic guitar before band elaboration.
He listens to guitar sound hole to hear potential harmonics.
Directs band through gestures during live performances.
The recording happened immediately after European tour ended.
Uses same old Guild acoustic guitar for decades.
Vinyl editions required some song edits for length.
Gira doesn't listen to much music anymore.
He art directs all SWANS releases personally.
Created unique limited editions with handmade elements.
Has done crowdfunding since 2000 for recording budgets.
Once recorded personalized songs for top contributors.
Will miss the elation of building live crescendos.
No current plans for more fiction writing.
Reluctant to write autobiography despite family encouragement.
Can mentally play entire album from memory.
Recently rediscovered early Led Zeppelin's brilliance.

Order the SWANS LP "Birthing" here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds.
0:10.0	Here's your host, the biggest record nerd of them all, Nate Goyer.
0:14.0	Well, hello everyone, it's Nate.
0:16.0	Welcome to episode 498 of the Vinyl Guide the podcast for record collectors and music nerds.
0:23.7	And ladies and gentlemen, the good news is I am back home.
0:27.4	It's been a whirlwind trip to the U.S.
0:30.3	San Francisco, Austin, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and now back to Sydney.
0:37.4	All of that in just under three weeks.
0:39.8	So I'm pretty tired.
0:41.3	And all that heavy luggage filled with records exhausted me just a little bit more.
0:46.7	But that's okay.
0:48.0	Totally worth it.
0:49.5	I did a lot of podcasting stuff on my trip as well as hitting the Austin Record Fair, which was amazing.
0:58.2	I would recommend anyone who gets the opportunity to visit that at some point. Do it. It's the
1:03.5	biggest record fair in the United States, as I understand. And wow, there were some killer stuff
1:09.5	there, which I have been sharing on Instagram.
1:13.9	You may have seen all the pictures of that sojourn as well. But yes, I am quite jet lagged,
1:19.7	but happy to be back home and to get proper coffee back here in Sydney. So one of the
1:25.1	conversations I had in the recent weeks was what I'm going to share
1:28.9	today, Michael Giro of Swans. Now, some of you may recollect that Michael has been on the show before,
1:35.7	episode 198, and he's a pretty intense guy, which should come as no surprise for those of you
1:41.6	familiar with the work of Swans and even a cursory
	...

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