Beatroute Magazine BC Print Edition - August 2017

THE SKINNY
SWANS
follow the sonic path to a transcendental experience
BRAYDEN TURENNE
It could be argued that music is the art-medium
that permits the greatest opportunity for
exploration and experimentation. It is as potent
and moldable as it is abstract and arcane, and has
the power to influence our emotions and way of
thinking. The musical group, SWANS, has become
synonymous with this idea: the power of sound.
Formed in 1982 by Michael Gira, the band has
gone on to release fourteen monolithic full length
albums that truly test the boundaries of music and
genre, emulating shades of dark country, blues,
industrial and noise, among many others. SWANS’
songs are commonly very long, forging vast sonic
landscapes that build over time. “It’s like if you
imagine something continually morphing.” Gira
noted. “I look at the last four records as being one
body of work… a gradual growth of sound.”
While the live experience is crucial for an active
band, SWANS have come to utilize the medium to
an even more extreme degree. “At the highest moments
when we perform, it’s like the music is playing
us,” mused Gira, “We’ll be playing something
and following the sonic path it’s leading to, then
something else will occur. We’ll start to explore
that throughout a tour [so] it eventually becomes
a new thing and we discard the old thing.”
SWANS have truly taken the live concert experience
and given it greater depth as a grounds for
improvisation and discovery in a moment for both
the band and the audience to share in. “The audience
is crucial,” Gira emphasizes, “the audience
is participating, in a way, just as much as we are.
It’s as close as I get to some sort of transcendental
experience. That’s what rock music is all about.”
After a lengthy hiatus, SWANS reformed under
Gira back in 2010, maintaining a steady collection
of band members. That is about to change as
the band’s latest album The Glowing Man is to
mark yet another lineup reformation. “We’re very
familiar with each other’s ways of working, as well
as with our own particular ‘odours,’” Gira reflects.
“Things become maybe a little too familiar… I feel
it’s time to shake things up. I don’t want it to become
too safe or predictable.” Given the semi-improv
mode of writing that has shaped the last few
SWANS records, “unpredictable” is gospel.
From its inception, SWANS has been like a
sonic spectre amidst the world of music, leaving
Still glowing, SWANS have gone on to release fourteen monolithic albums throughout their prolific career.
its haunt and influence in the minds of countless
contemporary artists, spanning genres of all kinds.
Gira and SWANS have become monuments to
artistic freedom and purity that goes unhindered
by accepted convention or template. With the
imminent shift in members, SWANS is soon to
abandon the accepted norm of a stable band. Gira
photo by Samantha Marble
is truly letting go and seeing what will happen,
embracing the chaos of it all in order to find something
meaningful and potent within the maelstrom.
“To be honest, I have no idea what’s going to
happen next.”
SWANS performs at Venue on August 26.
12 THE SKINNY
August 2017