Michael Gira

[edit] Guide Note:

Best known as the founder and co-leader of bands as Swans, Body Lovers and currently, The Angels of Light, Michael Gira is a musician, songwriter, author and artist. He is also the founder of Young God Records.

[edit] Fast Facts:

1. Real Name: Michael Rolfe Gira
2. Born: 1954
3. Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
4. Years Active: 1985 - Present
5. Record Label: Young God Records
6. He was arrested for selling drugs in Israel when he was a teenager.
7. The song "Inner Female" is a study of Francis Bacon.
8. During his concerts, he use a Guild electro acoustic guitar, and a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus Guitar Amplifier.

• 1985: A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse
• 1995: Drainland
• 2000: Somniloquist
• 2001: What We Did
• 2006: Songs for a Dog

Gira was born in 1954 and grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles. His parents divorced when he was young and after living with her alcoholic mother for some time, moved with his father to Indiana and later to Paris. After having trouble with the law in Europe when he was a teenager, his father decided to send him back to the United States. In Los Angeles, he began playing in the band Little Cripple and enrolled in art school whose influence marked his style of making music.

After moving to New York City in 1979, he joins the band Circus Mort while working for a construction company and for the art magazine No. In 1982 Gira formed the band Swans and although it had few commercial success, the group won many devotees and support of the criticism. Swans was disbanded in 1997 and after dissolving, Gira formed Angels of Light and also spent time with the Body Lovers project. In 1990 he founded his own record label, Young God Records. Since 1995, Gira began his solo recordings and Drainland is his debut album as soloist. In 2000 he released a spoken word album The Somniloquist followed by 2001's What We Did.

Gira wrote a collection of short stories in 1995 called "The Consumer" which is divided into two parts: "The Consumer" and "Several Traps, Some Weaknesses". The stories contain disturbing images and scenes.

1. "I didn’t really set out to make a “pop” record." —Michael Gira, Young God Records