Swans 1995 - 97, interview with Michael Gira 

Will S it's not far from truth

It's like you ignore the whole cromagnon scene on purpose

what about homo erectus

My vote for that is The Sound

It's definitely in my top 5

did you see Marco Porcia's film about Swans "Where The Body Ends"?

@@PetrMatas Incredible documentary

Sorry but Swans V2.0 (Seer, etc) is a bit of a yawn unfortunately.

@@dms8504 To each their own, but have to disagree with you, especially The Seer, it's a masterpiece and their best work to my ears.

Evan Drane thanks

man this comment is old. Did you wind up moving there ?

Def in the nineties/zeroes

I’m from Poland and in my opinion Czech is the most civilised slavic country there is - they’re very into culture, reading, open minded, atheistic and beautiful(cities, nature) country of lovely people

Maybe 14 years ago. Things sure changed.

@@DJSquampy they are much more popular now, for the better. they still deserve more nonetheless

seeing them play live was unreal

nitroaltred wow that's cool

I wish I would have known of them since the eighties. I'm late to this party.

Wow. I wish I was alive so I could see that. I still love and appreciate them and the fact that I can listen to their music whenever is beautiful, and I have a ton of favorite artists from this recent era, but swans are different. The amount of money I’d pay to see helpless child and the sound live back in the 90s is honestly unfathomable. But I’m really happy people got to experience that and tell their stories about it

I found them at pre teen 1987 at 10 held the cassette tape like a bible I'm 44 now seen them first in 1995 🤠 in San Francisco world of skin/swans jarboe was beautiful there...

@@CoasterWatch And that live version of Blood Promise in the flesh. That would be unforgettable.

And Great Annihilator / Soundtracks for the Blind are this perfect gateway between their two eras. Has the rough asymmetrical beauty of the early stuff and the hauntingly intricate transcendence of their 2010's trilogy. Also, jarboe.

greatest thing they've ever released and greatest thing they will ever release

@@user-id8vi9bg4n na that shit was boooring

​@@yomommagay300Who would've thought an ambient post rock band could be boring what a fucking mystery, boring and bad music aren't synonymous either

You are welcome. I made this video as an interview two years later after I attended the 4 Swans live shows in Europe 1995. On that several shows I discovered the two (for me) essential Swans 95 tracks: "Helpless Child" and "The Sound". I was so excited to hear that and have the camera to archive it for later. I still think that this interview with Helpless Child, Killing For Company and The Sound tracks is the very best of what I ever created as a video. Bit pathetic, but true.

It's an important historical record of a critical period in Swans and M. Gira's artistic development.... you should be proud, this video has been very illuminating for myself and countless others (especially those who have really only experienced Swans in the context of their reformation... thankfully it seems Soundtracks and this particular era have been overshadowed and transcended, though hopefully not overlooked

@@PetrMatas did you record the live shows with film?

@@alvareo92 no, it was s-vhs panasonic camera. but the look is massively edited with high contrast workflow and conversion from 50 half video frames to 25 full frames with disabled video interlacing. the workflow that i have developed in 90’ to be able use video cameras instead of the film cameras which is too expensive for the two hours live shows. i have used to capture something with 8mm or 16mm film cameras, but not for the swans european tour at 1995. thank you for the good question because it looks like you cannot recognize it is not the film material in the swans video and i didn´t fail with it. the film look is the key.

"...their last studio album" 5 albums later, I hope you've enjoyed the resurrection!

Time capsule

11 years later Ya get the new one ? Its 2019 - hope all is good

what kind of party did you go to where swans was mentioned lmao

@@user-ub8vx8zd1d there’s always one

Nolan Jenkins nonsense, he's already made the decision to listen to swans it's inevitable...

Dying to “The Sound” (Swans Are Dead version) would be all I ever wanted.

I need to live to this music...

My death song by Swans would be The Golden Boy That Was Swallowed By The Sea

24 years old video, i made it in the year 1997 i guess. the most important video i ever made for sure.

thank you, it is probably most important video i have ever made. i was huge fan of swans in 90’s

they're just amazing live.

Both

With their latest records they instantly became a legendary band.

This is so pretentious 😂

@@kaydgaming how is it?

What do you think of their new stuff?

@@nathanmontgomery1516 I forgot I had written that! interestingly they ended up coming back and sounding a lot like the live footage here. I found the new lengthy songs a bit hard to get into and self indulgent but admired that he put out what he wanted to and was very happy that Swans got the recognition and audience attention that they deserve. There are some diamonds among the new stuff but for me I am yet to hear a new album that I find as strong as anthing from the first incarnation....

Výborná práce pane

What do you think of their new song 13 years later?

OrangeKlawHammer interesting interpretation on it! I've always seen it more on how actual swans are. beautiful, but also vicious

I see the bands name very reminiscent of the “Ugly Duckling” story. Disheveled and ugly in its infancy but morphs into a beautiful and graceful adult, a Swan.

It's called Killing for Company, it's from The Great Annihilator

After Killing for Company the songs are I Crawled and The Sound.

The first track after Helpless Child is called Killing For Company, it's off The Great Annihilator. The track with Jarboe screaming is the live version of I Crawled, which is off Swans Are Dead. The final song is The Sound, which you can find on Soundtracks For The Blind. Norman performed on The Great Annihilator, but did not perform live with Swans until they reformed.

What Melvin said. Also Westberg had left by this time so on guitar was similarly-hairless Vudi of American Music Club.

Ah yes, Vudi. Great guitarist.

Don't know if you're still looking for an answer, but... 1. Helpless Child 2. Killing for Company 3. I Crawled 4. The Sound

song name is “I Crawled”, the part in the video starts at 8:00 of the album Soundtracks For The Blind version