Jarboe Quotes

I love playing live. Michael really enjoys doing the concerts. it’s just that because we don’t have any financial support or backing when we’re on the road, in order to make it feasible economically, we have to do one nighters. we have to be a different place essentially every night. so that means covering huge distances in a very short amount of time. so for example on the last tour that would mean arriving in a city, setting up gear, doing a sound check, doing a concert, packing up the gear after the concert, getting in the van & driving to the next city, or in the case of europe driving to the next country. so we’re talking about many hours, sixteen hours more or less traveling non-stop & then doing a show in a state of exhaustion. after a couple of months of that I began to really feel wiped out. 
Jarboe

The name Swans, Michael says it was just arbitrary. he wanted something that was a neutral title. but, as he’s been quoted as saying, he was not unaware of the irony of the name. because of course when you think about a swan & then you think about the music that the group was doing when the name was picked, the music was very very brutal, possibly the loudest ugliest most brutal music that’s ever been recorded. & to call that sound Swans was extremely ironic & I think kind of brilliant.
Jarboe