Michael Gira

Michael Rolfe Gira (pronounced jeer-AH) (born February 19, 1954) is an American musician, author, and artist. He is the main force behind the recently reformed New York City musical group Swans and fronts Angels of Light. He is also the founder of Young God Records. Gira lived with his parents in a relatively affluent suburb of Los Angeles, California though they divorced when he was a young teenager. After staying with his alcoholic mother for much of his youth, he was sent to live with his father in Indiana and then Paris. He ran away from home and hitch-hiked across Europe, and was finally arrested for selling drugs in Israel. Although he was only a teenager at the time, he was placed in an adult prison for four and a half months....