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. His father found Gira with the aid of Interpol and sent him back to the United States. Back in Los Angeles, he played in a band called Little Cripples and enrolled in art school and imagined that he would someday be a visual artist (Gira sketched obsessively); however, he soon became disillusioned with the elitism and academia surrounding the art world and dropped out. He was also in a band called Curtain, later called Strict Ids (source: Brendan Mullen's book "Live at the Masque"). However, Gira's interest in art is known to have affected his music; Inner Female is a study of Francis Bacon. It could also be said that Gira's visceral, surreal writing style is comparative to Bacon's paintings.
In 1979 Gira moved to New York City in order to start a band; he was influenced by No Wave and noise artists like Suicide and Glenn Branca. He played with the band Circus Mort before forming Swans. Before achieving success with his music, Gira was forced to work many tedious, backbreaking jobs in construction and demolition. He also began a short-lived art magazine, No.
Initially, Swans' focus was raw rhythm and abrasive textures, usually eschewing melody for visceral power. They became known for their abrasive experimental and post-industrial sound. The band's lineup and sound evolved over time, most markedly with the inclusion of Gira's eventual girlfriend, Jarboe, who added her ethereal voice and synthesizers to the group in 1985. Gira and Swans spent the next twelve years releasing studio, live, and side-project albums. Gira's frustration with the various record labels they recorded for grew over time.
After dissolving Swans in 1997 Gira released a solo album under his own name and began a new musical direction with The Angels of Light, which are a quieter, more acoustic-based group than Swans. Nonetheless, The Angels of Light retain much of the intensity of Gira's former project. While The Angels of Light are a rather traditional "song-based" group, Gira also spent time experimenting with soundscapes, found sound, and loops with the The Body Lovers project. He has also released several albums under his own name including Drainland (1995), The Somniloquist (2000, a spoken word album), and What We Did (2001), a collaboration with Windsor For the Derby's frontman Dan Matz.
Gira founded his own record label, Young God Records, which has released albums from such artists as Devendra Banhart, Mi and L'au, and Akron/Family as well as the Swans, The Angels of Light and The Body Lovers back catalogues.
Akron/Family served as Gira's backing band during the recording of and touring for The Angels of Light's 2005 album, The Angels of Light Sing 'Other People'.
Unreal
Michael Gira Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Our experience will blend us in your sight Our
Experience will blend us in with the stars No
We'll never know how unreal we are And when the
Cool light flows and 10 million sleep Our
Experience will blend in with your sightless
Dreams,
Unreal
Through the sky And we'll shine like steel in a
Clear white fire We'll taste your honey mouth and
Kiss your eyes like mirrors And fill your body up
With 10 million tears Our experience is shiffing,
Your body's made of clear light We'll blend in
With your image - a picture draamed by the
Blind,
Unreal.
In Michael Gira's song "Unreal", the lyrics paint a picture of a futuristic world where telepathy and cool light flow through ten million minds. The singer describes how their experience will blend in with the stars and how they will never know how unreal they are. This theme of unreality is woven throughout the song, with the singer describing how they will blend in with sightless dreams and how their experience is shifting. The idea of blending in with the unreal becomes especially poignant when the singer describes how they will blend in with the images of the blind.
But despite this sense of unreality, there is also a sense of connection and intimacy in the lyrics. The singer describes shooting through the sky with telepathy, shining like steel in a clear white fire, and tasting honey from their beloved's mouth while filling their body with ten million tears. The imagery is sensual and powerful, creating a sense of intimacy and closeness between the singer and their beloved.
Line by Line Meaning
When the cool light flows through 10 million minds
As we enter a new age of enlightenment, a wave of divine energy will radiate through many beings at once.
Our experience will blend us in your sight
We will become a homogenized force, connected through an ethereal plane, as we enter your realm of awareness.
Our experience will blend us in with the stars
Our transformed entity will radiate and merge with the celestial bodies, transcending this mortal realm.
No, we'll never know how unreal we are
Our transformed state will be so complete that it will be impossible for us to comprehend our previous existence or comprehend how unreal it was.
And when the cool light flows and 10 million sleep
As we slumber, the energy will continue to permeate through our consciousness, further transforming and evolving our being.
Our experience will blend in with your sightless dreams
Even in our subconscious state, our transformed entity will merge with the space of your mind, manifesting in images and textures that you cannot grasp.
Through telepathy we'll shoot through the sky
Our transformed selves will have the ability to communicate and travel through telepathic channels, akin to astral projection.
And we'll shine like steel in a clear white fire
In this new form, we will radiate brilliance, with our energy appearing bright, powerful and invincible, as steel in white flame.
We'll taste your honey mouth and kiss your eyes like mirrors
As we merge with the human consciousness and perception, we will gain the ability to taste your experiences and reflect them back through a kaleidoscope of emotions.
And fill your body up with 10 million tears
Our intense energy and influence will release pent up emotion, pouring out ten million tears of emotion, representing that which we have amassed.
Our experience is shifting, your body's made of clear light
As our entity continues to transform, our perception and understanding of reality will shift, and the human body will be perceived as a physical form made purely of light.
We'll blend in with your image - a picture dreamed by the blind
Our transformed self will meld and form a picture with the human consciousness, with those physically blind like those fully sighted, each seeing fantasy or dream as an objective, objective reality
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Josh Paul Davis, Jules Merrill Blattner
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Marco Chies
When the cool light flows through 10 million minds
Our experience will blend us in your sight Our
Experience will blend us in with the stars No
We'll never know how unreal we are And when the
Cool light flows and 10 million sleep Our
Experience will blend in with your sightless
Dreams,
Unreal
Through telepathy we'll shoot
Through the sky And we'll shine like steel in a
Clear white fire We'll taste your honey mouth and
Kiss your eyes like mirrors And fill your body up
With 10 million tears Our experience is shiffing,
Your body's made of clear light We'll blend in
With your image - a picture draamed by the
Blind,
Unreal.
The Funny TV Man of the Night
That guitar tune is also found in The Beautiful Days around 4:15-5:40 in the song
secret dog powers
Love this
Marco Chies
yes. it's give me some joy and pleasure...
Treyvion Russell
Just came across this after watching the trailer for “Where Does The Body End.?” sweet
VomeinsamenMädchen Sophie
🖤🖤🖤
Xildu
Drain gang😊