Blixa Bargeld on why he and Michael Gira are “fellow travellers on the same strange path”
Swans leader Michael Gira and Einstürzende Neubauten frontman Blixa Bargeld have been mentioned in the same glowing terms since both groups burst onto the scene in the early 1980s. As newcomers, they delivered unique forms of noise rock unlike anything that came before. It set a precedent for the continued artistic development they would undertake, a metamorphosis still very much in the process.
Fans and critics have naturally regarded both musicians as separate sides of the same coin. Following in the footsteps of Throbbing Gristle, they are perennial boundary-pushers not concerned with the zeitgeist, with total dedication to their art the sole concern. Whilst the similarities in their music are evident, ultimately, it is the pair’s ethos that has led to so many championing them in the same breath.
Given that Gira and Bargeld are of the same generation, are pioneers of punishing noise, and view their art similarly, there’s no real surprise that they have been friends for a very long time. Speaking to Exberliner in 2010, Gira looked back on him and Jarboe staying with Bargeld in Berlin on Swans’ first tour circa 1983. It was put to him that the New Yorkers had a strong following in the German capital from the beginning, as their work seemed to fit in “with the Cold War hangover”.
Gira replied: “Yes, I have great memories of Berlin. I remember on the first tour in 1983, ’84, we stayed – that is, Jarboe and I stayed – with Blixa Bargeld [of Einstürzende Neubauten fame] for some time, and Blixa was a bartender at a bar – I think it was called the Risiko – and, um, he used to give us free drinks. Which was, of course, a disaster for everyone involved.”
The interviewer then discussed that there appeared to be shared ideas between the New York no-wave scene that Swans are linked to and the loose-knit group of ‘Ingenious Dilletantes‘ that Bargeld headed.
In response, the Swans man explained: “I wouldn’t really consider Swans to be no wave; we came to New York after no wave. We took some of the ideas – I was definitely inspired by the raw use of sound rather than trying to make music out of the usual three-chord punk rock, but we, and Sonic Youth, took it in a different direction. As far as having an affinity for groups there, I guess I knew the people in Malaria vaguely and Einstürzende Neubauten, of course: they were friends for quite some time.”
Despite Gira believing Swans and Einstürzende Neubauten to be quite different musically, it’s clear that they’ve been travelling in the same direction since day one, despite the changes in musical direction that both bands undertook in the late 1980s.
Blixa Bargeld also believes this. In Marco Porsia’s 2019 Swans documentary Where Does a Body End?, Bargeld expressed of his old friend: “I think I called Michael last year, in a drunken state. Not him, I was drunk. I told him that I still consider him a fellow traveller on the same strange path.”
