Michael Gira (pronounced jeer-AH[LINK: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/spinning/episodes/2005/10/23] [1]) (born 1954) is a musician, author, and artist. He was the main force behind the now dissolved New York City musical group Swans and currently fronts The 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. 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