American experimental rock band Swans have just announced a European tour, with some UK dates included. The noise rockers will be hitting the road in support of their highly anticipated new album, ‘Birthing’.
After recently confirming several North American dates in September and October, the band are set to hit Europe in late October, starting in Germany on Oct 23. They are scheduled to perform in Leeds and London – on Nov 7 at Project House in Leeds, and on Nov 9 and 10 in London at Electric Brixton.
We’re thrilled to announce the return of SWANS! The post-rock innovators will be performing pieces from their upcoming album ‘Birthing’ at Leeds’ Project House and London’s Electric Brixton this November.
Tickets available Friday 10am:https://t.co/MIneztITHl pic.twitter.com/sBPL46qy6N
— FORM (@formpresents) April 24, 2025
Frontman Michael Gira has confirmed the band members who will be joining for this tour: Kristof Hahn, Dana Schechter, Larry Mullins, Phil Puleo, Christopher Pravdica, Norman Westberg and Michael himself. The band has gone through several member changes through its career, with a ‘dynamic lineup’ that has only kept Michael Gira as a constant part.
The band, who’ve influenced countless musicians from Nirvana to Napalm Death, are set to release their seventeenth album, ‘Birthing’ on May 30, 2025. A preview of the album can be found with the recently released single, ‘I Am A Tower’, a hypnotic, haunting track that builds up in atmosphere as it goes along. Gira shared some insight on the new album, as he suggests he’ll be stepping down as the main producer and finding a new sound for Swans after ‘Birthing’ is released:
“The material contained in this album was largely developed over the course of a yearlong Swans tour, during 2023 – 2024 (‘The Healers,’ ‘I Am a Tower,’ ‘Birthing,’ ‘Guardian Spirit,’ ‘Rope,’ and ‘Away’), then recorded and further orchestrated and rearranged in the studio. Two pieces were created and performed in the studio (‘Red Yellow,’ ‘The Merge’).
In all cases the material began with me sitting in my office with an acoustic guitar, singing and dreaming about what would become of these skeletal songs. I’m blessed to have such a stellar group of musicians to work with live, and through improvisation, endless revisions and an intensity of focus in performance (not to mention endurance), over the course of time the music morphed into what you generally hear on this collection.
This album, coupled with the recent live release, Live Rope, constitutes my final foray (as producer / impresario) into the all-consuming sound worlds that have been my obsession for years. We’ll do a final tour in this mode towards the end of 2025, then that’s it.”
Swans were formed in 1982 by Michael Gira in New York City. Both their lineup and their musical direction have changed many times, with their earlier 80’s albums like ‘Filth’ and ‘Cop’ featuring heavier, more dissonant textures. After that they explored different genres, such as acoustic styles on ‘The Burning World’ (1989) or alternative atmospheric sounds on ‘Love of Life’ (1993). Gira disbanded Swans in 1996, choosing to focus on other projects before reforming the group on 2010 with the critically acclaimed album ‘My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky’. Since then, the band has continued release records and tour.
All dates for the Swans 2025 European/UK tour can be found here. ‘Birthing’ is also available to pre-order here.
