Norman Westberg is a guitarist from Detroit best known for his work with
Swans. Present through almost the entirety of the band's existence, Westberg was brought on for Swans' debut album Filth (1983) and appeared on every album through 1991's White Light From the Mouth of Infinity (he also played on the 1995 album The Great Annihilator).[1] Westberg became a full-time Swans member once again when Michael Gira reactivated the group in 2010.[2]
Westberg's playing can also be heard on many
Swans side projects, including
The Body Haters and solo albums by
Jarboe. Before
Swans, he was a member of
Carnival Crash. Westberg was for a short time a member of
The Heroine Sheiks with Shannon Selberg (ex-
The Cows)[3] as well as John Fell (ex-China Shop). Aside from the present incarnation of Swans, he currently plays in the NYC bands NeVAh (with Vinnie Signorelli & Algis Kizys) and Five Dollar Priest (formerly Size Queens) (with Ron Ward of Speedball Baby & Bob Bert among others).[4] He also appeared (credited as Norman Westburg) in a short film The Right Side of My Brain directed by Richard Kern and starring Lydia Lunch.
On February 25, 2012, Westberg made two limited edition solo releases available at his webstore.[5] Plough is a four-track EP recorded from 2006 to 2009 and features Westberg coupling guitar with banjo and DX drum machine.[6] Limited Edition of 75 features one fifteen-minute-long ambient piece and is packaged in one-of-a-kind imagery, each disk being decorated with a unique MRI from a CD Westberg was given in hospital.[7] Both CD-Rs are packaged in handmade sleeves, Plough with a signed inner and Limited Edition of 75 signed and numbered on the disk itself.
In February 2014 Westberg released a third limited edition solo CD entitled 13, which was then reissued through the ROOM40 record label on November 13, 2015.
Wiki
from Norman....
“This is the first recording that was not done in my ‘one take; it is what it is’ method. For me, this was like jumping into the pool with a blindfold on! Due to this shift, After Vacation is something of a collaborative record with the very capable and caring Lawrence English, acting as producer for the sessions; taking my sounds and weaving them into finished pieces. I listen to them more as stand-alone stories, rather than my usual style of bouncing conversation. The title 'After Vacation' came from the feeling that something was changing. Not that playtime was over, just that last week was fun and all, but now is a good time to move around into something more realised.”
