GothGirl blog interviews Ryan and Anji about the new Lovespirals’ album Windblown Kiss, and their recent tour.

GG: How does ‘Windblown Kiss’ fit into your discography?

RYAN: It’s hard to pinpoint. I just see it as a new album, with a new kind of sound. But that’s something I’ve always tried to do with every album; not copy what I’ve done before but, instead, try to push through to a new place that I’ve never been to.

GG: Has this new album redefined you as a band?

ANJI: I suppose the album has probably redefined us in many ways in the eyes of fans and critics. The array of commentary on ‘Windblown Kiss’ is really diverse, with everyone seemingly of a different opinion as to our genre and/or sound. Some people haven’t heard any of the earlier material that Ryan and I recorded, so their comparisons are to Love Spirals Downwards’ prior albums. Of course, people see LSD in many different ways, depending on which of the albums they’ve heard… What genre was LSD? Were they Goth? Electronica? Ambient? rock? Folk? Who knows? The same exact thing could be said of Lovespirals. We did some drum and bass and downtempo music, then we did some folk/rock/jazz whatever music. Now we’re doing something else. The band is too changeable for strict genre definitions. We just follow our bliss, wherever it may take us.

GG: In what way has this album matured you as a group?

RYAN: The jazz influence was big on us, me, in particular. For a long time, I’ve been intrigued by jazz, as some of my electronica and drum and bass music shows. But it wasn’t until making of ‘Windblown Kiss’ that I started to have a proper understanding of how and why things work as they do. Before, I’d hack around with jazz elements and chords and get lucky when it sounded good. Now my understanding is much more solid. So it’s been integrated in my head with all the other musical stylings that I’ve been making over the years. The next album after this should be a unique blend of many styles, as if ‘Windblown Kiss’ didn’t mix enough already!

GG: What was your inspiration for the adding jazz sounds to the new album?

ANJI: The impetus was mainly the fact that Ryan had been studying jazz musical theory, learning how to play it with his guitar, rather than just his keyboard. He was really excited to have a whole new palette of sounds to work from, ie. jazz chords, as opposed to their stripped down rock counterparts. Like Ryan said, he’d been toying with jazz elements for several years, so ‘Windblown Kiss’ is just an elaboration on those themes. Whereas before we were doing electronic jazz music, this time around, we did more organic and acoustic jazz music.

GG: How did you challenge your vocals during the recording of ”Windblown Kiss”?

ANJI: Mainly I strove to make every vocal unique from the last. I wanted each song to have its own emotional tone. I use my voice to try and impart the meaning of the words I’m singing, not simply as a passive instrument employing a vocal technique. I also really pushed myself to perfect every line until I felt that I had it just right. I guess the biggest challenge for me were the jazz vocals. Songs like “I Can’t See You” and “Windblown Kiss” sound deceptively simple, but we cycle through 3 or 4 different keys for those compositions. That may not sound like a big deal, but it definitely provides a bit of a challenge vocally! And I’m not musically trained, so I’m just doing what comes natural.

GG: Why did you decide to write a song in Spanish on this particular album?

ANJI: When we started writing “Dejame,” we were looping a little sax passage that Doron had recorded about a year beforehand, and Ryan was playing acoustic guitar along with it. There’s a little Flamenco-esque hook towards the end of Doron’s solo that caught our attention, inspiring us to give the song a Spanish flavor. When I first began writing the lyrics, I sang a little in Spanish, and a little in English, but I quickly decided that I’d prefer to keep it all in Spanish, to be more consistent. On the subject of foreign language lyrics, I must admit that I was partly inspired to do so because Love Spirals Downwards has always been known as a band which uses many languages. I thought it would be nice for Lovespirals to keep up the tradition of multiple languages, because it makes the music a bit more universal, and lends an exotic quality to the song writing.

GG: Are you happy with the more romantic and nostalgic side of the record?

ANJI: Hmm… I’m not sure how to interpret that question exactly. Do you mean the whole old-fashioned sort of feeling that comes from the jazz and blues elements? If so, we are happy to find that our listeners seem to enjoy hearing it as much as we did creating it. We had a lot of fun kind of — pretending, I guess you might say — while we were working on songs like “I Can’t See You” and “Old Kazoo Blues” (the last 2 tracks on the album). We tried to conjure up images of a 1950’s club, and a Depression era club, respectively, with those two tracks. It was a bit scary including such fanciful material on an album being released by Projekt, I’ll admit. I’m very pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback we’ve gotten from the gothic/darkwave community on those songs, though.

GG: What makes ‘Windblown Kiss’ have a beautiful balance within?

ANJI: Thank you for implying that ”Windblown Kiss” has a beautiful inner balance! I would have to surmise that it stems from our inner balance as people. Our music is an expression of our experience of life, and to be sure, Ryan and I are always striving for balance in both our inner and outer lives. Unfortunately, that is much harder to achieve than you might hope! Many outside influences seemed to conspire against us while working on ”Windblown Kiss’,’ but we kept on with it, trying to remain focused on the beauty of life, rather than the pain. I guess that comes through in the music.

GG: You recently did a few shows for a tour over the summer of 2002. Can you share with us your most memorable show from the tour?

RYAN: It was all fun. We had some great times onstage. The only odd thing was playing sometimes at more ‘gothy’ kinds of venues, because we’d feel like we were from Mars, playing the kind of music that we do. But it doesn’t bother me. I’m there to play for the people that came out to see us. If someone’s there because they think we’re supposed to be some kind of spooky music band, they should have done a little more homework.

ANJI: I’d have to say that the Seattle show was the best one. That show seemed to be the tightest of all the gigs we’d done up to that point. We were most relaxed and had the most fun both during and after the show. That night we hung out with Mira for a few hours, and we three girls had a special bonding. I really loved touring with Mira, they’re great people.

GG: How was being on the road different with ‘Windblown Kiss’ songs?

RYAN: In the past, I’ve most often played acoustically, with just guitar and voice. So this time, I had a ‘band’ in the sense that I have a laptop (an apple iBook) playing the drums, bass, and some rhythm guitar parts. and for some shows, we have Doron playing the sax parts that are on the album, although he always improvises new solos each time; he’s the band’s jazz virtuoso.

GG: How well did the new songs work live from ‘Windblown Kiss’?

RYAN: It took us some time to get used to playing them live, but now that we’ve done a few shows, the songs work great and they’re fun to play. They are kind of challenging in that there is a sort of higher degree of difficulty that we’re attempting that most bands don’t have to do. It keeps us on our toes for sure.

ANJI: Playing live was a fun challenge for us. We found a way to make solid sets for either an electric or acoustic show out of the ‘Windblown Kiss’ songs, plus a few other tunes, so we’re pretty versatile. Fans have enjoyed both versions of our live shows, so it’s all good.

GG: What will you be doing musically this fall or winter?

ANJI: Besides a few potential shows, we’ll undoubtedly be doing some recording. We have a number of song ideas we’ve begun, but had no time to work on, what with touring and promotions for ‘Windblown Kiss’. This has been an incredibly busy year for Lovespirals, with very little down time or time for creative output. I think we’re due for a little of both.

GG: Besides music, what is your main interest right now?

RYAN: Staying fit and healthy.

ANJI: Ryan has been working pretty heavily on his basketball skills, and I’d have to say that basketball is definitely his secondary love, after music. I’ve learned way more about basketball than I ever would have dreamed, just from hanging out with him! We both spend a lot of time on our computers, so we’re always learning computer related things. Of course, most of that tends to funnel back into our music, in one way or another! I think I’ve had a pretty one-track mind since last summer, when we started the album… but I have been studying Buddhist thought, particularly Tibetan Buddhism, on and off for a while now. We’ve also been learning a lot about the Arts and Crafts movement, restoring old bungalows, and gardening in the Arts and Crafts style.

GG: Anything else you would like to add?

ANJI: Please visit our website for more information about the band, photos, audio files, and more at https://www.lovespirals.com. When you’re there, be sure to join our mailing list for updates, including when we might be playing in your area!

Also, you can purchase ‘Windblown Kiss’ online at http://www.projekt.com