Here’s a partial transcript of the interview Tom Schulte did with Anji recently on his Internet radio show, for those that aren’t able to stream audio. Outsight is a featured archival broadcast of the Music Sojourn site so go listen to it if you can!
Tom: Been enjoying ‘Windblown Kiss.” Been playing it for the audience here. Ya happy with it?
Anji: Yeah, yeah it turned out a lot differently than probably people might have expected, but… You know, we kinda started out one way… at first we were working on a trip hop song, and then we wrote, uh, the first song, “Oh So Long,” and we realized that we were kinda on to something a little different. We just kinda went with it. Made kind of a rock album. With jazz.
Tom: Yeah, definitely, and, um, some sort of flamenco, soul, folk touches — it’s beyond retro, it’s almost vintage at times.
Anji: Yeah, you know what? I’m actually really into vintage styles, I guess you’d say. I love antique furniture and vintage clothes, and I listen to a lot of old albums. I think that rubbed off on Ryan while we were making the album.
Tom: Does he have those same interests?
Anji: Um… only kind of through me, I guess? He had been listening to —a little bit— some old jazz when I met him. He had a John Coltrane album he was really into, but I had more jazz albums, and then we bought some together, and I guess it’s because when he started hanging out with Doron and Gabe —who, you know, had worked on a few songs with him— they’re both into jazz. In fact Doron has jazz training, he has a jazz degree, for crying out loud! So Ryan was really turned on to jazz through them, and would ask Doron different questions about jazz theory, and he just kinda got sucked into it. So that combined with, strangely enough, seeing Ken Burns ‘Jazz’ series on PBS, he just kinda because obsessed, you might say.
Tom: Now, do you feel that this is an interesting one-time, sort of, homage to the jazz style, or is it a direction for the group?
Anji: Probably it’s a one-time, I don’t know… It’s not exactly a concept album, but yeah. You know we were writing other songs at the time that were a lot more contemporary, and when we tried to put them side by side, it just was kinda shocking to hear a trip hop song ,and then a jazz song, and a bossanova song, and house song, a 2-step song, so… I dunno, we just kinda sucked it up and said, “Let’s just go for it! Let’s just do this weird jazz folk thing and see what people think.” (Laughs)
Tom: Well I think that was wise, it works particularly effectively having a lot of sympathetic stylism between the tracks.
Anji: The two songs that have Sean Bowley, those were recorded back in about ’96 or ’97, and they had never been used, so now was like the perfect time… after we had written “Dejame” and we did the cover of “You Girl” with that kinda folky things going on, we thought, “We can finally use those songs with Sean!” So we got ‘em out of the archives and brought ‘em into our system [ProTools] and added a little bit more. I think they sound interesting in the mix.
Tom: “You Girl,” I’d have to say, is my favorite on the album, and it’s what I started the set off with. Tell me more about that song. Is it directed at someone in particular?
Anji: Ah, no. That song was actually written by Dewey Bunnell of the band America —I don’t know if you remember them, “Horse with No Name” and “Ventura Highway”?
Tom: Oh yeah!
Anji: They’re actually one of bands that Ryan and I really love, we go and see them play. Dewey just lives in Palos Verdes, which isn’t really that far from Long Beach, and so they come through town a lot. We just have a lot of respect for them. “You Girl” was a song that was pretty much overlooked when it came out in the early eighties. It was on the same album that had the song, “Magic,” which I think they had a video for that on MTV. When we heard “You Girl” on vinyl, we thought, “Wow this song is so great!” So we thought it would be kinda fun if we covered it, and we did. It sounds like it could’ve been one of our songs, but it’s not. It might seem funny that I’m singing about a girl, but that’s fine. I couldn’t really change it to “You Boy,” it didn’t seem right.
Tom: Now, what about… it isn’t really the 11th song, but after a silence on the 10th track, there’s a fun, vintage sounding…
Anji: Yeah, yeah!
Tom: You’re playing a kazoo on there?
Anji: The name of that, I guess, is “Old Kazoo Blues.” I don’t really know why… well, I guess we were listening to a lot of old Led Zeppelin the summer that we were making the album and there’s all these weird old songs they did that are, like, old thirties blues and Ryan was like, “You know, when I was a kid I would just kinda skip over these tracks, I didn’t understand them or appreciate them, but now that I’m a little older there songs are really great.” He’s like “I’d love to make a song like this,” and I was all, “Really?! I have some old thirties records you should hear!” So I was playing him some old Bessie Smith, and I actually bought him a CD of old blues guitarists. So we kept joking around that we were gonna do one, but he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to go for it, and I said, “We can make it a hidden track!” So we were joking around that we’d make it a hidden track, so just eventually we did. We had a lot of fun with it. When we’d be joking around, we were like, “What’s this song gonna be like?” And I said, “Well it has to be about how a woman did you wrong, ‘cause that’s just what you sing about when you sing the blues!” So I just toyed around and came up with that, but I don’t know how I talked him into letting me do the kazoo solo, but I’m so happy that he did. I’ve always loved to play kazoo, so that was like, my one really musical moment besides shaking the egg on “Our Nights,” that I got to do —and I gotta say, when we did the song live at ProjektFest, people were so into that!
Tom: (laughs)
Anji: We just got a kick out of ending a Projekt album with a blue songs, and then that sassy little sample that I put on the end.
Tom: And what is that from? Is that from one of your albums?
Anji: Yeah, it’s this weird vinyl I got one time used. It’s “Territory Bands” ? I guess it’s an old genre of bands that played territories of the United States, and I can’t really remember who did that song, but it’s called “When Erastus Plays His Old Kazoo,” and Ryan got a real kick out of that, so we sampled it and stuck it on there just for a sassy “good bye” on the album.
Tom: Pre-statehood kazoo blues. A whole overlooked genre!
Anji: I know! The kazoo is a rad instrument. It’s really funny. I was laughing when I was playing it live, actually, I couldn’t handle it.
Tom: So it sounds like you still pretty actively collect vinyl records, I take it?
Anji: Yeah. (sighs) I try not to go too crazy, but we do have like two towers full of vinyl of all different types and eras. He’s got tons of dance 12”s from his DJ career, and I’ve got a bunch of weird albums from different periods. He does, too, he’s got a lot of his 70s and 80s vinyl still.
Tom: Oh, I love collecting vinyl. I mean, if I’m gonna spend like $20 on a CD, I gotta know that I want it, you know? But I can go to, like, a garage sale and get a whole arm-full of vinyl for five or ten bucks!
Anji: I know, I know. We’ve got a pretty good source here in Long Beach, too. We can go down there and find things… I think we bought that America album for 99 cents, you know?
Tom: Do you have any stories of memorable finds?
Anji: Well, I was pretty happy with that territories album, to tell the truth. You know, there’s not that many of them pressed, and it’s not even on a legitimate label — I don’t think you could get in on CD or anything now. I love finding old Bessie Smith and good Billie Holiday collections on vinyl. I can’t think, off hand, of any superb finds. It’s been awhile since we’ve gone crazy with vinyl. I think the last thing we bought was Steve Miller Band ‘Fly Like An Eagle,’ which I hadn’t heard all the way through since I was a kid.
Tom: (laughs) What did you think of it all the way through?
Anji: Oh my god! We had to bring our friends over, like “Check this album out, it’s so great.” It’s weird how it has kind of a similarity to our album in how it goes through all these different styles. He’s got an old blues song, old rock n roll song — I don’t think he has a straight up jazz song? But it’s just a great musical journey. I kinda feel like our album is that way, too, in that it brings you through all these different states and this different kind of weird imagery goes through your head.
Tom: Oh yes, ‘Windblown Kiss’ on Projekt Records is a musical journey, and I encourage you all to check it out and stay on top of Lovespirals records as they come out. I know we’ll be doing it here.
Anji: Thank you.
Tom: Thank you for being on the show and spending some time chatting with us about the record.
Anji: It was great. You are so eclectic. I appreciate that.