All posts by Anji

Interviews

Outsight Radio Hours Interview (2002)

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.

Continue reading Outsight Radio Hours Interview (2002) →
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Kenny G.? Really?!?

There was one downer moment in the tour I forgot to mention… In Oregon, the Willamette Weekly printed the most preposterous preview of our show possible! We were stunned to read this guy’s outrageously incorrect summation of our sound:

Lovespirals evolved from it’s former incarnation — Love Spirals Downward[sic], a perfectly listenable Cocteau Twins clone — into a shimmery, soft-focus New Age monster who think Kenny G saxophone and smooth-jazz piano are signifers of a newfound maturity. No dice.

What???? We don’t even use piano in our music — unless you count the one song with funky Rhodes electric piano, which hardly qualifies as “smooth-jazz” or “new age”!!! Doron is certainly not like Kenny G., and he wasn’t on the tour, anyway… Gads! Even the promoter of the Portland show was expecting the worst after reading that review; he came up to us right after we finished playing to say that we were much, much better than he expected, and we “didn’t sound jazz at all!” Haha!

Man, you drive all the way out from L.A. to do a special performance, and get totally panned before you even arrive. Thanks a lot, John Graham, you jerk!!!

Blog

Back home from tour

The mini tour is over, and boy, are we exhausted. So much driving! The shows all went well, as did the radio interview and show. We saw a lot of friends and family along the way, and made a few new friends. Some CDs were sold, fans made, sights seen, and the like.

Sadly, when we returned home, my beloved iMac would not power up. I do all the band work from my iMac, so this is very bad news. We took it to the local Apple store, and we’re praying that the Geniuses there can mend it back to health. If not, we’ll have to have the data transferred out onto another computer… But let’s keep our fingers crossed that it doesn’t come to that! Send my iMac your prayers!

Blog

Back from Tour

Lovespirals have returned from their West Coast mini tour with Mira, and are busy scheduling additional dates for this year. So far, Los Angeles has been added for October 2nd, at the Knitting Factory. The band plans to include saxist, Doron Orenstein, for this date.

DJ Victoria Star, of KZSC in Santa Cruz, CA wrote the following review of the first show date:

San Francisco Projekt fans were given a spectacular treat last night when artists Mira and Lovespirals joined together for an evening of musical bliss at The Pound.

Once again changing musical directions, Anji Bee and Ryan Lum presented their lush new sound as a taunting and swanky invitation to sing along. Taking the stage with a smile that never left her face, Anji’s vocal mastery was particularly poignant on new tracks “Oh So Long” and “Swollen Sea.”

Press, Reviews

In Music We Trust Portland Show Review

A brief, but largely positive review of our performance at Portland’s Paris Theatre on August 23rd has appeared on the In Music We Trust site:

Next came the technical difficulties but delicious music of Lovespirals. While guitarist Ryan Lum and singer Anji Bee clearly seemed displeased with how their show was going, it did not stop them from presenting a lovely display of some obvious hard work. Closing out the set with a few jazz numbers, the audience weaved back and forth with Bee as she appeared as a nightclub chanteuse a little out of her element. Bee acknowledged this by remarking, “We don’t know how Mira does it. They’ve got like twelve shows left. This is only our third, and we’re like, ‘O, we want to go home.'” Nevertheless, Lovespirals presented their new material, which is absolutely marvelous, and sparked some interest.

You can read the full piece, which is mostly about the headlining band, Mira, at the In Music We Trust SHOW REVIEW: Mira, Lovespirals and Summerland page. Very happy to have them call this “the sexiest concert bill of 2002, btw.”

Anji Bee of Lovespirals performing at the Paris Theatre in Portland, OR
Ryan Lum of Lovespirals performing at the Paris Theatre in Portland OR
Lyrics, Remixes & Singles

Ring (Lovespirals Version)

Come away, oh human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand

You cannot stay another day
Come away, at once, I say
The world’s more full of weeping than you understand

It’s in my hands to find you to find you
Reason after reason to find you
Come away
(x2)

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
Gray sands with light, far off by furthest Rosses
Tis there that we shall foot it all the night

We’ll be weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight

It’s in my hands to find you

It’s in my hands to find you to find you
Reason after reason to find you
Oh Child, come away
(x3)

– Adapted by Anji Bee from the poem, “The Stolen Child,” by William Butler Yeats which was the inspiration for Kristen Perry’s lyrics on the original version of “Ring” released on ‘Flux’ in 1998

When Lovespirals first toured in 2002 to support the release of their debut album, ‘Windblown Kiss,’ they needed more music for their set, so Anji worked up her own version of the LSD song, “Ring.” This version was performed perhaps only a handful of times and never recorded except in a fan video.

Blog

Anji Bee Online

Mp3.com continues their strange love affair with Anji this week, as they’ve added a link to her on their front page, along side Eve and Alicia Keyes.

A Real Audio file of the recent interview with Anji for the Outsight Radio Hours is now online at Music Sojourn . She and Tom Shulte discuss Windblown Kiss, jazz, vinyl collecting, and more.

Press, Reviews

Critically Hip Posts Windblown Kiss Review

The Critically Hip site posted a nice review of the album:

“Founder and long time force behind Projekt band Love Spirals Downwards, Ryan Lum has a new partner, a new band name and a new style. Leaving long time partner Suzanne Perry –and quite a bit of the Love Spirals Downwards formula– behind, Lum and Bee have come up with an album that grabs you from the first note.

Anji Bee has an incredible voice that moves from sultry to sensual to surreal to earthy, that winds its way around the guitar work of Ryan Lum like smoke. Whereas Suzanne Perry always sounded sweet and ethereal no matter what she was singing, Anji Bee showcases a wide variety of vocal styling, which, in my opinion, gives the duo much greater latitude on this and future albums.

I totally respect what Ryan Lum and Anji Bee are trying to put across here and I think this partnership may go much farther than Love Spirals Downwards did – and that’s saying a lot! I remember reviewing LSD’s album “Ever” back in 1996 or 1997 and I thought they were pretty cool as an ethereal goth band, but this duo has that one beat hands down.”

— Mary Ellen Gustafson

Interviews, News, Reviews

Recent Interview & Album Review

Anji was interviewed about Lovespirals by Shaun Hamilton for Chain D.L.K. online zine this week. Craig Gidney, owner of the Ethereality Yahoo! Group, posted an insightful Windblown Kiss review that reads, in part:

Ryan Lum’s Love Spirals Downwards has come a long way from its ethereal gothic roots.  Gone are Suzanne Perry’s wafting vocal glossolalia, the dark Cure-meets-Siouxsie basslines, and the Robin Guthrie guitar atmospherics.  They have been replaced by the smooth-as-silk vocals of Anji Bee; the mysterious Eastern-flavor by dashes of flamenco, lounge, jazz and Brazilian pop, and even –gasp- mainstream pop.  Of course, this transformation has been a long time coming.  Lum has always pushed the envelope in atmospheric music, assimilating electronica, drums and bass along side such core foundations as folk and shoegazer into the mix.  The last LSD album, Flux,  was a successful mix of Massive Attack-style songs and gentle breakbeats, not unlike those heard on the Six Degrees label.  This new incarnation, though, seems to model itself after the sophisticated pop of Everything But the Girl, once and for all ditching the Cocteau Twins blueprint that has dogged the band since its humble beginnings. 

–Craig L. Gidney

Blog

West Coast Tour

A rare message from me, Ryan! We leave in one week for our west coast tour. If you’re nearby, I hope you’ll make it out to see us. It’s pretty rare that we do shows, and there’s no telling when we’ll be back. These shows will be a little different from our projekt show in Philadelphia that we did a few months back. Doron, our tenor sax player won’t be there, so I’ll be stepping it up at the guitar.

Also, we’re playing with fellow Projekt band Mira, who we met in Philadelphia. Cool cats and even cooler music. So it should be a fun few days on the road.

LOVESPIRALS & MIRA WEST COAST TOUR:

Wed August 21: The Pound – San Francisco, CA • 100 Cargo Way @ Pier 96 • 415.273.1169. 9pm. $12 

Fri August 23: The Paris Theatre – Portland, OR • 6 SW 3rd Ave. • 503.224.8313, All Ages. 8pm. $10

Sat August 24: The Paradox Theater – Seattle, WA  •5510 University Way • 206.524.7677. All ages. 8pm. $10.

Blog

Cool Terrasse comp Released

The Swiss chill-out comp, Cool Terrasse, was just released by CH Musiq this month. It features a special radio edit of Lovespirals’ atmo Drum n Bass song, “Ecstatic,” as well as 11 other jazzy or ethnic flavored down tempo electronica tracks by various international artists. It is available for sale online for $15 USD.

Reviews

GothGirl Reviews Windblown Kiss

Thank you for the review, Julie!

The new Lovespirals CD, Windblown Kiss, takes on an ethereal jazz feel with the use of saxophone, slow drumbeats, and several different guitars. The vocals by Anji are lush and melodic, creating a soundscape of their own.  One thing I like about this CD is that it has a very diverse feel. Many of the songs feel like something you would hear in a small lounge club (and I mean that in a very good way.) Windblown Kiss is very soulful and warm sounding, yet quiet and mellow — which is great — and they kept this feel consistently all the way through the album. “Our Nights”, is probably the most upbeat track, with additional instruments coming in such as congas and shakers. “You Girl”, has a slightly more rock feel, with an additional twang to the acoustic guitars.  This song has the hardest feel, even though it’s still very mellow.  My favorite track, “Dejame”, is written all in Spanish. I think this was a great idea as Anji sings it so well, and with a great accent. (Not to worry, there is an English translation included if you don’t know Spanish, but fortunately I do, so as a reviewer it was a real treat to hear!) This song would be great for a slow dance. “Dejame” has a really Spanish flavor, adding a little culture and spice to the album. (You will also hear a little French and German used in the lyrics as well.) Overall, this CD is full of romantic, sweet and lush harmonies that all balance out. 

— Julie Johnson