In case you didn’t hear the band’s 1 hour guest spot on Auralgasms Radio last night, don’t cry! While you did miss out on a fun chat session in the Auralgasms chatroom with Lovespirals at least you can hear a pristine archival copy of the show. Ryan and Anji chat between each song, giving not only track information, but a little insight into the music and musicians involved. The show seemed to be a big hit last night, so hopefully you’ll love it, too! Almost forgot to mention, this was the world premier of the completed SWS remix of “This Truth” – and boy, is it a goodie!!!
- “Sundrenched” Lovespirals Long Way From Home (2007)
- “Motherless Child (Karmacoda Remix)” Lovespirals Motherless Child EP (2007)
- “Walk Away (Bitstream Dream Remix)” Lovespirals Walk Away EP (2004) Download Free Mp3
- “This Truth (Soul Whirling Somewhere Remix) This Truth EP (2008) — unreleased
- “Depression Glass” Love Spirals Downwards Ardor [Remastered Reissue] (2007)
- “Unraveling” Liquid State Late Bloom (2008)
- “Accomplice” Melodyguild Aitu EP (2008)
- “An Angel, Ameliorate” Falling You (feat. Suzanne Perry) Human (2006)
- “Tomorrow [Hidden Track following “Dreaming a Thousand Dreams]” Chandeen (feat. Anji Bee) Teenage Poetry (2008)
- “Lazy Love Days” Lovespirals Long Way From Home (2007)
Thanks to Mikey for setting up this fun show and to everyone who tuned in and came by to chat – especially Riki and CocteauBoy! Music provided by the Podsafe Music Network, Projekt Records, and the bands themselves.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Auralgasms Radio Guest DJ Set by Lovespirals June 30th, 2008
Anji: Hello and welcome to LovespiralsGasms here on Auralgasms Radio. I’m your hostess, Anji Bee.
Ryan: And I’m your host, Ryan Lum.
Anji: And we’re Lovespirals.
Ryan: Lovespirals.
Anji: So thanks for having us as a special guest on the show. We’ve got an hour of Love Spirals related music planned for you. Going to play a couple tracks from our latest album, ‘Long Way From Home’, as well as several remixes, including a world premiere remix.
Ryan: Awesome.
Anji: I’ve also got some side projects of various vocalists from the band, some that you’re very well familiar with here on Auralgasms Radio, such as the new Melodyguild, plus one you maybe haven’t heard of yet, Liquid State, a slightly older one, Falling You, and Chandeen. So we’ve got a full hour of music planned for you.
Ryan: So before we get started, it’d probably be a good thing to let those out there who don’t know much about who we are, give them some background info. So we’re Lovespirals, we’re a duo, Ryan and Anji, and we make music.
Anji: That’s true, we do make music. You’ve been making music since like ’91.
Ryan: Well, I mean, I got a guitar when I was, like, a child, you know.
Anji: Way old back then?
Ryan: No, I’ve been recording a long time basically. I got my first multitrack recorder in 1989 and haven’t looked back since.
Anji: Wow. That’s a good summation of it.
Ryan: Yeah.
Anji: Well, he’s very humble. His first album came out in ’92 as Love Spirals Downwards.
Ryan: Yeah.
Anji: We’re going to play a song.
Ryan: Yeah, you’re going to hear a song from 1994.
Anji: And I joined up with him in about ’99, 2000.
Ryan: And we became Lovespirals.
Anji: Absolutely. So he’s got four albums as Love Spirals Downwards and three as Lovespirals.
Ryan: Might be a little confusing, hope not.
Anji: And of course we’re working on another as we speak.
Ryan: A new Lovespirals albums is in the works. Might be able to get it out by the end of this year, 2008. If not, you know, should be out early 2009.
Anji: So we’re going to start off the show today with one of our favorite songs from our last album, ‘Long Way From Home’, released in November 2007.
Ryan: The song is called “Sundrenched,” and it’s one of our most hypnotizing, moody kind of ethereal numbers on the album.
Anji: Yeah, I think the listeners of Auralgasms should get a kick out of it.
Ryan: All right, cool. So here it is.
[music]
Ryan: Yeah, Fleetwood Mac was one of my heroes as a child growing up.
Anji: Mine too.
Ryan: And I don’t know, I don’t think people when they hear Lovespirals they think, “Oh, Fleetwood Mac!” or “70s,” but.…
Anji: I think one person said that.
Ryan: Yeah, I know.
Anji: Sounds like us.
Ryan: Of all the various records I’ve made throughout the the years, this album really gets that 70s influence in it, the strongest.
Anji: Yeah, I don’t think people pick that up from your Love Spirals Downwards records.
Ryan: I just said, “Screw it, I’m going to go for it this time.”
Anji: That’s cool. I love that sound you got in the end by the way.
Ryan: Yeah, it’s been a long time since I heard that song. It was based on a Fleetwood Mac mini or micro Moog, some kind of old Moog analog synth, used in a song called “Crystal” and I just kind of said, “I like that, I’m going to go for it too.”
Anji: All right, cool. So you guys are all going to have to look up “Crystal” now and hear that.
Ryan: Giving away our secrets. What are we doing?
Anji: I know. I think you have a lot of influences that people would probably never guess when they listen to your music.
Ryan: Yeah, I usually don’t reveal them. So I don’t know what’s up with me here. Maybe, you know, I had a just had a good meal and I’m feeling really like, you know, groovy or something. Yeah.
Anji: Groovy. So see, we’re going to switch gears a little bit. I picked out what I think is my favorite remix of “Motherless Child”. It’s by a band from San Francisco called Karmacoda. I’m not sure if they play them on Auralgasms. If not, they definitely should add some to their radio list. They’re a really nice electronica duo. Well actually they’re a fourtet but the the duet is the two singers and both of them are singing on this remix along with my vocals.
Ryan: To clarify the remix, on our album ‘Long Way From Home’, we did our own version of the classic song, “Motherless Child”.
Anji: Oh yeah.
Ryan: And then we opened it up to some bands and artists we liked, producers to remix it. And hence this is what we’re going to play the remix made by Karmacoda.
Anji: Yeah, totally. So we did a digital-only EP. What is there, like five or six remixes on it?
Ryan: Yeah, I think six, yeah.
Anji: Including one by you.
Ryan: Yeah.
Anji: So this is the very moody Karmacoda remix of “Motherless Child”. Check it out.
Ryan: Nice. I love that track.
[music]
Ryan: Nice remix. And while we’re playing remixes, we have another remix.
Anji: Oh yeah.
Ryan: When we did our second album in 2005, ‘Free and Easy’, we also had a a remix contest that Peace Love Productions hosted and, you know, there were prizes and all sorts of cool stuff that winners won. We’re going to play the runner-up winner for that contest, Bitstream Dream. He did a nice sweet remix. Anything you want to say about that one Anji or?
Anji: Um well, I guess I’ll mention that Bitstream Dream is Rom Di Prisco and I used to work with him kind of a lot on music. I have songs on like two of his albums. He’s kind of disappeared off the internet.
Ryan: Yeah.
Anji: It’s very mysterious. I know he got really busy doing game soundtracks and television show soundtracks and I think he kind of let Bitstream Dream just slide. So bitstreamdream.com is like 404 error, you know. It’s just sad. I know. But so.
Ryan: But his legacy remains here.
Anji: It does. And we will play it for you. I’m still hoping to get a “Walk Away” EP up as a digital remix EP sometime in the near future, but for now these songs are just kind of floating around the internet.
Ryan: And here it is again.
Anji: Yeah, “Walk Away”, Bitstream Dream remix.
[music]
Ryan: Cool. That was from 2005’s Peace Love Productions remix contest.
Anji: Actually, I think it was in 2004. It was kind of slightly before the album came out.
Ryan: Oh, did it happen before the album? Jeez.
Anji: Yeah, according to my iTunes here it’s 2004.
Ryan: Well, iTunes don’t lie, eh?
Anji: As long as I put the right information in.
Ryan: Well, this year in 2008, we did another remix contest with Peace Love Productions for our new album.
Anji: Yes, absolutely.
Ryan: You know, that’s the same time as our new album came out. So we picked a track from our new album. The track’s called “This Truth”. You know, I can’t remember 2005. You know, a lot of things, you know, entered my brain since then. Nothing illegal.
Anji: That was a crazy year.
Ryan: That was a crazy year.
[music]
Ryan: So I remember this one much better and God, it was amazing. We had like what? 60, 70 um submissions.
Anji: Yeah.
Ryan: And we listened to them all. Every which one of them. In fact, we devoted a whole podcast –on our ‘Chillin’ with Lovespirals’ podcast– to going through our our favorite 10 remixes and we broke it down.
Anji: Broke it down and played the two winners. That was fun.
Ryan: Yeah, but one submission, he never properly submitted it. This artist is called Michael Plaster. He has a band called Soul Whirling Somewhere.
Anji: Come on, these people definitely heard of Soul Whirling Somewhere. He’s been around as long as you have.
Ryan: I know. I knew him from Projekt, you know, from gosh, when I started making records on Projekt in the early 90s.
Anji: He designed your band logo.
Ryan: He did for Love Spirals Downwards’ first record. What was I going to say? Yeah, he didn’t submit it properly. To enter the contest there’s certain requirements. You have to post it on their form or whatever and he just sent it. He just emailed us, “Hey, check this out, I’m working on it.” And he never finished it in time.
Anji: Yeah.
Ryan: So basically after the contest was done, he sent us this final mix of his song and we were just stunned. We’re going, “Michael, dude, you would have got a free iPod Touch care of Peace Love Productions.”
Anji: Blown away.
Ryan: I mean yeah the winner, Pomatic, did an awesome remix.
Anji: He did in a completely different style.
Ryan: Different kind. It’s like apples and oranges, but Michael would have been in serious contention for being a winner of this contest. But I guess he doesn’t do it for that those sorts of reasons. He’s an artist and he loves music.
Anji: He is. He’s an artist. He does it for the love.
Ryan: Yeah, kind of got respect that.
Anji: Oh yes, respect. We love Michael Plaster.
Ryan: So yeah, such a great mix. We want to share it with the world and because we never really played it, is this our premiere?
Anji: This is the world premiere of Soul Whirling Somewhere mix of “This Truth”.
Ryan: Yeah, back in our in our podcast that the one I referred to, we played an early mix of his.
Anji: Just a clip.
Ryan: Yeah, just a clip. And this is the final finished mix of it here. So shall we?
Anji: I think War-n of Hungry Lucy will be very excited to hear the full mix.
Ryan: Yeah, he should dig this. So without further ado, here’s Michael Plaster’s remix of “This Truth”.
[music]
Anji: Damn, that’s a good remix.
Ryan: Yeah, sweet.
Anji: All right, so now we’re seriously going to switch gears. We’re going back in time to 1994.
Ryan: Yeah, with Love Spirals Downwards, my second album, ‘Ardor.’ When it was mastered, which is the last step before like CD manufacturing, you sweeten the audio. It came out kind of muddy and dark and I was always kind of displeased with that aspect of it. Well, fortunately, Projekt Records ran out of all their copies of ‘Ardor’.
Anji: Ooh.
Ryan: And there was an opportunity to remaster it and re-release it, reissue it basically. It came out this year in Digipak format and I got a chance to revisit and remaster the audio anew. And we’re going to play you a track from that. It’s called “Depression Glass”.
Anji: Oh yes. And this features the additional vocalist Jennifer Wilde.
Ryan: In addition to Suzanne Perry, my main vocalist from Love Spirals Downwards. And Jennifer sings on this track, too.
Anji: How did you meet Jennifer?
Ryan: Um when I lived in San Francisco, when I was finishing the recording of ‘Ardor’, she was like just a friend of a friend and, you know, that’s how I usually meet musicians instead of like ads in papers. I just like, “Hey, you do something, let’s let’s check it out.” So we got her um yeah, just recorded with her.
Anji: Sweet. So yeah, this actually just finally came out on iTunes, by the way, like this week.
Ryan: Yeah, it took forever to get into iTunes. There was a little snag because there was a cover song on the album, but it’s here, and here is “Depression Glass”.
[music]
Anji: Classic track of the genre for sure.
Ryan: Yeah, when I hear that I just have flashbacks to like San Francisco.
Anji: Oh wow.
Ryan: Like a sunny day and the Richmond District of the city of San Francisco.
Anji: Really? Awesome.
Ryan: Yeah.
Anji: So I don’t know if you’ve even had a chance to hear it yet, but Jennifer Wilde has finally returned to music. This is the first thing she’s recorded since that recording session with you in ’94.
Ryan: Wow, that’s 14 years later.
Anji: Yeah, it’s amazing, but it’s it was well worth the wait. Her new band is Liquid State and the album is appropriately titled ‘Late Bloom’. So great. I’ve been listening to this a lot. They put every song on the Podsafe Music Network, which is so cool. And I think this one’s my favorite. It’s called “Unraveling”.
[music]
Ryan: Wow, nice job Jennifer, both with the guitar and voice. Very impressive.
Anji: Great mood.
Ryan: Well, past vocal collaborators –while we’re on that subject here– Suzanne Perry was my vocalist for Love Spirals Downwards for all our albums, all four albums together. And she has a a new band called Melodyguild. They’ve been together now for a little while, a few years.
Anji: I think they started in 2002.
Ryan: Yeah, but it’s taken them all this time now, 2008, they finally now have a four song EP released. Just came out on Projekt Records.
Anji: This month.
Ryan: Yeah. It’s brand new hot off the presses here.
Anji: Basically.
Ryan: So we’d like to play a track from that album. What’s it called again?
Anji: Um the EP is ‘Aitu’ and the song, which actually has just been added to Auralgasms’ library, is “Accomplice”. Kind of an upbeat one.
Ryan: Yeah, right. Let’s check out Melodyguild.
[music]
Ryan: Very nice. Brings me back to almost, like, a Sundays feel, you know, very free and flowing, and happy and nice. Good good job Melodyguild and Suzanne. I’m very happy for you guys.
Anji: Definitely. Perfect for a summertime release.
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely, eh? Yeah, perfect summertime music.
Anji: So now we’re going to go to another project that Suzanne did in 2006, I think it was? Um.
Ryan: Yeah, that’s what iTunes is saying.
Anji: Yeah, once again, all-seeing iTunes. This is with a band called Falling You, which is John Zorko. God, I remember first hearing about them when I was back at KUCI. Um so he worked with a bunch of vocalists –and Suzanne was one of them– for the album ‘Human’, which actually won the Best Vocal Album from the New Age Reporter for that year. Congratulations. And this is her song “An Angel Ameliorate”.
Ryan: All right.
[music]
Anji: Continuing in this very moody vibe. I actually did a track with the German band Chandeen for their brand new album, ‘Teenage Poetry’, which just came out a few months ago. It’s kind of a hidden track. It happens at the very end of the album after “Dreaming a Thousand Dreams” and I like to call it “Tomorrow”.
[music]
Ryan: Wow. Well, we’re done now basically. We have one more song left.
Anji: Indeed.
Ryan: And we’re going to bring it full circle. We’re going to bring it back to us, Lovespirals, and the song is called “Lazy Love Days”. It’s the very last track on ‘Long Way From Home’, our most recent album and personally, it’s my favorite track on that album. I love all the songs, but this one’s my favorite.
Anji: Mine too. There’s something special about this one.
Ryan: Yeah, it is a very magical kind of song and I think the recording captures that. We did it really quickly for us. We did it all pretty much in in a matter of several days and I think the raw energy is there and speaks for itself and it has my favorite guitar solo of mine of all time, too, that I’ve done.
Anji: Oh mine too.
[music]
Ryan: I don’t know. I that could be my favorite song that I’ve ever made.
Anji: Nice.
Ryan: Yeah, it might… I think it is. I’m proud of that song. It’s everything I’m into in music. All the different styles, genres, all fused into one song and I’m proud of it.
Anji: I am too. I always feel kind of choked up when I hear that song.
Ryan: I know. Just hearing that first chord kind of gets me.
Anji: Yeah, it brings me back to that night when we wrote it. It was such a magical night.
Ryan: Well, hope you guys liked this hour of us sharing our music with you.
Anji: In fact, if you did enjoy all of our talking, you probably would like to check out the ‘Chillin’ With Lovespirals’ podcast, which we do sort of infrequently, maybe twice a month.
Ryan: On average, yeah.
Anji: Yeah, you can check that out at lovespirals.com or over on iTunes. You can also buy all of our albums from lovespirals.com.
Ryan: Or iTunes.
Anji: Of course. You can check out Love Spirals Downwards at lovespiralsdownwards.com. Thanks so much to Auralgasms Radio for having us here as a special guest.
Ryan: Thanks a lot.
Anji: Take care.
Missed the first three songs of the show, so I am really glad you put this up! You guys are so fun and the music selection was really perfect… how could it not be: you can’t go wrong with LoveSpirals!
Thanks for being such great hosts ON air and OFF in the chat room… you guys were really gracious hosts.
xoxo
troy
Michael did such a great job on this remix. Utterly beautiful. I don’t know why he just doesn’t do music full time. He should be doing movie soundtracks or something. Wow. Thanks for having this up.