The following is a transcript of our recent in-studio radio interview at KPSU 1450 AM in Portland, OR.
“A STRANGE CHOICE OF FAVORITES” WITH DJ CAROLEE
DJ CAROLEE: We’re talking with Anji Bee and Ryan Lum, a project recording artist, Love Spirals. As a member of the audience for your Portland show, I have to say one of the songs that I really loved the most… you did a cover of a Billie Holiday tune?
ANJI: Oh no, that was actually our own song.
DJ CAROLEE: It was.
ANJI: It’s just inspired by the music such as Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.
DJ CAROLEE: Oh you’re kidding! I was telling someone at work today, “Oh, they sound like Billie Holliday.” Or “She sounds like Billie Holliday.”
ANJI: That’s right, I mentioned, I don’t know why, like, “You know, like Billie Holliday,” just to put it out there what kind of jazz it was, as opposed to smooth jazz… Kenny G.
RYAN: Like they wrote in the paper about us. [Referencing the Willamette Weekly article]
ANJI: I was like, “No. It’s bebop jazz! This is the good stuff.” (Laughs)
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah, it’s true. It’s interesting that kind of reaction, the Kenny G. jazz reaction is coming out.
RYAN: He was the only one who said it so far.
ANJI: He must not have heard it, is all I can figure out.
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah, I’ve gotta wonder. ‘Cause that song, to me, that was an amazing moment. I mean, first of all, because I think you made a comment during the show about performing that to a gothic audience? At the same time, I really felt like it was perfect for the audience.
ANJI: Great.
DJ CAROLEE: I thought also, it was a lovely tribute, in a kind of way, that a lot of songs that attempt to imitate jazz masters don’t do. I mean, it sounded original and at the same time, it sounded very brave and faithful to the original. So I really liked it.
ANJI: Well, we were definitely into bebop jazz and we had just seen the whole Ken Burns ‘Jazz’ series. And we were really like, “Wow! People really need to make jazz again.” This used to be the dominant form of music, and it’s been kinda lost to rock and roll. You know jazz is a really great form of music and it’s not all Kenny G.”
DJ CAROLEE: Right.
RYAN: It’s more intense than that.
ANJI: Yeah. So we just wrote that little song. Yeah, totally, it’s a tribute. And I tried to imagine that we were in a place such as the theatre, we tried to get the smokey kinda club feeling, and so we finally got to do it in a theatre. Not smoky, though! It helps the vocals, actually, to not be smoky.
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah, yeah. Oh, it was lovely. It was nice, too, you really kept up that that speak easy jazz sound even without your saxophonist in the band that night.
ANJI: Great. I wish we could also be out there, hearing how it sounds to you guys.
DJ CAROLEE: It was lovely.
RYAN: I think, if I remember, we did that one well.
DJ CAROLEE: I did want to ask about the crowd that showed up and your response to that. It does seem like –and I know you played Projekt Fest, too, so that can be included in this question… It does seem like, because of the band’s predecessor, really –I don’t like to think of it as a previous incarnation– Love Spirals Downwards, and being associated with Projekt Records, that you do draw a gothic crowd. And I was wondering if knowing that that crowd is going to be there, does that kind of influence your performance?
ANJI: No. We try not to think about it all, you know, who’s going to be listening and who’s going to be arriving because you just never know.
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah.
RYAN: It really depends on how the crowd is themselves, how receptive they are to the music. Yeah, they could have a gothic crowd or a non-gothic crowd and they’ll like you or hate you. It depends. It changes from night to night.
ANJI: Yeah, I wouldn’t say I felt necessarily more confident when we had, like, a larger indie rock crowd because they were just as likely not to like it as anyone else.
RYAN: That’d be Seattle.
ANJI: Yeah, there were more indie rockers there, but they’re really cool too.
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah. You were saying the crowd in Seattle was somewhat more diverse.
ANJI: It wasn’t at a traditional gothic venue, it was at another one that they said actually usually has a lot of metal and punk, I think? It was over more by the university, so I’m really not sure how anyone decided to go to that show, but they were all nice.
DJ CAROLEE: Was that an appearance, as well, at an all-ages venue
ANJI: Yeah, it sure was. Another theatre that was all-ages and also starting with a “P,” it was really weird!
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah, the Paradox and Paris Theatre. I was just curious because it seemed like… I read on your website, actually, I should mention the band has an attractive and thorough website with not only a messageboard, but a journal.
ANJI: Oh no! Somebody is reading that!
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah.
ANJI: [Squeals] Oh no, “The long pale arm of Goth!” [laughs]
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah, I wanted to ask about “The long pale arm of Goth” and if that had any affect on your consciousness as artists.
ANJI: Oh, that was actually a joke about Michael Gira.
DJ CAROLEE: Oh?
ANJI: [laughs]
RYAN: [hard to hear] We were having some scheduling issues.
ANJI: He’s not goth, I know that, but anyways.
RYAN: No. It just had to do with the show being scheduled, way back when.
ANJI: We’re so moded now.
DJ CAROLEE: Now I’m blanking out… Oh, I was going to ask about Projekt Fest. That was in the spring and I was going to ask, partly for my own interests, but also for the listeners, if you were planning on playing next year at Projekt Fest, as well.
ANJI: Is he having one? We were just talking about that with Mira, we had no idea if he was going to be doing another one. And if it would be soon because they’re usually kind of far apart.
DJ CAROLEE: Uh-huh. It’s usually yearly. I know he did one in April and then the following one in May, so…
RYAN: He better get planning on it, because I remember this time last year he already knew he was going to have the one that just happened. So, he hasn’t made a peep about it yet.
ANJI: Yeah, I’m sure he’s really busy with his new son. I don’t see how he could do one this year. But you never know. He does take on a lot of stuff.
RYAN: And we’re referring to Sam, the label owner and founder of the band Black Tape for Blue Girl.
ANJI: I just assume everyone knows, I don’t know why.
DJ CAROLEE: Well, I appreciate that your mind is open to the gothic crowd in terms of what they’re interested in listening to and that kind of thing. I feel like a lot of bands and a lot of people sort of pinpoint the gothic things as like, “Oh, it’s all this doom and gloom. And it’s all just heavy rock and roll.” And that there’s absolutely no room for different genres, including jazz and these sort of more moody and atmospheric musics.
ANJI: Hey, they still liked ‘Flux.’ and ‘Flux’ is as far away from any sound that Ryan had done before, you know, like what we’re doing now.
DJ CAROLEE: That’s true.
ANJI: In fact, it’s probably more radical in some ways than what we’re doing now because it was all like drum and bass and down tempo. At least here, we are doing rock and it has folk sounds. And the jazz is just a little extra thing.
RYAN: Yeah, it’s not really a jazz record. It’s funny how that word keeps coming up a lot.
ANJI: It’s mostly rock.
RYAN: I mean, it’s jazz influenced, but it’s not really a jazz record by any stretch.
ANJI: Yeah, it starts out with a bluesy rock song that a lot of people say sounds like David Lynch or, you know, they bring up Julie Cruise, and stuff like that.
DJ CAROLEE: And I think that comparisons could still be made to like later Cocteau Twins and those kinds of bands too, which are, you know, goth-beloved bands as well.
ANJI: Definitely “Touch Upon Touch.”
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah. Well, kind of diverting from the goth thing, I had to ask about that just because it’s my own interest. But something you mentioned, too, about the downtempo, electronics, sort of sound. I’m wondering if there’s, since you’re from Southern California, I’m curious if there’s kind of a downtempo scene going on there where people are gathering in clubs to listen to the kind of music that’s not, you know, rock and roll, but it’s just there to set a mood, not to be dance tune as well.
DJ CAROLEE: You know, actually, we went to a club right before a tour, called Violane, and they were playing, you know, right next to dream pop, they were also playing stuff like Lamb and downtempo kind of music.
RYAN: There’s not a big scene, to answer your question. There’s some clubs that have been running for a long time. There’s one that I used to go to a long time ago, Monday Night Social. It used to be in this little tiny room almost the size of your room we’re in now.
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah?
RYAN: You just sit down. But once people started trying to dance, they just got too crowded and hot and I stopped going. It’s at this claustrophobic little French restaurant.
ANJI: I definitely hear about them, but we don’t get out as much as maybe we should.
RYAN: [mumbles] San Francisco.
ANJI: Yeah, San Francisco is the place. They’ve got the labels that have that kind of stuff going on. I don’t know, maybe because it’s smaller there, so it’s easier to get things going. LA is so large and spread out. I don’t think everyone always knows what’s going on.
RYAN: Big things work in LA. It’s an underground scene going there.
ANJI: they’re probably going on right under our nose and we don’t even know it. (Laughs)
RYAN: We’re well connected. I don’t think so. As far as electronic music, it’s pretty much house music and raves and stuff like that going on in LA.
ANJI: Or really hard drum and bass that we don’t listen to. There’s some of those going on, too.
DJ CAROLEE: Did you perform in San Francisco, as well, on this tour?
RYAN: Yeah, but way out on the far edge. People we knew in the city had to, like, rent cars to get to the show because the buses didn’t really service the area. It was way out in this bizarre industrial area — almost at Daily City, almost Candlestick Park.
DJ CAROLEE: Wow. So this tour comprised three performances?
RYAN: Yeah.
ANJI: And for us, then we have a few more coming up that aren’t directly right after this.
RYAN: So it looks like we’re going to play in Los Angeles in October, October 2nd.
ANJI: Doing Fullerton, what, in September? Doing a little in-store.
DJ CAROLEE: Oh yeah. Yeah. It looks like Ipso Facto in September.
ANJI: Yeah. Still finalizing a date or two in Mexico City.
DJ CAROLEE: Wow.
ANJI: There’s other feelers out for Las Vegas.
DJ CAROLEE: I understand there’s a great ethereal scene in Mexico City and Mexico.
RYAN: They go crazy. They appreciate that you, like… There’s really no route that takes a band through Mexico City. Like, where are really going to go after that, you know? Central America? So they are very appreciative that you’ve taken the time to come out there. And it’s a great culture to experience. It’s just a great time.
ANJI: I can’t wait.
RYAN: I’ve been telling Anji about it all these years.
ANJI: I know, I’ve been so jealous.
RYAN: I’m excited that now she’ll get to experience it.
DJ CAROLEE: I know. It sounds like a vacation. It sounds delightful.
ANJI: Yeah. That’s the point. This was like a vacation for us, too. We wanted to come up, and he hadn’t seen Portland yet. So.
RYAN: We wanted to come up so many years! I’ve had so many friends that have stayed here, and lived here, and told me how great it was.
ANJI: So we’re trying to squeeze in some sight seeing.
DJ CAROLEE: Have you seen anything good in Portland so far?
ANJI: Yeah, we just went to the Chinese Garden today.
DJ CAROLEE: Oh, yes, today was a better day for it.
RYAN: I love this weather, it’s just perfect. A little cooler, not as bright. I got to walk around downtown a little bit today, too. It’s gorgeous here, I love it! It’s very green.
ANJI: You guy have a beautiful downtown here.
DJ CAROLEE: I feel very lucky for that. The downtown is very nice. Very green. There’s still a lot of trees.
RYAN: Yeah, you’re very lucky to have that.
DJ CAROLEE: I kind of had a question also about your music related to California. I got this mood off of your music, that –especially like the song “Our Nights” and a couple of the other songs– they just kind of made me think that it was warm evenings, and it’s kind of almost like a tropical sound. I wondered if your California setting is an influence on your songwriting?
ANJI: Yes. Let me just tell you that we wrote mostly album during the summertime, and it was really warm, and the windows were open, and we were just kind of sitting in the living room playing acoustic guitar and singing. Just making the songs up right there, totally influenced by the moment and the surroundings. “Our Nights” is about an island that we can see from where we live. You just kind of look across and you see this little island there. And you just kind of dream about, “Ah… I wish I was over there right now.”
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah.
ANJI: It’s almost like being on Greece. It’s like so perfect Mediterranean weather. And you feel really far away even though you’re only like an hour away.
DJ CAROLEE: Wow.
ANJI: So that song is like a little tribute to our favorite getaway, Avalon.
DJ CAROLEE: That’s beautiful. I’m glad I asked because that really made me… It’s very evocative. The song is very evocative that way.
ANJI: We wish we knew how to man a boat to sail to Catalina, but we don’t. It’s a fantasy.
DJ CAROLEE: That also leads me to, I wanted to know do you have an ideal environment for writing songs? I read in the liner notes that Anji here is the primary songwriter, the lyric writer.
ANJI: I write all the lyrics and I come up with my own melodies and stuff. And we kind of write the songs together. He starts playing some notes. I start singing and then we work out the structure together. It’s totally collaborative teamwork every step of the way. Although he disappears into the studio at some point, like, to fill in the bass lines, making up all the drums and whatnot. But the core songwriting is the two of us sitting together working it out.
DJ CAROLEE: Wow. So that’s taking place like lyrics and music or sort of coalescing a lot once?
ANJI: Yeah. Sometimes the lyrics are written in advance, and sometimes my lyrical melodies are also written in advance, and I just happen to come across something he’s doing that fits what I had. Sometimes I’ll make up the lyrics right then and there, like “Our Nights.” I mean, you can kind of tell those lyrics are a little different. I made it up right there on the fly. “Dejame” was like a combination of some ideas that I had, but didn’t have a melody for when I heard that little flamenco thing –actually from the saxophone — inspired that one. Then I started making up the melodies right there.
DJ CAROLEE: I was wondering about “Dejame” actually. First, I was wondering if you were a Spanish speaker and second…
ANJI: [interjects] Not at all.
DJ CAROLEE: No?
RYAN: Un poquito.
ANJI: Yeah, un poquito! I can understand it more than I can… I can’t really make complete sentences. But I can pick out pieces enough to understand what’s going on. But I couldn’t have a conversation.
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah.
ANJI: But to tell the truth, I had written down a few things that were from Anais Nin’s journal. There was a few really great things that she had heard someone else say and wrote down her journal. And then when I heard her say it, I thought it was really great. So I wrote it down my journal. So it kind of started with an idea from those, and then it’s bits and pieces from different things.
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah.
ANJI: I just pieced it together.
DJ CAROLEE: So your song writing inspiration is coming from your environment as well as like literary influence?
ANJI: Yeah. Yeah. So all those different languages. I don’t really speak German either. The song with German, “Windblown Kiss,” that came from a collaboration with me and a friend that moved to Berlin. We were sending email back and forth and I don’t know. She made some kind of little comment, and then I was like, “Oh, it’s really great.” And I was like, “We should write a poem together.” So we wrote that poem together, and then I added the last part on. Then there’s some French, and that one was the French was totally hacked together.
RYAN: That’s the jazz song you were talking about, the one that sounds like Billie Holliday.
DJ CAROLEE: The French is at the conclusion of the song.
ANJI: I used some translation software for that.
DJ CAROLEE: That’s another thing, too. I wanted to ask about the computer. I noticed that during your performance, you were playing with a backing track. And that I know earlier you were saying that’s coming off the laptop. But yet the album, especially the latest, this latest album, ‘Windblown Kiss,’ it sounds really organic. I don’t get the feeling from it as I did from even previous Love Spirals Downwards’ albums that it’s programmed and electronic sounding.
RYAN: Yeah, you hit it right on the head. It’s a very organic record. Lots of guitars. Lots of voices. Bass, and even the drums are often real drums. Hand percussion.
ANJI: Oh, yeah, the shaker.
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah, you had an impressive list of acoustic guitars and congas. And the hammered dulcimer, which I thought was a lovely addition to that.
ANJI: Yeah, that was organic, too!
DJ CAROLEE: I just thought that was really lovely.
RYAN: I like to confuse people. After making a very electronic record. Make a very organic record.
DJ CAROLEE: And I noticed that on several songs that you have electronic drum and bass and kind of more downbeat stuff on MP3.com.
ANJI: Oh, yeah. That shows, like, the whole breadth of everything we’ve been working on.
DJ CAROLEE: And there were several songs that were on compilations that were definitely more electronic.
ANJI: Yeah, you were playing one at the beginning of the show.
DJ CAROLEE: Yeah, that one, “Hand in Hand.”
RYAN: It’s a weird album. It’s kind of… Anji was talking about it, I just kind of oozed out of us last summer and fall. It’s not like we had sat down and strategized about where to take the sound at. It just happened. And that was the whole magic of it. Watching it come out of us.
ANJI: It’s kind of unfolded itself.
RYAN: I thought we’d go with it. And it just kept… There was no blocks, you know, writers blocks, you know, or anything like that.
ANJI: No, we couldn’t record this stuff fast enough, really. Like always trying to find time like, “No, we don’t want to go out. No. You know, we don’t wanna go to parties or go to clubs. We just want to keep recording. We’re on a roll here.“
RYAN: Yeah. We’re on a roll with ideas. And on a roll working, you know, getting things done — which is kinda magical from artist’s kind of point of view to have something like that happen. Just have so much coming out so quickly. So we just went with it. And that’s how ‘Windblown Kiss’ got made.
DJ CAROLEE: And so you two are in a partnership. So you’re, you know, you’re able to work at home, you know, at the spirit of the moment, at any time. Which is wonderful! Whenever inspiration strikes.
RYAN: Yeah. Absolutely.
ANJI: Totally true.
DJ CAROLEE: Do you feel that you’ll be taking your music into an electronic direction again.
ANJI: Oh, well. So we already have.
RYAN: Yeah. Like this album, even though it’s very organic sounding and organic in its instrumentation, is actually definitely, by far, the most computer-intensive album. I mean, I recorded on a computer, used some hardcore software –Pro Tools– and it’s very technological. But, you know, if you’re using a computer, it doesn’t mean you have to make computer-sounding music.
ANJI: That’s true.
DJ CAROLEE: Right.
RYAN: That being said, though, we’re probably sound different than this on the next album.
ANJI: There was other songs written during the time of ‘Windblown Kiss’ that we decided that we wouldn’t put on the album because…
RYAN: [interjects] There were more songs!
ANJI: It was much more electronic. And it just seemed like, well, you know, we kind of want to keep this organic flow going. Not to say our electronic stuff is still pretty organic. But we kept all the dance beats out and just went for this almost thematic album.
DJ CAROLEE: Well, it really works. It really comes together in a nice way that way.
ANJI: Thank you.
DJ CAROLEE: It was well chosen. So those songs that have been written sort of simultaneously are set to appear in a future album.
RYAN: Yeah.
ANJI: At some point. Yeah. We still want to fiddle with them. Ryan discovered that when he’s making songs that are supposed to be electronic, it actually takes a little bit more of this and that. It takes a little more time and thought to make sure he gets all the sounds just right. And the effects just right and the production just right. And it’s just really different from the rock stuff. So we still actually want to tweak those ones more.
DJ CAROLEE: Thank you so much for coming down to see me in Portland.
ANJI: Thanks for having us.
RYAN: Yes.
DJ CAROLEE: It’s a stroke of luck that you were coming back to your town after your performance. So I was very happy to have you. I should mention for our audience that you can check out their lovely website. I was very impressed by it. Not only that it was up to date, but also that it was very attractive and that there was music playing when you tune into it. That’s at www.lovespirals.com. Their latest album, ‘Windblown Kiss.’ Project Records is available at www.project.com. P-R-O-J-E-K-T. Thanks for listening.