Happy to report that we’ve been working on music again.

The new “Love Survives” is nearly complete, and it’s actually grown quite a bit from the old version. I love the new ideas I came up with for the chorus, and Ryan’s new bridge instrumentation! It’s much funkier and light hearted this time around. Ha ha, I still remember the first time Gabe heard the demo, his response was “Pretty dark!” We’re not interested in being dark or creepy or any of that. We’d prefer to be light and happy.

So the new album seems to be shaping up pretty well. We’ve got: Hand in Hand, Love Survives, Just Trouble, Walk Away, perhaps Sandcastles — if we polish it up a bit. There’s been some other songs tossed around the past year that should work out. I’m excited.

Nothing much exciting has been going on since we got back from Mexico. I’m starting to miss performing! Our current plan is to re-record “Love Survives” in 24 bit format. I guess the song will probably come out a bit different this time, but nothing as drastic as our redo of “Hand in Hand.” We’ve got a lot of other half-formed song ideas that we’ve been working on the past year. I look forward to having the time to dedicate to diving into the studio for days and weeks on end, fleshing out and perfecting them all. It will be an exciting time. For now, though, I simply dream…

The photo section has been redesigned and updated with lots of lovely new photos including some great out-take shots from the Windblown Kiss promo photos by Susan Jennings. The interview section has been updated with new links and better content descriptions. Enjoy!

Hasn’t been a whole lot to post about since the Mexico tour… Finally had a bit of time to slow down after a whirlwind year for the band. Lovespirals played as many live shows in one year as Love Spirals Downwards did in their whole 8 year history. Not to say that’s a lot, but it puts it in perspective. Chances are good that we’ll continue to play live much more regularly from now on, since we actually enjoyed ourselves with it. : )

Over the past month or so I transferred a number of audio interviews to digital format and put them up on mp3.com/lovespiralsdownwards. (note: now on soundclick.com/lovespiralsdownwards) Its funny to hear the old interviews with Ryan and I before I was in the band. Its even funnier to hear the older interviews with Ryan and Suzanne squabbling!

Wow, what a great week we had in Mexico. Thank you to everyone who came to see us in Leon, Morelia, and Puebla. We’ll be back! And very big thanks all the show producers and Aldo, our Manager in Mexico! This was by far the busiest of the several times I had played in Mexico before, having to travel several hours each day to get to the next city each day in time for interviews and soundchecks. We were lucky if we could get five hours of sleep each night. But the enthusiastic crowds each night energized us for some of our best performances yet.

Well, we’re back from our little Mexico tour, but we’re already making plans to go back and do some more cities. The response was amazing at every show, from both the fans and the press. We did TV, radio, newspaper, and magazine interviews every day. I can’t tell you how strange it is to be featured on the front page of the newspaper alongside Mariah Carey and Kim Basinger! Ryan says I’m a sex symbol in Mexico, and I can’t say I disagree. The boys seem to like me quite a bit more than here in America… I’ve never been kissed by so many different people in my life! But then again, people seem much more open and expressive in Mexico. Crowds are much warmer at the shows there in general, it seems. The three venues we played were all very different, with a different vibe, but all the shows went very well and I know that I gave the best performances that I ever have. I was inspired to give my all to the people. All in all, it was a crazy 4 days, but very good.

So we leave for Mexico tomorrow. We’ve had several last minute changes in venues and travel plans, so it’s been pretty crazy. Not sure if we’ll end up doing any of that promotion after all, since we’re travelling much later and arriving in Leon. Oh well! Hopefully plenty of people will show up, anyway. Our manager had asked for a video to use in commericals, but we don’t have one! It would be cool to make one sometime, though.

Hope I don’t get scared on the flight. I’ve been much better about flying since I’ve been with Ryan, but I bet if he weren’t there with me, I’d be terrified. I also hope that screening and such at LAX isn’t as huge a hassle as it was when we travelled for ProjektFest. I had to keep taking off my shoes and Ryan had to keep unpacking the guitar effects and explaining what they were. UGH. I heard it’s a bit more lax at LAX now, thankfully.

Well, it’s finally finalized. We’ll be going to Mexico next month for 3 shows and a day of promotion. Apparently we’ll be interviewed for TV and newspapers. Sounds very busy, all in all. I hope we’ll still have time to enjoy the 3 cities we’re visiting. Ryan’s told me so much about Mexico City. He’s happy to be able to see a few new places this trip. Guanajuanto is said to be very beautiful. The club in Leon looks very, very nice too! Should be a good time.

Plans are still underway for us to do a few shows in and around Mexico City next month. It is unnerving waiting until the last moment like this, but our manager assures us it is happening. He even asked us for some video footage to use in television promotions — but we don’t have any! Right now, talk is that we’ll do Mexico City, Guanajuato, and now possibly Morelia, as well. Leon was also asking about us. The show dates fall between the 12th and 15th so far. Looks like it will be a full week!

I was just thinking about how funny it is that many of our reviews have claimed that our album is largely unlike any of the Love Spirals Downwards albums, aside from one song — but that “one song” is always a different song! Some claim the song “most like LSD” is “Swollen Sea,” others “You Girl,” or “He Calls Me,” yet others claim it’s “Windblown Kiss,” or “Dejame” (which is the one I figured would be cited). So, if all of these people are to be believed, then actually about half of our album sounds pretty darned close to Love Spirals Downwards. Yet, still, most people seem to be in agreement that Lovespirals are really nothing like LSD. How can that be true?

The one thing that really bugs me is how many people want to tag it as a Jazz album, when it so obviously isn’t. I mean, come on — none of the songs listed above are even Jazz songs, and neither are the two songs with Sean, or really even “Oh So Long,” since that’s Blues. “Our Nights” is not truly Jazz, either. In fact, there is only 1 true Jazz song “I Can’t See You,” and we saved that ’til last. Sheesh! Throw in a smattering of saxophone riffs and Jazz guitar chords and suddenly you’re JAZZ . PUH-LEASE!

A few folks have written or posted, asking us about our so-called “vacation at home” that Ryan mentioned we’d take after our L.A. show. Others just wonder in general what’s going on with Ryan, since he hasn’t posted in a bit. Well, let me just tell ya that he’s been busy as heck trouble shooting the iMac and trying to fix various broken down things the past few weeks. They say ‘when it rains, it pours’ and that must be true! We don’t know if we have a curse on us or what, but just about anything mechanical we touch seems to be breaking down, from effects units, to cars, to dryers. Blech!

One day we’ll have a clear shot to record some music again.

Wow! The Knitting Factory is a great venue; beautiful stage, great sound, super nice crew — top notch, all the way around. Our show was very intimate, with lots of friends in the audience, so it was really fun. It was nice to have Doron join us on stage again, too! We were much tighter this time around, so he didn’t blow us off the stage, like at Projekt Fest, heh heh heh. All in all, it’s nice we saved L.A. til last, as it was a nice way to end our little West Coast tour.

We plan to chill on live shows for awhile, so we can get back into the studio to record the many song ideas we’ve had since “Windblown Kiss” came out. Playing live is fun, but writing and recording is the thing that really keeps us excited.