Category Archives: News

All Music Guide Updates Lovespirals Bio

After 21 years of an outdated bio, the All Music Guide Lovespirals page has been updated. The new band bio explains what the band has been up to for the past two decades and is a massive improvement. Since AMG is the primary source for artist bios used by music streaming services and websites, having no updates since 2002 gave the impression that we’d done nothing in all that time. Marcy Donelson did a fine job of giving a quick summary of our history in the first paragraph:

The duo of married couple Ryan Lum and Anji Bee (aka Anji Lum), Lovespirals’ sophisticated brand of dream pop is tinged with the sounds of jazzy sophisti-pop, soft rock, and soul as well as diversions into trip-hop, lounge, and house music. Formed around the turn of the millennium, they made their full-length debut with a slow-burning, eclectic blend of genre influences on the dreamy Windblow Kiss in 2002, while 2005’s Free & Easy merged the resulting sound with electronica and trip-hop. They honed their uniquely interdisciplinary dream pop on albums like 2007’s Long Way from Home and 2010’s Future Past, releasing more-club-minded material along the way before returning with their fifth album, the Cocteau Twins-inspired Life Goes On, in 2018. Two decades after their debut album, reverb-washed Lovespirals singles including “Smile” and “The Call” appeared in 2022.

Many sites and apps will leave it at that, but on AMG there’s an additional three paragraphs that go into further detail and demonstrate how much research went into the piece. So thankful for the time and energy put into this endeavor.

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“Misunderstood” Official Music Video

Check out the chill music video for the latest Lovespirals single on YouTube now! Follow Ryan and Anji along the California coastline as a sunny afternoon deepens into a gorgeous sunset set to the funky and soulful drum n bass grooves of “Misunderstood” from the new Love Spirals Downwards’ release, ‘Flux Deluxe Edition.’

Check out ‘Flux Deluxe Edition’ on all digital platforms now!

“Misunderstood” Single Out Now

It’s the 25th anniversary of Love Spirals Downwards’ 1998 album, ‘Flux,’ and to celebrate, we released the ‘Flux Deluxe Edition’ on all digital platforms. In addition to the album’s original 9 songs, we included 13 bonus tracks. In addition to remixes, a live recording, and a number of previously unreleased outtakes, this epic 147 minute collection includes a brand new Lovespirals rendition of “I’ll Always Love You,” that we named “Misunderstood.” While searching the archives we came across some of the original samples used in the song which tempted Ryan to recreate his fave track from the ground up for 2023. We had a blast revisiting this classic song!

You can find “Misunderstood” on the Love Spirals Downwards’ ‘Flux Deluxe Edition’ album on all digital music platforms, or grab just the single from our Lovespirals Bandcamp account!

This Is Lovespirals Spotify Playlist

Music streaming giant Spotify has finally created their official “This Is” playlist for Lovespirals! At nearly 3 hours in lengths, this rotating list of songs does a decent job of highlighting cuts from Lovespirals’ 25 year discography, including a collaboration or two. Be sure to mark your fave songs with a heart!

Lovespirals Featured on UnchainedTV

Award winning journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell recently launched a vegan focused multi-platform social media news outlet called UnchainedTV. Ryan and Anji have met Jane and her staff at a number of vegan events over the years including Vegfest and Long Beach Vegan Fest, as well as at the Natural Products Expo West. Lovespirals are happy to have been chosen to be featured by this new network that is chock full of vegan content. Currently you can find two of our music videos on the website for direct viewing: watch.unchainedtv.com/lovespirals

“Lonely Sunset” Single & Music Video

The perfect end of summer soundtrack, “Lonely Sunset” is a chill house song featuring gorgeously ethereal vocals and bittersweet melodies. It’s been a while since Anji and Ryan released a dance track but this ones worth the wait! 

Anji’s plaintive lyrics of lost love were penned and recorded a decade ago and might have made an amazing addition to the 2014 Anji Bee album the duo released as a side project. The late night laid back grooves of this new recording are reminiscent of Bee’s “Got All I Need” and “Try To Forget,” but with an added sheen of sophistication in the production. 

Lovespirals  have long straddled the line between dream pop and electronica, but this new track brings both worlds together in a glorious fusion. After the throwback retro shoegaze of the band’s last single, “The Call,” this new single is likely to surprise — but hopefully delight — Lovespirals listeners.  

Lovespirals “Lonely Sunset” single is out now on BandcampSpotifyApple MusicAmazon, and YouTube. Please stream, like, share, and add to your playlists to help get the word out!

“Lonely Sunset” Music VIdeo on YouTube

“The Call” Single Out Now

After the deceptively light musical offerings of the 3-song ‘Smile – Single’ Lovespirals return with a darker hued single. “The Call” shares some of the retro-90’s shoe gazer/dream pop vibes of their 2018 album, ‘Life Goes On,’ highlighting the lush guitar work bandleader, Ryan Lum, has long been known for. His soaring solo could easily have been plucked from his 1994 Love Spirals Downwards album, ‘Ardor.’ Hypnotic bass and upbeat drums drive this melancholic song with an unexpected groove, while Anji Bee’s signature blend of earthy low voice and soaring ethereal harmonies lift your soul.

Answer the call… it’s a sweet surprise.

Released July 1, 2022 on all digital platforms including Bandcamp, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Mp3, Tidal, Pandora and Apple Music.

‘Smile – Single’ & Music VIdeo Out Now

Lovespirals 3-song single, ‘Smile,’ is out NOW on all digital platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Mp3, Tidal, YouTube, Deezer and Bandcamp. In addition to the brand new title track, ‘Smile’ features our song “Why Not Today,” which was previously only available on Bandcamp. All three songs continue the band’s tradition of working new influences into their signature dream pop sound. This time it’s the jazzier side of K-Indie that’s inspiring the chill So Cal duo. You can read the full PR write up on the About page or over on the Bandcamp page for Smile.

Purchase digital audio files of your choice from Bandcamp:

Anji and Ryan will be hosting a live premier of the ‘Smile’ music video on their YouTube channel on Monday March 7th, 2022 at 6pm PST. They will chat with viewers as the video plays for the first time.

Lovespirals ‘Smile’ Music Video

As a small indie band working DIY with no label or PR company, Anji and Ryan very much appreciate the support of fans and their help in getting the word out! The ‘Smile’ single is also available for use in TikTok and Instagram stories for listeners to share their love of the music in their own creative endeavors.

Lovespirals Guest on Sam Rosenthal Album for Tim Leary’s Birthday

Projekt Records founder, Sam Rosenthal of Black Tape for a Blue Girl, just released a new album to commemorate what would have been Timothy Leary’s 100th birthday this month. Entitled Tim, where are you now?, this collaborative album features many special guests, including Lovespirals, Steve Roach, Erik Wøllo, Mike VanPortfleet of Lycia, Brian Viglione of The Dresden Dolls, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Reggie Watts, and more. Ryan and Anji contributed to “Starseed,” alongside Forrest Fang and Rosenthal, as well as “PSY PHI love means High Fidelity” alongside Byron Metcalf, Martin Bowes, and Rosenthal. These songs highlight musical sides of Lovespirals you may not have seen before. The CD is currently in preorder on Bandcamp, where you can alternatively purchase a digital download on the “Name Your Price” deal (meaning you can pay $0 if you want…), and it’s also available to stream on all digital platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.

“Why Not Today?” Single and Video Out Now

Lovespirals’ soulful new single, “Why Not Today?” is now available on Bandcamp! The download of our single ALSO includes this brand new music video, shot at gorgeous Crystal Cove beach here in Southern California. With extremely chill vibes and super smooth production, “Why Not Today?” pulls from our r&b/soul side with a little jazz and blues twist. Melancholic, dreamy, and filled with soft yearning for a better time and place, the accompanying video is a lovely reminder of the healing power of nature, even in this time of human disconnection and unease. We hope this single will bring you some joy!

BUY THE DIGITAL SINGLE & MUSIC VIDEO:
You can download in any (or all) of the following formats on Bandcamp: MP3 V0, MP3 320, FLAC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, ALAC, WAV, AIFF.

Chillin’ with Lovespirals Podcast #86: New Album Charting & More

The Chillin’ with Lovespirals band podcast makes it’s return! We have so much news to share this episode, including our new album charting pretty heavily, which is super fun. We get into some background on our song, “Are You Lonely,” Ryan gets into the inspiration for the overall sound of ‘Life Goes On,’ Anji digs up some unreleased video, plus more news and conversation. We really hope you dig hearing/watching us talk about music because we have lots more stories to share about the making of the album and what inspires us to create!  Check out http://somafm.com for our music and other great indie bands

FOLLOW US ON MIXCLOUD: For more audio podcasts, interviews, DJ mixes etc at https://www.mixcloud.com/lovespirals

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