Lovespirals are Anji Bee and Ryan Lum. They create chill music that makes us feel all swank, adult, sexy and in love with love…all at once!!! Their CD Free and Easy was released in late 2005 and is currently in distribution all over the US, Hong Kong and Mexico.
Anji’s name was familiar to us somehow. It turns out a number of years ago, we read a fantastic interview she did with Miranda July. A great read, especially for anyone interested in Ms. July’s early involvement with in the Olympia Scene.
Years later, Anji’s creative path continues to intrigue us. Lovespirals make electro-acoustic pop songs which are dreamy, sensual, smooth and romantic. Ryan’s guitar work incorporates elements of jazz, soul and rock with modern electronic and organic sounds. Anji Bee contributes the lyrics, vocals and vocal arrangements. No auto-tune was used in the recording – preserving the essence of Lovespirals and creating a creamy hi-fi stereo sound.
The Lovespirals “Music Therapy” Artist Profile with DJette Agent69 is now available for free download as part of the launch of the Atmosphere69 podcast. This half hour feature produced for The Lounge King Radio Network was previously aired on April 2nd via Mix96 FM Canada, as well as on the streaming internet radio stations Luxuria Music and Lounge Radio.
Tune in this Sunday, April 2nd, for a Lovespirals Artist Profile on the Atmosphere 69 show with DJette Agent 69 on Mix96, 95.9 FM in Montreal, Canada 10 PM EST. This special interview will repeat online via Luxuria Music the following Tuesday, April 4th, and sometime soon after on Switzerland’s Lounge Radio.
“Honey and Cool Jazz ‘n’ Rock: An interview with Ryan Lum and Anji Bee of Lovespirals”
Matt:Ryan – Anji’s voice is hauntingly memorable; her voice sticks in my mind long after I heard the songs. Are you as hypnotized by her ability to mesh with your vision of how Lovespirals songs should be communicated as we are hearing it?
Ryan: Yeah, it’s surprising how her voice just fits perfectly. I’m very lucky. Her voice has been as important as anything in the evolution of our music together.
Matt:Anji, obviously you are an excellent fit with Lovespirals. The forward progression of the band incorporates you better than many bands undergoing a shift in style. How do you feel your involvement with Lovespirals changes the band? Have you brought your own influences into the structure of the band’s musical vision?
Anji: It would be impossible for me not to bring my own influences into the band, since we are a collaborative team. I think I bring an earthier element to the music. My vocals are very lyrically based, as opposed to Suzanne’s more non-verbal stylings, and my sound is more soulful compared to her purely ethereal sound.
Matt:Where do you draw inspiration from when you write songs? Do songs come easily or do they have to be coaxed from you?
Ryan: Every song comes about in its own way. But generally the main musical idea for a song comes pretty easily. The polishing of that idea into a recorded song though is more of an effort, mainly because we want our new baby to be very good.
Anji: I have found it is impossible to “coax” Ryan into making music. But once he does get inspired, he’ll work for hours and days non-stop until a song is complete. He gets very annoyed if anything pops up to prevent him from working on music.As far as my inspiration goes, I would have to say that it just comes from my life experiences. Most times I write lyrics long before any music has begun, but occasionally I write lyrics specifically in relation to some music. Generally the vocal melody is inspired by the music, though sometimes my original melody fits the music as-is.
Lovespirals by Matt Holm (2005)
Matt:How long does it take for a Lovespirals song to birth, from initial inspiration to completed (but not yet recorded) structure at the demo or rehearsal level?
Ryan: Once I have an idea that we’re into, we’ll work on getting it’s structure down; stuff like where they lyrics go and how the song flows from beginning to end. that’s pretty quick work, about an hour or two, but it’s not too much of a song at that moment. A song really starts to take life once I start laying down a few tracks.
Anji: We don’t really rehearse music per se. We’ll spend some time going through the song with just guitar and vocals, figuring out the whole verse/chorus/bridge arrangement and then go into the studio to begin work on it.
Matt:Typically, how many versions of a song come forth before the perfect one is settled on? Often, you’ll hear slow demos on what eventually becomes faster songs, or vice versa. Does that happen for Lovespirals?
Ryan: Not really. If anything, on a few occasions we’ve gone back and put in better drums, as we did with the title track to Free & Easy as well as the album closer “Sandcastles,” which resulted in better, stronger songs. Typically though, we try our best to get things sounding good from the start. Experience may be helping me out some with that.
Anji: The creation of Free & Easy was a little different from Windblown Kiss in that we began our second album by reworking a few songs that we held off of the first one. The songs sound basically the same now, as far as tempo and vibe, they’re just recorded better. The only song that might seem to be a new version is “Hand in Hand,” which was partially inspired by one of the first tracks we ever did together, back in 1999. We reused a sax sample and I fleshed out the vocal lines from the previous recording, but otherwise, all of Ryan’s music is completely different. So it has the same name and some similar vocals, but is really a totally new song.
Matt:What are the recording sessions like? Give us a slice of your recording process especially when an album is in bloom.
Anji: Our general workflow is this: after our initial song inspiration and jam session, we’ve figured out the chord changes and where the lyrics all fit in so that Ryan can fire up ProTools and lay down the basic guitar track. At that point, he needs to figure out a bassline and percussion. After he’s got that worked out, I go in to lay down a vocal. Sometimes this ends up just being a scratch track, but other times it’s the final vocal. Then Ryan is inspired to start adding in additional layers of music, which could be keyboard or more guitar. After that, we check out the vocals again. Sometimes I want to redo them, other times I just want to add harmonies to them. We might go back and forth, adding lushness to the production here and there until we feel that it’s complete.
Matt:Anji, Do you continually write songs?
Anji: It seems to go in cycles for me, where I’ll have a lot of lyrical inspiration and then a slower period hits, and then another bout of inspiration begins again. I try to note anything I come up with for future use, either written in journals or recorded somehow.
Matt:Ryan – What is your musical background? You have great skill in several instruments. Were you schooled as a young child or did you pick up each instrument on your own?
Ryan: I had guitar lessons for several years when I was in elementary and middle school. And I’ve studied music and guitar on and off again at different times in my life. As for piano, I can get by, especially if I am not playing live. I usually know what chords or notes I want, but I usually don’t find the best combinations until i go back and edit what I recorded.
Matt:Ryan – From the Projekt phase of your career, do you have a favorite LSD album? (Why?) A least liked album? (Why?)
Ryan: That’s hard to say. If it had to pick a favorite, perhaps Flux, our last one. Why? It’s got a little more soul than the others and it’s not recorded as badly as the others. I also think it’s cool that I crossed ethereal dream pop with atmospheric drum and bass.
Lovespirals’ latest CD entitled, Free & Easy, continues a formula that has made the duo a recognizable force in smooth jazz arenas; however, much of their music cannot be classified under one umbrella or style. Collectively, Ryan and Anji can be surprisingly creative and inventive, especially on this latest release. One of the more promising components of Free & Easy is that is commercially viable. On previous efforts, Lovespirals have taken an eclectic approach to jazz, which has often left them lacking widespread appeal. Historically, they have drawn upon world, house, light and airy music to make their presence known, which has created a highly evolved level of crossover appeal.
With Ryan serving up a heaping helping of guitar, keyboards, bass, percussion and programming, Anji takes on the tasks of vocals and vocal arrangements. As independent artists and without the support of a major record label, the two have recorded Free & Easy on their own Chillcuts Label, which has given them the freedom and flexibility to be more adventuresome and creative.
Free & Easy is an album that pushes the envelope of enthused imaginative thought processes. Tracks such as “Trouble” and “Deep In My Soul” provide a dance feel, while a more laid back appeal occurs on tracks that include “Walk Away” and “Love Survives.” In the end, what comes together are nine tracks of nicely-crafted music. Anji and Ryan cover the gamut of pop melodies, R&B infused grooves as well as pop-oriented licks to make Free & Easy a good bet to chart on Internet radio stations, which is where much of Lovespirals’ popularity resides. Given a broader range of discovery commercially, Anji Bee and Ryan Lum are sure to not only surprise listeners, they will generate a cadre of new fans.
For the 2nd time Lovespirals’ song, “Love Survives,” from Free & Easy, was chosen as ‘Electronica Track of the Week’ on Garageband. This song was also selected twice as the ‘Electronica Track of the Day,’ and has won a whole host of listener-based awards since we first uploaded it 2 years ago:
Track of the Day on 21Sep2004 in Electronic Track of the Day on 19Nov2004 in Electronica Track Of The Week on 1Nov2004 in Electronic Track Of The Week on 23Jan2006 in Electronica #14 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, all-time #19 Best Melody in Electronica, all-time Best Female Vocals in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004 Best Female Vocals in Electronic, week of 11Oct2004 Best Female Vocals in Electronic, week of 18Oct2004 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 27Dec2004 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 3Jan2005 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 16Jan2006 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 30Jan2006 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 6Feb2006 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 13Feb2006 Best Female Vocals in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006 Best Drums in Electronic, week of 18Oct2004 Best Bass in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004 Best Bass in Electronic, week of 11Oct2004 Best Keyboards in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004 Best Keyboards in Electronica, week of 3Jan2005 Best Keyboards in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006 Best Production in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004 Best Production in Electronic, week of 20Sep2004 Best Production in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006 Best Lyrics in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004 Best Lyrics in Electronic, week of 20Sep2004 Best Lyrics in Electronic, week of 11Oct2004 Best Lyrics in Electronic, week of 18Oct2004 Best Lyrics in Electronica, week of 13Feb2006 Best Melody in Electronic, week of 20Sep2004 Best Melody in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006 Best Melody in Electronica, week of 6Feb2006 Best Melody in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006 Best Beat in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006 Best Mood in Electronica, week of 27Dec2004 Best Mood in Electronica, week of 23Jan2006 Best Mood in Electronica, week of 30Jan2006 Best Mood in Electronica, week of 6Feb2006 Best Mood in Electronica, week of 13Feb2006 Best Mood in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006 Most Original in Electronica, week of 20Feb2006 Feel Good Track in Electronic, week of 6Sep2004 Feel Good Track in Electronic, week of 25Oct2004 Best Love Song in Electronic, week of 27Sep2004 Chill-Out Track overall, week of 13Sep2004 Chill-Out Track in Electronic, week of 13Sep2004 Chill-Out Track in Electronic, week of 20Sep2004 Chill-Out Track in Electronic, week of 11Oct2004 Chill-Out Track in Electronica, week of 20Dec2004 Best Elevator Song in Electronic, week of 18Oct2004
“Love Survives” is currently rated at 4.7 stars out of 5. The highest it reached on the Electronic charts was #6 of 289 songs on December 28, 2004. Check out “Love Survives” on Garageband for yourself!
Lovespirals were interviewed by War-n Harrison, of Hungry Lucy, on his brand new podcast, Sonic Spotlight. Ryan and Anji discuss inspirations, the writing process, their feelings about live performance vs recording, and more in this 25 minute podcast.
The Southern California duo of Ryan Lum and Anji Bee bring to mind the cool, sensual jazz of Sade on their nine-track independent CD Free and Easy. They named their record label “Chillcuts” and that’s a perfect definition of their downbeat, sultry late-night sound.
Lum plays a sedate electric guitar and gently jazzy Rhodes piano to back up Bee as she croons and seduces at the microphone. It’s a deliciously soothing combination.
Lovespirals began as an outgrowth of Lum’s former band incarnation, Love Spirals Downwards, which sold more than 50,000 copies of four albums on Projekt Records in the mid-’90s. In 1999, Lum began working with a new lead vocalist in Bee, and changed the band name to Lovespirals to reflect the new sound and direction. The result is a duo that knows how to craft seductive vocal loungey jazz with cooly shifting electronic rhythms.
Windblown Kiss was a lovely way for Lovespirals to make a clear move away from the days of Love Spirals Downwards, but Free & Easy is the best evidence that the duo of Ryan Lum and Anji Bee is now distinctly its own creative team. With Lum’s guitar playing and arranging now focused on, indeed, free and easy jazz/lounge grooves, Lovespirals here are much more in the creative vein of an act like the Thievery Corporation instead of the Cocteau Twins, say, without specifically cloning either group’s sound. Bee’s singing is a perfect counterpoint, a blend of classic mid-century jazz- pop flow and a bit of ’60s cool in a French or Brazilian sense — some low-key scatting here, some warm, playful crooning there. The gently hip-shaking title track kicks things off and sets the mood all at once, and from there Lovespirals work through a total of nine songs, all of a piece but each with its own gentle joys. Lum’s interest in DJing and techno can readily be heard throughout, more overtly on songs like “Deep in My Soul,” which quickly builds into a politely propulsive dancefloor filler, and “Just Trouble” but in subtler ways as well, as listens to “Hand in Hand” confirm. But the overall tone of the album is best captured with songs like “Walk Away,” a slow and lovely late-night mood-out with some great keyboard work from Lum to go with his guitar, and “Abide,” with its sassy but gentle strut. Concluding song “Sandcastles” might actually be the strongest of the bunch, easygoing and danceable all at once, concluding with a lovely overdubbed a cappella chorus from Bee.
In a time where there are many flavours and derivations of music, giving listeners a multitude of choices, and allowing for precision of preference, Lovespirals, originally birthed as Love Spirals Downward[s] some years back, has become a provider of experiences.
Lovespirals’ evolutionary path has brought it down the road from gothic shoegazer pop to hypnotically provocative jazz that is, at once, sexy, sultry, and dreamy. Their last album, the transitional Windblown Kiss, provided hints and sneak peeks into the heart of this duo and where they were headed while their latest, Free & Easy, wades deeply into the stream of where they are.
On Free and Easy, the band’s second release with Anji Bee, who possesses a voice of honey, and a natural element that adds colour and flame to songs, exploring realms of intensities in varying degrees, there are 9 songs of jazz-fusion. With original member, Ryan Lum adding stylish guitar and keyboards to permeate the silky fabric of the new album, the lover of jazz in all of its incarnations will be quite entranced.
The album’s opener, “Free & Easy”, begins by exuding an exhilarating blend of heady and dizzying sensuality. Ryan Lum’s instrumental approach is simple and effective, wisely allowing the mood of the song to carry the listener to the album’s first deliberate destination. It’s followed by the sexually tense, “Hand in Hand”, a musically soft ‘in the moment’ tune of the perfection of love. Things pick up with the dance flavoured “Deep In My Soul” carried by a funky rhythm and delivered by Anji’s ‘by now heart pulsing’ voice. The tune is reminiscent of the ’80s brand of music.
“Walk Away” resembles the past of Lovespirals more readily than the other tunes but still underlines a mournful jazz that also resembles Sade. “Habitual” is one of the stronger songs on the album and reveals a melancholy brought on by the rut of sameness. The album’s strongest track, the ‘saved the best for last’ “Sandcastles” is clearly the band’s single. It has all of the elements going for it – lyrics, atmosphere, a brilliant soundtrack, that voice – that should alert a sleepy public to the dream-dripping gorgeousness of Lovespirals.
Lovespirals already showcases all of the reasons that they should be this period’s hip duo. What remains is for you to discover why I said it.
January 29, 2005, Stratosphere Fanzine, Jen “Sidewaysgaze”
JEN: Do you consider Lovespirals to be a continuation of Love Spirals Downwards or is it a totally separate creation?
RYAN: It’s a new band for sure. But on the other hand, I’m just doing my thing: making music. I never sat down and decided to make music in a way that wasn’t natural for me. I’m just doing what I’ve always done; making music that moves me, something that challenges me to grow musically, and something I’d want to listen to when it’s all done. With each album, I think I’ve been sucessful in being genre-less. That’s something I’ve pretty much always wanted to do; not be confined by the restrictions of making music that a certain kind of genre or following expects. I’m a free musical soul and I’ve always aimed at following my musical bliss. So older fans that got that from my music should still be just as pleased, if not more so, with Lovespirals. But if you liked my older music because you were a fan of the record label and their narrow genre and style, then you probably never really got what my music was about and won’t necessarily be into Lovespirals.
ANJI: This is a complicated question. You can look at it in different ways. Sam Rosenthal said that Lovespirals are to Love Spirals Downwards what Jefferson Starship are to Jefferson Airplane, or Pink Floyd are to The Pink Floyd Sound. In each case, a band member left and the name was shortened. Is it still the same band? Then again, Love Spirals Downwards were never really a band, but a recording project headed up by Ryan. Of course, we don’t perform his old songs live, which fans would probably expect if they thought of us as being the “continuation of Love Spirals Downwards .”
JEN: Anji, have you been in any other bands before/during Lovespirals?
ANJI: Yes, I was in several local bands before joining Ryan as Lovespirals, and I have continued to collaborate with other musicians up to this day. Most recently, I did two tracks with Bitstream Dream, for the album, Connected, late last year. A song I did with Plastic Chair was released on a mix CD for EMI Switzerland earlier last year. I also began work on a collaboration with Harald, of Chandeen, for a special Kalinkaland project. Ryan and I both contributed to a song with Beauty’s Confusion that should be done soon.
JEN: How did you decide to become a singer and song-writer?
ANJI: I’ve been into writing songs since I was a kid. It’s just something I’ve always done. I enjoy writing lyrics and I love singing, even when I don’t have a musician to collaborate with. I’ve got tons of songs written that are just waiting for music to be put to them.
JEN: Ryan, your creative process is to perform all/most of the musical duties and then have a female singer perform vocal duties. Have you always always produced music in this way?
RYAN: Yeah, it’s pretty much the way I’ve always done it. Again, it’s not an essential strategy that I try to use. It’s just what seems to happen most naturally for me. With Anji, I’ll give her a song that is half complete and record her vocals. Then, I’ll go back and record more stuff and vibe off of what she’s done. It gives it a more real feel, playing off of each other that way.
ANJI: The way we write songs is usually like this; Ryan will be playing guitar or keyboard, coming up with ideas. I’ll hear a melody that catches my ear, either reminding me of something I’ve written already, or that inspires me to write something new, and I’ll start singing along. We’ll jam together — with him improvising musically and me vocally. If we’ve got something interesting, we’ll capture it as a demo recording.
JEN: Ryan, maybe you could shed a little light on what happens in the studio?
RYAN: I record everything with software and hardware, called ProTools, which runs on a G4 Macintosh. I’ll start off with a few parts, like a drum and guitar, and slowly build a song up from that. Intially, I’m trying to get the mood of the song down, making sure that I like how it feels. If it passes that test, then I’ll work more on the structure of the song, stuff like how many times a section repeats. Once that’s figured out, then I’ll keep trying different instruments and sounds. I’ll grab different guitars and see which ones sound best for the song. It often takes a while, but it slowly builds up like this over several days to several weeks.
ANJI: In a few cases, we’ve worked on a song over several years, really perfecting it. Several songs on our upcoming album were actually begun during the time we recorded Windblown Kiss.
Jen: It’s already 2005 – what do you have in store for this year, musically and otherwise?
ANJI: Our second full-length album will be released this year, though we don’t have the exact date yet. We also plan to work on a new live set with additional musicians. We’ve been talking to Rodney Rodriguez, who played with LSD on their Flux album and tour, as well as Tom Coyne, from The Last Dance. It should be cool to have a live rhythm section.
You can read the rest of the interview in a fanzine style layout at Stratosphere Fanzine’s Yahoo! Launch Group: Just go to the “files” section and check in the “new singer & band interviews – 2005” folder.
It’s a new year, we’re working on a new album; time to release a new band bio!
Lovespirals began in 1999 as an outgrowth of multi-instrumentalist Ryan Lum’s previous band incarnation, Love Spirals Downwards. Following the release of his 10,000+ selling electronica/ethereal rock hybrid album, Flux, Lum began working as a DJ and dance track producer, collaborating with vocalist Anji Bee, and the members of Subliminal Records duo, Monkey Bars, Doron Orenstein and Gabriel D. Vine.
By 2001, Lovespirals had released a number of tracks on various artist compilations, including Chill Out in the City and Chill Out Lounge Vol. 2 on Water Music Records, and a remix of Claire Voyant for their album Time Again on Metropolis Records in the US and Accession Records in Europe. 2002 brought the release of Lovespirals’ first full-length album, Windblown Kiss, on New York indie label, Projekt Records, as well as tracks on Hot Topic and Border’s various artists’ compilations.
Over time, Lovespirals have evolved from a dance sound to a more pop sound, highlighting Bee’s versatile vocal work and Lum’s mastery of guitar. From track to track, and even within each tune itself, the duo culls their favorite aspects of every genre – those most beautiful, haunting, or groovy – to create a unique hybrid of electronica, soul, jazz, blues, and pop, with dashes of world, folk, and rock… or whatever else tickles their fancy.
Lovespirals have performed all across North America with a semi-live set featuring guitar, sax, and vocals over a backing track on laptop. Lum as also appeared in Los Angeles and San Francisco clubs with traditional DJ sets, often including dub plates of their material.
If you are seeking music for the soul as well as the body, something sweet to kick back and unwind with, then Lovespirals are for you.
