We leave tommarrow for ProjektFest! I’m still fussing with last minute packing, but I’m almost there…. Wish us luck!
Ecstatic EP – Hot Pick on Mp3.com
Mp3.com is featuring the revised Ecstatic EP as their Hot Pick CD for the Electronica genre. It is also the featured CD in the Ambient Drum ‘n’ Bass Top 40. Several tracks from the EP are currently in the Top 40, as well.
Lovespirals on Mp3.com
Cool! I see our mp3.com page has gone well over 100,000 plays this month. I always wonder who listens, if the same people keep coming back over and over, if they listen to every song or not, and that sort of thing. I tend to download the songs I like by other bands, and play them in my iTunes library. I like to make stations, too, like my Dream-Pop Losing Today-inspired stations. Hey, that reminds me, I recently updated my Live365 station, “Lovely Ladies of Electronica,” with 3 totally new hours of music. Look up “Anji Bee” at www.live365.com to hear it.
Jive Magazine Interview & New Song
Russ Marshall of Jive interviewed Ryan and Anji for the music section of their print magazine. Their website also features the Lovespirals interview plus an mp3 of the brand new unreleased song, “Love Survives.” Be sure to check that out at www.jivemagazine.com and if you can pick up a copy of the magazine, snatch it up now!
Q: When did the Ryan/Anji collaborations begin, and how did that come to be?
Anji: Ryan and I started working together late 1998, early 1999. We pretty much hooked up through my radio show on KUCI 88.9fm (in Irvine, CA). He had me come over to his studio to check out some new stuff he was working on (which later turned out to be ‘Beatitude’ and ‘Love Survives’) and I was really into it. The first two songs we did, “Ecstatic” and “Hand in Hand,’ Ryan made dub plates of; he was more heavily into deejaying at that time.
Touring
I’ve been thinking that it would be nice to do a few short tours to support the album. We could try to set up small West Coast and East Coast tours, plus a show or two in Mexico, at the very least… No idea how we’d go about booking it, though. I wonder if we should try to travel with another Projekt band or two, or just go it solo? We’ll have to talk to everybody at ProjektFest, to see what they think!
Pre-release CDs
Wow! Got a few pre-release copies of the new album today and they look great. We’re both really pleased with how the artwork came out, as well as the CD itself. It feels really good to have created the whole CD ourselves from top to bottom. Its been a lot of work, but I think all the love really shines through. I can hardly wait to send everybody who helped us out a copy!
New Album Pre-Order Sale!
Projekt is now accepting pre-orders for
Windblown Kiss at the special online sale
price of just $11.98, including shipping! The official street date for the album is June 18th, but pre-orders will be shipped as soon as they’re available…
2nd set at ProjektFest added!
In addition to their full set the first night of ProjektFest, Lovespirals will be performing an acoustic set at the Merchants’ Bazaar on Saturday May 25th,
5:00 pm. Complete details of the festival are available
at www.projektfest.com.
Acoustic Set at ProjektFest
After long consideration, we decided to do the ProjektFest Bazaar show. Ryan had hoped to just fool around and see Philly, but I think it would be good for us to play twice. We’ll get the chance to meet some of the fans and be more personable than we would be the first night, too. Sam hopes we’ll do a totally unique show, but I don’t see how we can with only one album. We sure can’t do acoustic versions of our Ecstatic EP material, haha! I think we’ll play a few covers, for fun, and to spice it up a bit. Still working on our main live set, so no time to plot the acoustic set out just yet. Always working, it seems….
Windblown Kiss Press Piece by Alex Lang
Our friend, the poet and lyricist, Alex Lang, was kind enough to write up a lovely little press piece on our upcoming album:
WINDBLOWN KISS is the first full-length album by LOVESPIRALS, the beautiful, and beautifully surprising collaboration of RYAN LUM (the driving force behind legendary LOVE SPIRALS DOWNWARDS) and avant-garde singer/songwriter ANJI BEE.
Renown multi-instrumentalist LUM once again creates musical landscapes of breathtaking beauty – and with vocal styles ranging from ethereal to earthy, sweet to sensual, BEE shows off her remarkable vocal range, and allows the full force of her voice to soar into the sublime.
Drawing inspiration from Flamenco, Bebop, soul, folk and the stacks of early vinyl they each grew up loving, LOVESPIRALS has created a timeless world of romance and intrigue. Leaving behind the conventional restraints of dance-floor tracks, this latest endeavor is at once a dreamscape of nostalgia, and a kiss blown to the future.
Using half a dozen different guitars, and featuring the extraordinary talents of DORON ORENSTEIN (of TOOF!) on saxophones, and SEAN BOWLEY (of EDEN) on acoustic guitar and vocals, WINDBLOWN KISS is a celebration of creative anachronism: the past and the future negotiate a gorgeous balance.
Practice
Had our first real practice session yesterday. Made a few tweaks to the song lineup, and now we think we have something both comfortable and dynamic. After several run throughs we both felt nice ‘n’ loose. Ryan’s got quite a few guitar solos to perform, something he’s never really done in prior live shows, so he’s a bit nervous. We have yet to practice with Doron, who will be handling several solos for us on sax, so that should be exciting to hear. So far, though, so good. 5 more weeks to go!
Ecstatic EP Charting on Mp3.com
The newly pressed Ecstatic EP has been featured all week on the Ambient Drum ‘n’ Bass charts for MP3.com, helping to drive Lovespirals back up the charts again. Check out the newly added “Ecstatic (Radio Edit)” which was remastered for the new chill-out compilation, Cool Terrasse.