IDYLLS:
Fond Affexxions: This CD of yours. Idylls was your first recorded piece, and I was very impressed. As far as how it came out… Were you happy with it? Did it come out as you intended?
Suzanne Perry: After working on it as long as we did, you really don’t want to hear it anymore (Laughter), so think we stopped listening to it for a couple of months. Then when we started listening to it again, it came out better than we thought it did. I mean, every time we finished a song. I thought. God, what an awful song. Let’s not use that one… In retrospect, after that’s worn off, we like it. I like it better now.
Ryan Lum: After the CD came out (a couple months later ahead), I started liking it more. Even when I finished mixing it, it pretty much came out like I wanted it to. It wasn’t a disaster or anything.
Suzanne Perry: We didn’t have a DAT machine before, so we had to mix it all at once.
Fond Affexxions: You mixed it all and then bumped it to DAT?
Ryan Lum: No, no… over about three weeks we mixed it down… I guess that’s a long time. I was kinda nervous having it for three weeks!(Laughter)
Fond Affexxions: Did you do this here or at your studio?
Ryan Lum: No I did it here in the home studio: I just rented a DAT machine.
GENERALLY SPEAKING:
Fond Affexxions: I understand that you started recording music solo, and then later started adding vocals to it. Is that how it went, or did you always have a vocalist in mind?
Ryan Lum: No. I just made music. Its been an important pursuit of mine over the past several years, but I never had any intention of pursuing music as a sort of career, on a professional level, I just always made music for myself. It made me happy.
Fond Afferxions: Just to play your tapes for your friends and such?
Ryan Lum: Well, that’s as far as it got. You know, the music business is so weird… inside.
Fond Affexxions: Well, that’s been my experience
Ryan Lum: So yeah, I’d been doing that (music) for years, until Suzanne came into the picture.
Suzanne Perry: Since he waited so long. I think his music and his talent developed so much…
Ryan Lum: That’s one difference, ‘cause like most bands I know get together and they’ll start making songs right off the bat… Like us, I mean at least me, I had five plus years to mature in a songwriting and recording sense. I had a four track back in 1986 and I got the eight track in 1989, but I’d been doing music long before 1985. I’ve been playing the guitar for like 15 years. By the time Suzanne came along, the music had evolved. I’m not saying it’s good, (laughs) just evolved.
Suzanne Perry: I don’t think he had vocals or vocal parts in his mind. Every time I get a song, it usually doesn’t have vocals. In fact, all of them are hard to make vocals on top of, since he doesn’t think about vocals when he’s making them… so sometimes there’s not a lot of obvious melodies left.
Fond Affexxions: how did you two meet? did you guys go to school together?
Ryan Lum: We just met out here. I dunno…
Fond Affexxions: Kind of grew up in the same hood?
Suzanne Perry: We didn’t meet in school though.
Ryan Lum: The proximity effect, I guess?
Fond Affexxions: one of those parties.. (Laughter) So how did you get onto the Projekt label?
Ryan Lum: It was pretty simple, but not that easy. We sent out demo tapes…
Suzanne Perry: We sent out three demo tapes.
Fond Affexxions: Why just three?
Suzanne Perry: We didn’t know where to send them.
Fond Affexxions: Did you try 4AD?
Suzanne Perry & Ryan Lum: Yeah.
Suzanne Perry: I don’t think they even heard it, they get so many tapes.
Ryan Lum: Who knows?
Suzanne Perry: Since then I know they heard our music.
Ryan Lum: And they still haven’t responded, so..
Fond Affexxions: I don’t know what it is with that guy.
Ryan Lum: He likes too many crappy American bands.
Suzanne Perry: Well, look at the new stuff. I mean, look at the new girl they’ve got.
Fond Affexxions: Heidi Berry?
Suzanne Perry: Yeah. They’ve got that cactus on there… They want this American thing… really, really American.
Ryan Lum: I don’t think American bands are supposed to sound like us. If you sound like us, you’re closer to like the Sundays, or other British bands You have to be from there. If you’re from America, you’re supposed to sound “American.”
Suzanne Perry: We’re not trying to sound British.
Ryan Lum: We do. Ivo didn’t respond, basically.
Suzanne Perry: And we know he listened to it.
Ryan Lum: And neither did Creation, but Sam wrote us back, and didn’t say anything about signing us, but he wanted to hear more material, and after more time…
Suzanne Perry: He asked us if we wanted to be on Across this Grey Land #3, and we sent him another song; then he asked us if we wanted our own album. It was over the course of six to eight months, from the time we sent him our first tape.
Fond Affexxions: So I guess you played and recorded initially to just satisfy yourselves, make tapes for friends, etc. I mean, you didn’t play live. So you were just doing it to see what would happen..?
Suzanne Perry: We didn’t do too much, though. We only did like five songs and we sent them off. I had never done that before.
Ryan Lum: Well, I’ve never done that before, either! (Laughter)
Suzanne Perry: We didn’t write like 17 songs, just three… (Laughter) It was really weird.
Ryan Lum: The first three songs we ever completely recorded.
Suzanne Perry: We did it for fun, just to see what we’d come up with. What we came up with, we really liked.
Fond Affexxions: Do you find Projekt’s rather limited distribution a plus or minus? I mean, do you like being on a cool “underground label, or can you see yourselves prostituting yourselves, making a promotional video, etc. So does Projekt fit in with what you do, as far as promotionally, marketing-wise?
Ryan Lum: It’s nor as limited a market as you might think. I mean, we both know it’s kind of hard to find at stores, but it’s there. I guess at what some would call “finer alternative stores.”
DRUGS:
Fond Affexxions: In Option, a couple of issues back. I saw this ad for “The 50th Anniversary of LSD” CD (the drag). Did you guys record a special “Lucy” song for it, or did you give them a song you already recorded? (Laughter)
Ryan Lum: We gave them a song… It will be remixed for our new album..
Fond Affexxions: So it’s a new song?
Ryan Lum: Yeah. It’s one of our new songs, a first glimpse of what we sounded like after Idylls.
Fond Affexxions: Well, I guess my next question is why did you do it?
Ryan Lum: You got us.
Suzanne Perry: Well, they didn’t actually come out and ask us.
Fond Affexxions: Who is “they”?
Suzanne Perry: Kim Gascone of Silent Records. They asked Projekt if there’s anyone on your label that would be interested in doing this, and I think that Sam and Kim talked about Love Spirals Downwards, and the LSD acronym, and he asked us and we said “Yeah, we’ll do it.” I’ll warn you, though, since you saw us in the ad we did a little special interview thing for Option on psychedelics and music.
Fond Affexxions:: you’re right! I think it’s going to be a two-part.
Ryan Lum: My god.
Fond Affexxions: the next two issues! (Wrong…- Editor) So I guess I won’t have to ask you about LSD, drugs, etc…
Suzanne Perry: No. You can ask if you want. (Laughter) We didn’t say that much!
Ryan Lum: They were trying to get a definite angle on that story; get us to come out and say how we’re big druggies.
Suzanne Perry: They were putting drugs in our mouths.
Fond Affexxions: Oh really? (Laughter) So you guys don’t bake every weekend, do you?
Suzanne Perry: Well actually, and I told Option, I’ve never taken LSD, and from then on they weren’t interested in what I had to say. And with, like, “LSD,” we were Love Spirals Upwards but we decided to change it because it had a better ring and it and fit in better with the genre. Which is cool. So we changed it to LSD, and look at all the people who came and talked about it! (Laughter)
Fond Affexxions: Well. I’ve done LSD a lot and after you’ve done it enough, you kind of don’t need to do it anymore.
Ryan Lum: Its a “go-nowhere” psychedelic. It doesn’t have the shamanistic component the others do, I’ll say that much about it.
Fond Affexxions: Ryan, as a philosophy major you may be interested in talking to Mondo 2000 about maybe DMT or something like that.
Suzanne Perry: He’s already talked too much about it.
Fond Affextions: Do you have any poisonous toads back here somewhere? (Laughter)
Suzanne Perry: We had some mushrooms over there. We were’t sure what kind.. His father removed them. I think he thought Muffy was going to eat some! (Laughter)
LYRICS:
Fond Affexxions: The only song on Idylls whose lyrics I understood is the one in which you provide the lyric.
Suzanne Perry: One, yeah.
Fond Affexxions: Is that the only one in English?
Suzanne Perry: They’re all different. I mean, some of them are in English, and they make some sense, and some are in English and they make no sense. And there are others that are in a make-believe Italian. And then there’s kind of a make-believe Latin, but I don’t know Latin or Italian. And then there’s some French, too…
Ryan Lum: (looks puzzled) French..?
Suzanne Perry: And some Indian too, make-believe Indian.
Ryan Lum: There’s no French words, they’re just gibberish! (Laughter) Just nonsense French words that sound nice.
Suzanne Perry: So the key is what sounds nice.
Ryan Lum: For the song in question.
Suzanne Perry: Most of it doesn’t make any sense.
Fond Affexxions: Well, the one song that did make sense in English
Fond Affexxions: “Stir About the Stars,” is a very pretty song. Did you write that?
Suzanne Perry: Actually, the vocal parts, yeah.
Fond Affexxions: So are you going to pursue that a little further? I mean, that is probably my favorite song on the CD, not just because of the discernable lyric, but I thought it was a very pretty song. Are you going to do more writing like that, or are you more concerned in using your voice as an instrument?
Suzanne Perry: I’d prefer to use it more as an instrument. I don’t see myself as a writer or a poet, and usually I’m very insecure about the things that I write.
Ryan Lum: Plus we are not concerned with messages or poetry. I mean, that’s another art form entirely, and it doesn’t necessarily belong in music.
Suzanne Perry: And not that it has to be that way, but sometimes it can be kind of distracting.
Fond Affexxions: Well I know Brian Eno gathered quite a following for his older stuff. I mean he attracted quite a big cult of fans who were seeking the hidden meaning in songs like “The Paw-Paw Negro Blowtorch” and stuff.
Ryan Lum: We’re not into standing on a soapbox.
Suzanne Perry: Preaching our views…
Ryan Lum: Everyone’s free to have their beliefs, and that has nothing to do with music. At least, our music.
Suzanne Perry: Some of the new stuff actually does have a little more meaning.
Ryan Lum: (Looking puzzled again) Ohh??? (Laughter)
Suzanne Perry: Still, even if it does, I don’t pronounce it well enough so that you can tell. I mean, “Drops Rain and Sea” makes some sense.
Ryan Lum: It does?
Suzanne Perry: Well, not a lot.
Fond Affexxions: How does one write “make-believe English”? It would seem harder to do that than to put together something that made sense, to me.
Suzanne Perry: For me it increases your choices, because anything that sounds nice fits in right away. So you don’t have to worry about it.
Fond Affexxions: And then you obscure it with reverb or something?
Ryan Lum: Not really.
Fond Affexxions: ‘Cause I couldn’t hear any English, other than…
Ryan Lum: There’s reverb on her voice, but not to where it obscures the clarity of what she’s saying. I don’t drown her in a huge tank of reverb.
Suzanne Perry: When I’m singing it. I’m not concerned with pronouncing it so you could understand it. I guess it’s not meant to be understood. But there is more English in there. Some of the Italian words are just things that I have, and I know. And then I’ll insert some words that kind of sound like an Italian word that aren’t really Italian. I mean have you heard “Mediterannea”?
Ryan Lum: The first song on From Across This Grey Land #3.
Fond Affexxions: Yeah.
Suzanne Perry: We said, “That kind of sounds like an Italian song, a Mediterranean song.”
Fond Affexxions: And that’s why you called it that?
Ryan Lum: Yeah, pretty much.
Suzanne Perry: And I just thought I’d use words that kind of sound Italian.
Fond Affexxions: I’ll have to to back and listen to that.
Suzanne Perry: And then the last song. “And the Wood Comes Into Leaf” is an anonymous poem.
Fond Affexxions: Is it like olde English?
Suzanne Perry: Yeah. It’s olde English or middle English, an anonymous poem done verbatim.
PLAYING LIVE
Fond Affexxions: So you guys played live one time?
Suzanne Perry: Once.
Ryan Lum: We weren’t even Love Spirals Downwards, it was something kind of hacked together.
Fond Affexxions: With The Moonwash Symphony?
Ryan Lum: Yeah, we just got together with some friends.
Fond Affexxions: That’s what the Moonwash Symphony is?
Ryan Lum: Yeah.
Suzanne Perry: We just did a few songs, opening for them.
Fond Affexxions: Did any of these make it onto the record?
Suzanne Perry: “Forgo.”
Fond Affexxions: How did you do it? Did you use backing tape?
Ryan Lum: Yeah.
Fond Affexxions: Was it a pain in the ass?
Ryan Lum: Yeah, especially when you use these moron soundmen that don’t do soundchecks. (Laughter) It really pissed me off.
Suzanne Perry: I couldn’t hear myself.
Ryan Lum: You couldn’t hear yourself, they didn’t put any reverb on the vocals.
Suzanne Perry: It’s just such a hassle.
Fond Affexxions: Did you get off playing live?
Suzanne Perry: That time we didn’t, It was pretty hellish, actually. (Laughter)
Ryan Lum: Three songs in a hellish situation, because of incompetent sound people.
Fond Affexxions: It did whet our appetite, let’s put it that way,
Fond Affexxions: So will you ever considering doing it again? Providing everything was as you wanted I?
Suzanne Perry: I think it would be important to, yeah. Right now people are asking me, “Would you play live?” We kind of figure the amount of effort we put into it, we want to get out of it. Right now it would he hard. Maybe if we had more time it would be worth it. I mean. I’m not against it, I think it would be fun.
Ryan Lum: : I wouldn’t mind doing it.
Fond Affexxions: With a backing tape, or digital sequencer?
Ryan Lum: I still have to think about it.
Fond Affexxions: Would you use additional musicians?
Ryan Lum: In addition to backing tape?
Suzanne Perry: We talked bout playing live, with my sister singing.
Fond Affexxions: Not Your sister again, not the sibling rivalry again! (Laughter)
Suzanne Perry: I know, I know. Bat we have people who could sing background vocals.
CLOSING:
Fond Affexxions: What are your thoughts on music today?
Suzanne Perry: I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it too much. There’s not…. I mean, I don’t have a lot of music to listen to.
Fond Affexxions: You listen to older stuff, you don’t go out and buy the new stuff coming out?
Suzanne Perry: I used to. I don’t anymore. A lot of our friends go out and buy the new stuff, like Suede, or what’s that other band? You know, “Creep”?
Fond Affexxions & Ryan Lum: : Radiohead?
Suzanne Perry: We have friends that go out and get that, the new Frank Black, Heidi Berry.
Ryan Lum: I wish I could get the new Slowdive.
Fond Affexxions: Yeah, but that’s another story altogether.
Suzanne Perry: Then you look at MTV.
Fond Affexxions: Do YOU look at MTV?
Suzanne Perry: We watch it. but I think 90 percent of the time we’re laughing… Like, “What is this?”
Ryan Lum: : It’s not a goal of ours to get played on MTV.
Suzanne Perry: Honestly, we think a lot of stuff is just “Corporate Rock.” Even..
Fond Affexxions: Even “Alternative music” is just another form of.
Ryan Lum: If it’s that big, if it’s on MTV, you’re on labels like Capitol, I mean that’s corporate rock…
Suzanne Perry: We’re in the clouds as far as, “What’s the new single from this band?” I worked for college radio when I got my bachelors, and it’s all “Who Capitol signed ” or whoever signed..
Ryan Lum: : Buzz, hype, a lot of pedantic stuff…
Fond Affexxions: So you don’t think the state of popular music today is very good?
Suzanne Perry: I don’t think so.
Ryan Lum: You’re looking at the financial side of it, the corporate side of it. There’s a lot of good music out there, it’s just kind of hard to make that kind of music available to the general public without having to search, like with some of the Projekt stuff, and now 4AD stuff, you can find anywhere.
Suzanne Perry: But look at it, the quality has dropped.
Ryan Lum: Yeah, it’s a trade-off. 44D used to be hard to find; you’d pay $25 for a CD, and now they’re $11.99 when they come out, but its crap for the most part. Sorry Ivo. (Laughter)
Suzanne Perry: His Name is Alive is ok, though…
Ryan Lum: Like most of the people that loved 4AD when it was indie now don’t like it now. When you have Warner Brothers to answer to like 4AD does now, they want some figures, they want some money. Us little esoteric, atmospheric bands are not gonna turn a big profit as would a more accepted, kind of punk sound like Frank Black or something like that. Something that sells is a lot easier.
Fond Affexxions: So you don’t think it’s a very healthy time for music. Do you see it changing at … (Interruption as interviewer literally breaks arm of chair he’s leaning on.) Oh my God! (Laughter)
Suzanne Perry: Oh Nol
Fond Affexxions: Uh you can send me a bill!
Suzanne Perry: It was probably on its way out.
Fond Affexxions: I think it’s just a weld anyways.
Ryan Lum: These chairs (wistfully) I can remember back when I was a child.
Fond Affexxions: By the way. I have a cousin that does welding. (Laughter)
Ryan Lum: Don’t worry about it…
(Photographer takes several photos for insurance purposes.)
Fond Affexxions: Finally I must ask: what was your favorite period of music?
Ryan Lum: I guess the mid-eighties. ’84?
Suzanne Perry: Mid to late eighties. A couple of them were more gothic, to me at least.
Fond Affexxions: You were into gothic?
Suzanne Perry: I wonder if that had to do with my being a teenager?
Fond Affexxions: Like the Christian Death sort of…
Suzanne Perry: Not that hardcore! (Laughter)
Fond Affexxions: Like Dead Can Dance, when they came out?
Suzanne Perry: 4AD, basically.
Ryan Lum: I remember discovering Cocteau Twins when Love’s Easy Tears came out, I guess in like ’86 or ’87, and then going back and hearing Victorialand. It was so fresh back then, and knowing that they were putting out this good stuff and 4AD was in its “Golden Age”, and everything was so magnificent. I started finding all the Harold Budd, Brian Eno stuff I liked, Dead Can Dance, Cocteaus… Before that I liked some of The Cure stuff, their first three or four albums.
Fond Affexxions: So I guess you guys are about 25, 20 vears old?
Ryan Lum: I just turned 26.
Suzanne Perry: He just turned 26; I’m 22.
Fond Affexxions: (Shocked Expression) You’re 22? And You’re working on your Masters?
Suzanne Perry: I just went fast.
Ryan Lum: She’s got like a 207 I.Q.
Suzanne Perry: No, I’m more in the average. I took an I.Q. test last year.
Fond Affexxions: It wasn’t that test, like “which shape doesn’t belong here”?
Suzanne Perry: I did well on the visual-spatials.
Visual-spatials, indeed. The interviewer thanks the band for a gracious interview, and begins a more private discussion. Love Spirals Downwards current release is entitled ‘Idylls’ and is available through mail order via Projekt Records, or through “finer alternative outlets.” A new CD is likely to be released in the spring of 1994. – R. Rusric
Download and view a PDF of Fond Affexxions Ver 1.2, Indian Summer 1993