Category Archives: Interview

Interview

As If, Issue 2, August 1993

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+ Interview by Clint Catalyst +

One evening in August, I had the opportunity to speak with Ryan and Suzanne of the band Love Spirals Downwards. After difficulties with my answering machine and the discovery that Ryan’s mom used to live in Russellville, Arkansas (small world, huh?), they were both friendly and eager to discuss the vital information of their musical endeavors. Maybe they were both in good spirits from the Japanese food they had just finished eating, but they seem like tremendous individuals…

As If: When did the two of you first “hook up,” so to speak?

Ryan: We started singing together in January of 1991.

Suzanne: My sister was singing with Ryan, maybe like one or two songs, and then I was going to school in London for a while and hearing tapes of my sister’s, and they never really got off the ground and did that much stuff. So I came back, and basically a little bit after that, we started singing — I started singing on his music — and from then on, we sent out some tapes. Projekt Records liked us and asked us if we wanted to be on Grey Land III.

Ryan: We knew almost nothing about the label, actually.

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Interview

Isolation #13, February/March 1993

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The following interview was done with Ryan of the Southern California ethereal band Love Spirals Downwards in late September 1992. Suzanne, the singer, wasn’t present during the interview because after she saw Ryan’s comments they covered “most everything she would also cover.” Love Spirals Downwards appeared on the infamous From Across This Gray Land No. 3 and their debut album will be out in December 92 on Projekt as well. I can’t wait because I know this band will be one of the best in the country.

Interview by Nathan Linscheid

Isolation: What bands were you in before Love Spirals Downwards?

Ryan: I was in several, but none which you would have heard of. Love Spirals Downwards was the first band I had in which I really thought that the music was exciting and original sounding I believe that all the different types of music that I have listened to throughout the years such as ethereal, ambient, East Indian Classical, psychedelic ’60’s, and tribal/percussive have been blended into our eclectic sound — though I’m not sure if you can hear all these things just from our two songs on Gray Land 3. Our CD/CS, Idylls, will have a more all-inclusive representation of our sound.

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Interview

Ray Gun (June/July 1992) LSD Artist Feature

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Alt mag, Ray Gun, printed a small feature on Love Spirals Downwards with interview quotes from bandleader, Ryan Lum.

You can barely shoehorn all the lush/Lush, curvy/Curvey swirly music bands into a tour bus these days. Does the scene have enough room behind the Catherine Wheel for Cocteau Quads? Or will Love Spirals Downwards have to ride in the U-Haul?

Love Spirals Downwards, (Ryan Lum on instruments, Suzanne Perry on vocals), whose debut on Project Records, Idylls, swims on waves of guitars and airy, otherworldly vocals. And you’re meant to feel the lyrics, not understand them; as Lum puts it, “We really don’t want to say a whole lot as far as semantics or messages go. We’re more involved in this overall aesthetic picture, which is not necessarily determined by words and meaning and such.”

While you’ll hear a hint of Indo-British singer Sheila Chandra on Idylls, LSD’s most obvious influence is the Cocteau Twins. Lum admits that he and Perry were influenced by “mid- Eighties 4AD bands” like the Twins and This Mortal Coil, but good-naturedly rejects the comparison. “I really don’t think we sound like them, to be completely honest. I’m not in denial or self-deception,” he volunteers, reassuringly. “It’s my honest belief that if you listen to our music, we don’t sound like the Cocteau Twins.”

Well, okay, LSD does favor sustained evocative vocalizations (“Ah-h – ah – ah-h – h – h,” that sort of thing) over the nonsense syllables of the Cocteau Twins; Lum and Perry’s fondness for Indian classical music give Idylls a cosmopolitan sound, making it just right for, say, having Captain Picard over for a cup of Earl Grey, hot.

And Lum is not bothered if people use Idylls as background music. “For gluing airplanes together it might not be good,” he says, “but if you’re drinking tea, hanging out or whatever, that’s fine.” All he asks is that you give it “a good listen.”

by joe clark

Interview, Review

The Altered Mind #12, Sept. 1992 Interview & Review

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At our usual cozy interview spot, we spoke with new Projekt band Love Spirals Downwards’ only two members, Ryan and Suzanne. IT was the first interview ever from a band which has played just one live show. Uncertain as to their place in the scene but with a sound that leads the way, Love Spirals Downwards is a band to watch. Interview by Ariel and Aillinn.

Ryan: Is the whole interview like question and answer, or is it going to be more of an article?

AM: No, question and answer… Having heard only the two songs, “Mediterranea” and “Forgo” on [Projekt compilation] From Across This Gray Land No. 3, what can we expect from your album, which is due out in November?

Ryan: We’re mixing it right now. We just mixed the first three of the eleven or twelve songs. It will have a different feel than “Mediterranea” and “Forgo.” It’s more… what do you think? Trancey, Eastern.

Suzanne: We were a little reluctant to put those two songs on, when he [Projekt’s Sam Rosenthal] chose those two. Those are two of the three first songs that we ever sent him. They’re a little old. They’re about a year old. I guess the sound’s a little bit different [on the album]. It is a little more trancy, more Indian or Middle Eastern sounding.

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