Dewdrops Records included our song “Delta” on their new 2-CD set, Splashed With Many A Speck, released this past December. The various artist compilation also features our friends Closedown, Faith & Disease, The Von Trapps, Lovesliescrushing, and many more, including Cocteau Twins. The Closedown track, “Bumblebee,” was actually mixed here at our home studio by me.
Interview and photography by Ned Raggett
It’s a beautiful name, Love Spirals Downwards. It calls up so many wonderful images, but the name would mean little if the band wasn’t so good as well. With Ryan Lum on guitars and other instruments and Suzanne Perry on vocals, LSD have created three excellent albums for Projekt Records over the past few years. The most recent, Ever, is quite something; a wonderful wash of Lum’s layered, exquisite acoustic and electric guitar work and Perry’s truly angelic vocals. LSD played an acoustic set on KUCI on Friday, November 15, after which they sat down for a talk about many and varied things — and during which they proved to have, as a duo, one of the best repartees around!
Ned: Ryan has mentioned elsewhere that he was trying to experiment more with electronics on this album. As the singer, what do you try to do on the new album that was different from the past?
Suzanne: I don’t know if ever try and aim for anything, I just see what comes out. The only aim is to do something different — or at least feels different. I don’t necessarily make something different, or consciously try to be different… I don’t know if this makes sense?
Ned: I’ve heard stranger explanations!
Ryan: I lost her!
Ned: Well, here’s another question for you, Suzanne…
Suzanne: Ask me a simple one, ‘cause I’m really stupid!
Ned: A simple one it is. Who are your influences, singing or lyrically?
Suzanne: Oh… (pause)
Ned: Never mind, that’s not so simple. Cancel!
We recently got back from another wonderful time in Mexico. After just dealing with a less than ideal audience in Chicago, the Mexico City audience’s enthusiasm for us, Lycia, and Arcanta was rewarded by great performances from us all (I’d say we all performed much better than in Chicago). The show was one of our best to date, with or without the electricity (those of you who were there know what I mean). The U.S. Projekt Fest audience could learn a few lessons from the Mexican audience, who really seemed to be there for the MUSIC rather than socializing.
After the show, Suzanne and I traveled to Cancun, on the Yucatan, for some relaxation and exploring. The highlight was visiting the pyramids and Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.
Again, we had a great time in Mexico and look forward to the next time.
Currently, we are hard at work on a new album. It’s coming together very nicely and I expect to be finished this Spring for a Summer release. If you’ve been to any of our shows this year, then you’ve heard some of the new songs, and can probably figure the direction it’s heading.
Also, and this is still very tentative, we may be doing a big Los Angeles show in March. I’ll post more information later.
I would like to say thanks to everyone that came to see us at the Projekt Festival (and at our Border’s in-store) in Chicago. Suzanne and I had a fun time once again. For those of you who were trying to enjoy our set, I am sorry about all the rude loud motherfuckers that talked during our set and the sets of all the more quiet bands. Those people obviously did not come for the music and ruin it for those who did. If there is another festival next year, I hope to have a solution worked out with Projekt and the venue for dealing with such situations. Anyway, we’re just a fews days from the Projekt Festival Mexico, in Mexico City, with Lycia and Arcanta! I should probably go pack.
On Saturday August 2 at 2 PM (the day after we perform at the Projekt Festival in Chicago) we will be doing a live in-store performance at a Borders Books and Music in Chicago as well. Borders is located at 2718 N Clark (Clark, Diversey & Broadway, near the Day’s Inn).
There were a few things that happened in the past few months regarding our music distribution that I would like to mention. The German release of Ever happened a few months back, with EFA being the new distributor for Projekt in Germany. And in the United States, we now have great distribution here through ADA, a Warner subsidiary.
Many people have written to us saying how difficult it was to find Ever and our other releases. I too had a tough time finding them. Now our CDs are everywhere once again: Tower, Borders, and all sorts of other stores. So, if you haven’t got it yet, now’s the perfect time to get a copy of Ever .
We have just two shows planned for this summer. First, we will be in Chicago at the Vic Theater for the Projekt Festival. We will play on the first night on Friday, August 1st. Tickets are on sale at the Vic box office, through Ticketmaster (Chicago only), or from Projekt. Along with us on night 1 of the two-day festival will be The Moon Seven Times, Ben Neill, Vidna Obmana, and Steve Roach. For more complete information on the Projekt Festival, check out the Festival pages.
Our second show of the summer will be in Mexico City on Saturday August 16, 1997 at the Cine Bella Epoca (located at Tamaulipas Y Alfonso Reyes S/N Col.Condesa). Fellow Projekt bands Lycia and Arcanta will be performing as well. This should be a lot fun and I (Ryan) am really looking forward to seeing our friends there and eating at every possible opportunity!
We are now confirmed for a Los Angeles show on Friday April 25 at the Dizzy Debby 467 S. La Brea Ave, at 6th (213-938-1398). Local band Mine, as well as Claire Voyant from Sacramento, will be opening. Doors will open at 8:30 pm.
SOUND SPIRALS UPWARDS
By Bryan Reeseman
“ONE THING I LIKE ABOUT OUR NEW album is that it’s almost impossible to categorize with any of the conventional musical categories,” declares Ryan Lum, guitarist and keyboard player for Love Spirals Downwards. “There are really folky songs, really electronic ambient dance songs, and then these weird, loopy psychedelic songs. I think it all works together really well. It isn’t a huge shock from one to the next.”
Lum and vocalist Suzanne Perry create a lush, inviting sonic template on their third and newest album, Ever. Important components to their sound are Perry’s beautiful, dreamy vocals, Lum’s delicate, sometimes cryptic acoustic six-string melodies, and their integration of swirling keyboards and subtle effects, all of which produce a captivating kind of romantic, ethereal folk.
Live, Lum uses two tunings: standard and E A D G A D, a variation on D A D G A D. “Instead of my first note being D, it’s E,” he says. “That way, all the strings are tuned normally except for the high two strings, so I can fret chords on the low strings as I normally would and have all those drones on the top two strings.”
Continue reading Acoustic Guitar, March 1997
