The April 2nd “100% Podsafe” issue of iProng Magazine features an interview with Anji discussing Lovespirals, going podsafe, getting into podcasting, music licensing, live performance vs studio recording, and much more. Also included this issue is a great article on eMusic vs Amazon downloads, interviews with fellow podsafe artists Geoff Smith and Natalie Gelman, and an article with Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes, who released their new single to the Podsafe Music Network.

100% PodSafe Edition, iProng Magazine Artist Feature on Lovespirals

For someone who isn’t familiar with Lovespirals, how would you describe it to them?

Lovespirals is the musical duo of multi-instrumentalist and producer, Ryan Lum, and me — Anji Bee — the vocalist, lyricist and co-producer. We write and record all of our music together in our own home studio. As such, our music has a very intimate feel. Our sound doesn’t follow any particular genre model, instead, we play what we feel at the moment. We tend towards very melodic, bittersweet, and dreamy music that focuses on beautiful vocal harmonies and soulful guitar work, with liberal sprinklings of electric piano.

There’s always been a sort of tug of war in Lovespirals between jazzy electronica and folky rock. Each of our releases have come upon a different solution to this tension between the modern and vintage sides of our musical personalities. One the one hand, we both love the old vinyl albums we grew up with as kids, but on the other, we’re drawn to contemporary music and production techniques. The interesting thing about this is that while the casual listener assumes a song like “Caught in the Groove” from Long Way From Home was recorded with a full band, in actuality Ryan programmed the drums using a keyboard controller and samples, the piano is recorded with midi, and the guitars and bass were performed one track at a time in ProTools.

Interview by Isobel Geo for Fiber Online, Oct 26, 2003

ISOBEL: What changed in the Lovespirals sounds with your entrance in 1999?

ANJI: The sound was already evolving in 1998, moving towards something more jazzy and funky than previously. Ryan was working with Doron Orenstein, a trained jazz saxophonist, when I joined. Adding my jazzy and soulful vocals helped to further that evolution. As we continued to work together, my song writing style brought a poppier edge to the music. The biggest change I brought to the band was that I encouraged a more collaborative song writing technique.

ISOBEL: The last album was ‘ Windblown Kiss,’ released last year, so what’s the new Lovespirals’ plans for albums, tours, or remixes?

ANJI: We’ve been writing and recording new songs ever since we finished touring for Windblown Kiss, and are about half way done with an album now. Soon we need to start preparing a new live set that includes all of these new songs. Right now we’re getting together files for a remix competition of our new song “Walk Away” that PeaceLoveProductions will be putting on. We are currently seeking a label to release our next album, as well as looking into possibly doing them ourselves.

Interview by Shaun Hamilton

Chain D.L.K.: So what lead to the breakup of the Love Spirals Downwards project and the birth of Lovespirals? Was it the evolvement of the music or from other factors?

Anji: It’s just been a natural progression, really. The first song created by Ryan and I that came out on CD was a [drum and bass] remix of “Bittersweet” for Claire Voyant, which they [Metropolis Records] credited on the album as “Love Spirals Downwards.” That was in late 1999, early 2000, I forget exactly. By 1999 we had already recorded a few songs, so when Temporal was being assembled, we discussed including one or two of our songs with the older LSD stuff. 1999-2000 was a very transitional time. We weren’t totally sure where we were headed yet. Ryan was still very immersed in the DJ scene then, so the stuff we were working on was 10 minute dance tracks – pretty unsuitable as album material. It wasn’t really until 2001 that things clicked into place for us, as far as the album goes.

Chain D.L.K.:How did you two meet and start working on music together?

Anji: We met a few times at different places in LA. We first started talking at a little Projekt party, which both of our bands were invited to. Then we got to know each other more through a series of appearances he made on KUCI, for both my radio show and other DJs’ shows out there. One afternoon he had me come over to his studio and he showed me a few new songs he was working on. One of those became the instrumental, “Beatitude,” and the other eventually turned into “Love Survives”. The first song he had me do vocals on, though, was the club track, “Ecstatic”, which just has a little “oooh ahhh” sample. There were a lot of starts and stops when we first started working together; we were really plagued by computer problems and personal issues.

Jianda Johnson interviewed Anji Bee for a feature article on the Women of Mp3.com Station.

JIANDA: How did you get into music, how long have you been making it, and when did you join Lovespirals?

ANJI: I’d say that I first got into music through my dad. One of my earliest memories is circling around the coffee table to “Here Comes the Sun,” when I was barely able to walk. I started singing very early, doing school productions from Pre-School on. Shortly out of High School I got invovled with different garage bands, doing gigs and recording 4 track demos. Strangely, I really always wanted to be a guitarist, but I’ve just never been very adept at it! I did play guitar in an industrial noise rock band for awhile, but it was a struggle for me. I played percussion in another band around that time too. It’s funny to think about those old bands now, in comparison to my work with Lovespirals. Speaking of Lovespirals, I began working with Ryan in early 1999.

JIANDA: Can you please explain the difference between Lovespirals and Love Spirals Downwards?

ANJI: When Ryan and I began working in 1999 on Drum ‘n’ Bass tunes, he was in a transitional period, unsure if he wanted to make another listening album or start releasing 12″ vinyl instead. At that time, we weren’t sure if our stuff was going to be released as Love Spirals Downwards or as some kind of side project. We were just recording songs and pressing dubplates for him to spin in his DJ sets, not sending them around to labels or trying to get them released. Then I made those tracks available online through mp3.com and folks started contacting us to include stuff on compilations, so by now all of them have been released somewhere or other, which is really cool. But I digress… It’s tremendously hard to explain exactly where or how things changed between Love Spirals Downwards and Lovespirals, because it was all just a natural progression.