The band had a half page interview in the major national newspaper, El Nacional, for Thurs, February 29, 1996. Following is an English translation, followed by the actual article.
LOVE SPIRALS DOWNWARDS: Music for the End of the Millennium
By XAVIER QUIRARTE
Suzanne Perry and Ryan Lum are in the music scene to enjoy the freedom of creating sounds, and they delegate the pursuit of their art to no one but themselves. Love Spirals Downwards, the creative duo that started on the principle of minimal commitment, has crystallized into two discs. Idylls and Ardor, edited by the independent US label Project, are proof of this. “Music for the end of the millennium,” dark gothic, “ethereal sounds” or “angelical,” are some of the adjectives that their work has earned.
Over a simple chat, seated before three cups of coffee and the remnants of a chicken salad, both smiled at the compliments. After all, their entry into music was almost a form of play. Their history is short and simple: they had no formal musical instruction. She was simply part of a choir, and he played the guitar. The guitarist, who had been playing since age eight, had some recordings on the market. The two met, dated for a while, fell in love, and one day decided to start writing songs.
“We made the first three songs that I had recorded in my life,” says Suzanne. “We just put them on a tape, kind of as a gag, honestly. We sent copies out to three places, and the response was good enough that it totally sold us on the idea.”
What began as a game has maintained its playful nature. Suzanne and Ryan work on other things outside of music, so when they get together to write songs they don’t have the pressure of an upcoming recording or a series of concerts hanging over them. In fact, they only started performing in public last year, as their label, Projekt, gives them complete freedom to record whenever they feel the necessity.
Suzanne explained, “On our first album, Idylls, there was a lot of reverberation; the sound was much less clear, and darker. I think Ardor is much clearer. Now we’re working on an album that will be closer to the acoustic show we’ll be presenting in Mexico.”
“For those who are used to our records, the acoustic show is going to be a surprise, but it’s going to be just as good,” the singer promises.
“We don’t want to do the same thing over and over again,” adds Ryan. “So once we finished the first album, we started the second. We don’t make a decision to make an album in any specific way; the changes just happen organically.”
“We recorded in a studio set up in my house; we just record the ideas as they come to us,” he explains.
Regarding the lyrics of the Love Spirals Downwards songs—some of which are interpreted in French—it is the use of the word as part of the sound construction.
“The lyrics aren’t really about anything,” the singer confesses. “Some of them are just approximations of languages that sound good to me. For example, there are some pieces where I think I can use something that sounds like Italian—even though I don’t speak the language. So, I’ll use some Italian words or just the phonetic sounds of that language and incorporate them. I rely on things that I’ve actually experienced, or things that friends have told me about. That’s how I’ve done some French-style songs, and I’ll probably do some in Spanish.”
Suzanne, who reads authors like Albert Camus or Marguerite Yourcenar, assures that Love Spirals Downwards moves away from using direct messages in the songs simply because there’s already so much music like that.
“It’s interesting because you might not know our language, but even so, you get similar emotions as those who do know it. Also, when you don’t understand a language, you really concentrate on the sounds. For us, words don’t just relate to the language and the images they project; they also relate to the sounds, because the intention you give them is completely linked to how you position your tongue, how loud you sing, or what type of microphone you use.”
Being cataloged as Dark Gothic doesn’t bother them, although they prefer not to attach labels to their music. “A lot of people worry that we’re going to do an acoustic show, or if we’re going to dress gothic, like vampires,” Suzanne says, laughing and adopting a jokingly mischievous expression. “For us, it’s not about the form, but the substance. For us, the fundamental thing is the music, the sound—the rest is superficial.” Ryan is happy to know that the goths (darkies) enjoy their albums, but he assures that their songs are open to all tastes, to any type of audience.
As for the origin of the unusual name, which means something like ‘love in eternal descents,’ they relate that a while ago, at two or three in the morning, after a day of intense work, they were listening to the radio. A host said: “Oh, love spirals upwards!” (Suzanne adopts a cheesy host voice). “We immediately thought, ‘That’s a good name!‘”
But they say the vibe that really fits them is the music they put out, which is a little more depressive, more dark, gothic, or whatever.