The All Purpose Nuclear Bedtime Story Phone-In
Projekt Records hooked us up with Love Spirals Downwards’ mastermind, Ryan Lum, to –ostensibly– discuss next weekend’s first-ever ProjektFest LA show at the El Rey Theatre hosted by Coven 13. As Ryan lives within walking distance of the venue, it makes for the perfect choice for this chill, go with the flow musician, who apparently was reluctant to leave his neighborhood as he opted to phone-in his interview rather than drive over for an in-studio conversation. None-the-less, Justin and I had a fun, informal chat with the composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist, who is currently on the verge of completing the band’s fourth full-length album for Projekt. But first he has to figure out the lineup of musicians for next weekend’s concert and whether or not he should strip on stage or set himself on fire. Read on to find out more.
Interview by Anji Bee & Justin Jay of KUCI 88.9 fm. Intro by Anji.
Anji: Gosh, this is really weird doing a phone interview. It’s weird not having the person in front of us. Are you there?
Ryan: I’m just a few miles away, so I’m kinda “there.”
Justin: What, you’re in a phone booth a few miles down the road right now?
Anji: (Laughs)
Ryan: Basically I got lost trying to find the station, so… No, actually I’m at my place about a half an hour, an hour away.
Justin: Don’t give away the location!
Ryan: (Laughs nervously) LA, somewhere.
Justin: LA. Okay. That’s good and general.
Ryan: (Chuckles)
Justin: That should protect you.
Ryan: (Chuckles) I dunno. I’ve never had any, like, psycho fans or devoted freaks try to find me.
Anji: You haven’t?
Justin: Well, you know, if you wanna give it a shot you can always give out your home address right now.
All: (Laughs)
Ryan: And my phone number.
Justin: There you go. You can at least get some crank calls.
Ryan: (Laughing) Yeah, no, I don’t want that. It’d probably be people that don’t even like us, they just wanna crank call us.
Anji: You’re a pretty visible figure as it is. I mean, I see you at clubs and stuff.
Ryan: I’m tall. I guess I’m easy to spot and stuff.
Anji & Justin: Yeah.
Anji: You really are.
Anji & Justin: (Laughs)
Anji: Yeah, in fact, I saw you at Coven 13 the day. They were filming for some Gothic underground thing on Fox, or whatever.
Ryan: Oh, is that what was going on?
Anji: Yeah, we inadvertently got filmed and put on TV. We didn’t even know what was going on.
Ryan: Oh, like a few months ago? In January?
Anji: No, it was just last Sunday.
Ryan: Last Sunday?
Anji: Yeah, last Sunday they were filming there.
Ryan: Oh, they were filming that?
Anji: Yeah, you missed your big promo shot.
Ryan: Nah. They probably wouldn’t have put me on. I wouldn’t have had anything sensational to say.
Anji: Plus, you’re just like a regular guy. You don’t have any, like, spiderwebs drawn on your face or anything.
Ryan: Exactly. That’s a prerequisite to be on those Fox Underground specials. You have to be a freak, or like a major loser on heroin or something.
Justin: So wait a minute, we were on there — so what are you saying?
All: (Laugh uproariously)
Ryan: I live really close to there. I heard a freak was going to light himself on fire and I wanted to see that.
Anji: Well, did you see the guy spinning around with all the needles through his flesh?
Ryan: Yeah, he was supposed to light himself on fire. I don’t know if you noticed the reference to that when they played the Jimi Hendrix song?
Anji: I was wondering why they were playing Jimi Hendrix.
Ryan: That’s why, because he was supposed to burn himself. Even though I got in free, I felt like I wanted my money back.
Anji: Two of my friends were there because they wanted to see Joel take his clothes off so they wanted their money back.
Ryan: Who’s that? The guy that was spinning around?
Anji & Justin: No!
Anji: No, this is Fate Fatal, the singer of Deep Eynde.
Ryan: Oh the singer was going to take his clothes off?
Anji: Well, he usually kinda strips down to, like, a loin cloth and a razor blade vest.
Ryan: You had friends that wanted to see that? He’s wasn’t exactly Brad Pitt. Should I strip down then? Is that the way it works out?
Justin: Yes.
Anji: You’re going to be playing there next Sunday, right?
Ryan: Mmm hmm. Yeah. Maybe we’ll strip? I’ll try to get all of us to strip, if that’s what people are into. We’ve never done that before while playing live.
Anji: “All of us“? How many of you are going to be performing?
Ryan: I dunno. Anywhere between 2 and 4. (Laughs nervously)
Anji: Really?! Oh, I didn’t know that.
Ryan: We have a guitar player who’s, he played on a song or two on the new record we’re working on.
Anji: Oh cool.
Ryan: So the idea kind of extended out of that — “Hey, why don’t you play the song that you played on the record with us?” And we’re going to try to do a few more songs. The only setback for Rodney being there Sunday is that his wife is expecting a baby right around that day. Hopefully the baby won’t be coming that day.
Justin: Oh, wow, yeah, that wouldn’t be good.
Ryan: So, I’m just taking it all as it comes. You know, I want him to play because we got together a few nights ago and it sounded great. I really loved what it added to the songs that he played on. And then another friend coming out who might be —we’re going to see — we’re just trying to work him into either drums or another guitar. I don’t know, he’s bringing both pieces of gear out. I don’t know what will happen. I have no idea. I know we’re playing, but I don’t know if it’s going to be two, three or four people yet.
Justin: Have you ever played live before with more than just the two of you?
Ryan: We have, but just for like a song or two. Like, yeah, just one song. We had friends that do percussion.
Anji: Cool. I think last time I talked to you about the live experience, you were kind of complaining that you were bored with the set you’re doing. So, this ought to throw a lot of excitement into it.
Ryan: Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah, it’s kind of painful to play the same songs over and over and over again. I mean, the way to make it less painful is to pump a new kind of life into it by doing something different to it. I started working with Rodney on guitar, and it’s like, “Wow, this is cool!” It brings this whole new… you know, I thought it would just be adding something to what Suzanne and I do, but more than that, it’s like a whole ‘nother human adding a whole ‘nother layer to it. So, it’s cool.
Anji: Yeah. It’s something for you to react against too.
Ryan: Yeah, then we could jam. We could rock out too.
Anji: Ooh you should.
Ryan: We’re going to, like, do our poses and stuff that we, you know, always wanted to do, but I couldn’t do before. So now I can rock out.
Anji: Hot licks.
Justin: Have you been practicing those?
Ryan: Practicing the poses? They’re already working out how we’re going to destroy our guitars at the end of the set.
Anji: Aww, yeah. Well, maybe you could be the man that sets himself on fire?
Ryan: Yeah, I’ll strip, I’ll light myself on fire, put needles in myself, and spin around on a wheel like a freak.
Anji: Oh, I better contact Fox so they can get down there.
Ryan: Oh, yeah, they’ll wanna film that. (Chuckles)
Justin: Oh, you know they’re listening right now. They’ve already got their tipsters calling it in.
Ryan: Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, come film us. We’re all freaks, Fox, come film us.
Anji: Oh, my God.
Ryan: We’re just four nice people. If we tell them that, they won’t come. So, we’ll tell them we’re freaks.
Justin: Yeah, we’ll keep this secret.
Anji: That’s funny. So, you know, I don’t know if you want to talk about this or not, but you kind of mentioned to me earlier that you were going to be asking a KUCI DJ to come up and spin a little bit?
Ryan: Oh, yeah. Well, just before our set, I kind of consider it like a part of our set, like the 20 or so minutes that immediately proceed when we come on, it’s a critical, it’s an important time. So, yeah, I like to have music play that I like. Often I’ll bring CDs and stuff at our shows and play something that I’m into or I think kind of sets a good mood for us to come on afterwards. So, I know Daniel’s kind of music he plays on a set would be something I want to have played, anyway. So yeah, I think it’s going to work out good.
Anji: Wow, that sounds really great.
Ryan: I’m keeping it a secret from Projekt though, so… I think they might get mad that I’m not playing the kind of music that I officially should, or I don’t know… they’re kind of dogmatic about certain things. So, I dunno know. I just don’t tell them all my crazy ideas about like, you know, how I’m going to burn myself and stuff.
Anji: Yeah.
Ryan: All this is going to be a total shock to them.
Anji: I love it. Yeah, you’re going to go beyond just wearing the psychedelic shirt on stage.
Ryan: (Chuckles) I don’t think I’m gonna wear the psychedelic shirt for a while.
Anji: Oh, you learned your lesson, huh?
Ryan: (Chuckling) Yeah, yeah, no. Only at our own shows will I wear the psychedelic shirts again.
Anji: Aww yeah, I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot of black lace and stuff.
Ryan: Yeah, that’s cool. See some cute goth babes?
Anji: Yeah.
Ryan: That’s why I was there in January. I was a judge for a “Goth Babe” show there. Yeah, they asked me and said, “Well, sure, I’ve seen many goth babes in my day. I can definitely tell you a goth babe when I see one.” In fact, I kind of appreciate the goth babe look. It’s cute. It’s sexy. It’s nice. But it sucks though, like the girl who won was not goth, though. She was somehow more of a fetish or industrial kind of chick.
Anji: Oh.
Ryan: I think why she won is she was like — oh, it comes back to fire! She was, like, eating fire.
Anji: What?
Ryan: I think she just friends with a lot of the people there too, the judges. I don’t think the judging was right. It was kind of biased. I dunno know. After it just got started, I thought it was stupid. I thought it was gonna be really cool, but I thought it was really hacked.
Justin: You know, any contests like that is just a popularity contest.
Ryan: Yeah, basically it was like, yeah, like high school, basically.
Justin: Yeah.
Ryan: I told the girl that I voted for with the highest points later on, I said, “You know, I gave you the highest points because you were the best Goth Babe there.” She goes, “Well, your vote didn’t count.” I said, “Yeah, I was one of the judges.”
Anji: Oh, you know…
Ryan: I didn’t have my fangs on again.
Anji: You should remember the needles in your eyelids.
Ryan: Oh, yeah, I got to do something next time to stand out more. You guys noticed me because you know me, but if you don’t know me, I’m just some tall guy that you don’t notice.
Anji: Well, I dunno. You’re so tall, it’s hard not to notice you — “Who’s the tall friendly guy that’s smiling over there?”
Ryan: Here’s a guy that’s tall, smiling, laughing, drinking a beer.
Justin: He’s having a good time here.
Anji: He looks relaxed and happy.
Ryan: Yeah, I guess you’re right, I guess I do stand out there.
All: (Laughs)
Anji: That’s funny. You know what? I better tell the people that they’re listening to KUCII in Irvine. This is Ryan from Love Spirals Downwards, and we’re talking to him about the Projekt Fest —ostensibly— that’s coming up this Sunday. What time are you guys going on at?
Ryan: At 11.
Anji: That’s a good time.
Ryan: Yeah, not too late, not too early.
Justin: Yeah. So what did you mention who else is going to be playing with you there?
Ryan: Black Tape for a Blue Girl from Projekt, and us —Love Spirals Downwards— and Faith and the Muse — I have no idea what label they’re on anymore, they were on Tess.
Anji: Yeah, it’s kind of odd if it’s a Projekt Fest?
Ryan: Yeah, it’s kind of weird. Like, it’s a Projekt Fest, but there’s only two Projekt bands.
Anji: Yeah, if its a festival that’s a little…
Ryan: I should try to pump it up, but to me it just seems like a Projekt Fest by name, you know, because the other ones are usually two days and there’s a whole bunch of Projekt bands, maybe one or so non-Projekt artists, I don’t know.
Anji: Yeah, I thought originally there was supposed to be a couple other bands?
Ryan: Yeah, well, originally it was supposed to be just a Thanatos and Love Spirals Downwards show.
Anji: Oh, is that how it started?
Justin: Hmm.
Ryan: That’s what I agreed to when they first asked me to do it. Padraic from Thanatos was going to bring his band out west.
Justin: Right.
Ryan: I don’t know. They wanted to have a bigger show than what would have been if they just played. So, you know, piggyback onto a Love Spirals Downwards show and that would be a nice little show. But it kind of got morphed and twisted. Thanatos is no longer playing, now it’s a Project Festival.
Anji: That’s really odd. And then when I talked to Lisa, she said that Coven 13 is actually putting it on, not Projekt, so I was really confused.
Ryan: Yeah, it’s weird.
Anji: Yeah, it’s very odd.
Ryan: I mean, if anyone’s ever gone to the Projekt Festivals in Chicago, this will be completely different. That’s why I say it’s more of a Projekt Festival by name, because other ones, it’s like a big thing. People travel from all over. There’s a hotel where a lot of people stay at. It’s an event of sorts, you know? It lasts for several days. This will be one that just lasts for several hours, you know? It’s kind of communal in a certain sense, the Chicago ones. You know, there’s all these people all together. You see them all around.
Anji: Yeah, well, hopefully we’ll get a real one out here sometime.
Ryan: Yeah, I don’t know. I wouldn’t count on it. This is probably the closest you’ll get. So go, people, if you want to sort of see one.
Anji: Yeah.
Ryan: As far as I know they are not going to have a Chicago one this summer. So, maybe that’ll all change, but I don’t think so, because they’ve really got to start planning it now. So, this is probably it, that’s my best guess.
Anji: So, hey, tell us about your new album you’re working on. I’m really curious about this.
Ryan: Oh, it rocks. It’s really good.
Anji: It rocks?
Ryan: I hate talking about something like that. I mean, I don’t hate it. It’s hard. It’s difficult to do, just because… I don’t know… I never know what to say. I know what it sounds like. I’ve heard all the songs a ton of times and I’m really jazzed about it, but to describe it… That’s always difficult for me. That’s why I just like to make records and just let people describe it themselves or something. But it’s a little more, I don’t know… Each of our albums change. We’re not, you know, frozen in place since our first record or anything. And, you know, as we progress through life and, you know, age and experience different things… You know, you change as people and, you know, your aesthetics change a little bit, and your art changes a bit. This album’s another kind of change, I guess. I don’t know, it still sounds like us. It’s very, you know, pretty and sensual and spacey. But it has more, I don’t know, more electronic stuff than acoustic guitar.
Justin: Oh, nice.
Anji: That’s what I was wondering!
Ryan: Ethereal Breakbeat, is what I said a couple times.
Anji: That works! Yeah, I was going to ask you if it had more beats, like you were starting to work with beats on the last one [Ever].
Ryan: Yeah, the last one is more of a straightforward kind of trance beat. This one [Flux] is much more, I don’t know, it’s more funkier beats, I guess. Yeah, breakbeats, you know.
Anji: So, speaking of beats and electronic stuff, were you telling me that you have kind of a solo, like, more techno type thing that you’re working on as well?
Ryan: Ummm… No?
Anji: What were you saying about what you were going to do up on Dan’s show?
Ryan: Oh, I was going to play some of our stuff.
Anji: Oh, okay.
Ryan: Yeah, without Suzanne. Just like, come and play the music and samples of her –and other stuff– and kind of rock that all together live.
Anji: Oh, I hope you’ll still get a chance to.
Ryan: Yeah, I hope to. Yeah, after the show’s done and after our album’s done next month, then I can start doing other fun things that I’ve been putting off just out of necessity because I’m just trying to direct all my momentum to finish finishing this record up. I’ve been working pretty hard on it for about a year, really hard since summer, and I just want to finish it.
Anji: Wow, so where are you recording it at, at home?
Ryan: Yeah, my studio.
Anji: Oh, you have a studio.
Justin: Nice.
Ryan: Yeah, I always do everything at my studio. I would spend like $100,000 —no, more than that — if I had to use a real expensive, you know, real studio.
Anji: So, have you worked alone or do you have someone that helps you?
Ryan: I work alone.
Anji: Really?
Ryan: I mean, other than the people I record —like Suzanne’s voice and stuff— but I work alone.
Anji: Wow, so you just…
Ryan: I do everything.
Anji: You produce and everything?
Ryan: Oh, yeah, that’s the only way to do it.
Justin: I do, too.
Anji: Yeah, that’s what we do, too. But sometimes it gets to be a little bit difficult, you know, when you’re, like, playing guitar and then also trying to push the buttons and everything.
Ryan: Yeah, you get used to it, I guess.
Anji: Yeah. So, hmm, anything else that you wanted to let us know about?
Ryan: Um, I don’t know. Love Spirals Downwards, buy them. Go down to Tower, buy them.
Anji: You could promote the website.
Ryan: Oh, yeah, um, there’s the project site, which is projekt.com. Projekt is spelled with a K, not a C.
Justin: That’s helpful.
Ryan: And from there, you can just click on to our page, which is a really long, I don’t know, well professionally done page. Not just like a hacked together thing or anything.
Justin: Like ours.
Justin & Anji: (Laughs)
Ryan: I haven’t seen your guys.
Justin & Anji: (Laughs)
Ryan: Yeah, we got a lot of stuff there, actually. I update the news on there regularly, like every month or so. There’s not always something to talk about, but whenever there’s something going on like, you know, a show, or album progress, or something I want people to know, I’ll put it on there so they can know what’s up. Um, you can email us, there’s a way to do that on there. And we have a guest book too, so you can, you know, read what other people all across the world have to say. So you’re not the only one that likes us — if you happen to like us, you’ll find a whole bunch of other people– and you can add your comments. And I have some reviews of some of our records — in case you’re kind of wondering more or less what it sounds like. And also we have audio for some songs on Ever, our most recent album, which is about a year and a half-old now.
It requires a plug-in, a shockwave plug-in. And I don’t know, check it out. There’s a lot of stuff there.
Anji: Cool.
Ryan: Yeah, projekt.com
Justin: That’s nice and easy to remember.
Ryan: Yeah, very easy.
Anji: So do you have any requests or something we might play right now?
Ryan: Um, of mine?
Anji: Of yours or anyone else.
Ryan: I don’t know, I won’t be able to hear it, so…
Justin: We’ve actually got Ever in the player right now, if you wanna pick a song off of there.
Anji: Oh, yeah. What’s your favorite song off of Ever?
Ryan: A favorite song? Oh, man. I was just out with someone last night and she kept asking me questions like this that put me on the spot.
Anji: Oh, no.
Ryan: Like a whole bunch of times! I think she started doing it after a while just to watch me squirm.
Anji: What?!
Ryan: Because I would freeze. My brain just freezes, you know?
Anji: I’m like that, too.
Justin: That’s great. Now we’ve got a recording of it.
Anji: Squirming.
Ryan: Of my brain freezing?!
Justin: Ryan squirming.
Ryan: Can you hear that? My brain freezing?
Anji: Sort of.
Ryan: Um, off Ever. Let’s see. That was kind of like, um, let’s see… “Madras,” song 3.
Justin: Yeah.
Anji: Alright, we’re gonna do an instant request now. Can you do a show ID for us first?
Ryan: This is Ryan from Love Spirals Downwards, and you’re listening to KUCI.
Anji: In Irvine.
Ryan: Damn it. So I have to say “KUCI, in Irvine.”
Justin: That’s right.
Ryan: Okay, I’ll try to learn to, I’ll get it right. I have a good memory.
Justin: Good.
Ryan: (Chuckles) If I did, I would’ve got it right the first time. Okay, um, this is Ryan from Love Spirals Downwards, and you’re listening to KUCI in Irvine.
Justin: Oh, that’s so amazing.
Anji: All right, thank you.
Justin: Yeah, that’s going to be our next station ID that we make up here.
(Interview taken from the show page on the KUCI website with permission)