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.
Jive interviewed Ryan and Anji for the music section of their print magazine. Their website also features Lovespirals interview plus an mp3 of the brand new unreleased song, “Love Survives.” Be sure to check that out at www.jivemagazine.com and if you can pick up a copy of the magazine, snatch it up now!
May 2002, Jive Magazine, Russ Marshalek
Q: When did the Ryan/Anji collaborations begin, and how did that come to be?
Anji: Ryan and I started working together late 1998, early 1999. We pretty much hooked up through my radio show on KUCI 88.9 fm. He had me come over to his studio to check out some new stuff he was working on (which later turned out to be ‘Beatitude’ and ‘Love Survives’) and I was really into it. The first two songs we did, “Ecstatic” and “Hand in Hand,’ Ryan made dub plates of; he was more heavily into deejaying at that time.
Q: Is it a 50/50 sort of artistic collaboration, with one person writing music and the other writing vocals?
Anji: We actually write the songs together. There’s no one way we compose, exactly, but lately we’ve been working from guitar and vocal lines first. I go around singing things all the time, so I’ve got a backlog of song ideas to work on whenever he’s ready. Ryan plays guitar and bass, and can hack out stuff on keyboard, so he does all of that for us. He does most of the programming, too, I pretty much just co-write and produce along side of him. I don’t really play any instruments, but I’m into sampling and looping, and know my way around ProTools and Peak, which is what we basically use.
MacNETv2, a fansite for Mac users, just posted an interview with Ryan and Anji discussing their use of Macs in music, design, and website creation. We’ll include some excerpts below:
April 2001, MacNETv2, Chris Volpe
Chris:: Do Macs enhance your creativity in any way?
Ryan: I don’t know if Macs make me more creative, but as far as computers go, they’re the least obtrusive in letting me get on with my creative work in the studio without being forced into thinking like a computer. You just point, click, drag, and don’t have to worry about anything else with regards to the computer. I see computers as a tool, a tool you use to get things done. I think Macs are by far the best platform for anyone who does music or graphics. Also for getting photos, mp3s, and video into and out of your computer, nothing can compete with Macs and all the new Apple software like iTunes, iMovie, and iPhoto. But if you’re a more nerdy C++ or ASP programmer, I’d say PCs are the way to go and a Mac wouldn’t be the right tool at all.
Chris:: Tell me some things about the new CD [Windblown Kiss] that you’d like the readers to know. How’s this recording different?
Ryan: This is the first time that I’ve had the recording quality that I’ve always wanted. The whole thing was recorded and mixed to 24 bit. In the past 4 or so years, the technology and cost have finally come together to allow truly great quality digital recordings. Still, you need to have the engineering and production skills, as well as good microphones and outboard gear, to take full advantage of it.
Ryan Lum and Suzanne Perry started imposing their own style of ethereal music back in the early nineties. Refusing to see his music getting static, Ryan has always opted for innovation, sharpening his melodies and every time enriching the mood and atmosphere of his compositions that were better and better fitting Suzanne’s lilting voice. Today, Love Spiral Downwards release a retrospective collection of rare and unreleased material on Projekt Records, the perfect occasion for Sideline to look back with Ryan on one decade of melodic sumptuousness.
By Julie Johnson
Sideline: How was Temporal a good way to start 2000 with a collection of past to present songs with never heard songs?
LSD: It was kind of nice to step back and survey the whole history of the band before beginning the new millennium— to take stock of all the work and realize that I really like a lot of what we’ve done. And there were some tracks I had done recently for things that didn’t pan out, so this was a great way to get them out on CD where people can hear them.
Sideline: How does Temporal illustrate growth and maturity in the band?
LSD:Temporal shows the progress of the music over time; the similarities as well as the differences. I notice the differences in my recording set up and gear, but that’s just my focus. People like to talk about the sound change for the band, but really, it’s been a gradual process. The music reflects the changes in our lives and interests over time, and this album kinda sums that up. We aren’t static people, and Love Spirals Downwards is not a static band; everything is merely temporal.
Indie goths gone electronic, LSD’s sound now sketches its past while tracing its future.
“We’re the first and only for a lot of things on Projekt,” says Ryan Lum, the multi-instrumentalist and driving force behind Love Spirals Downwards, darkwave label Projekt Record’s top-selling act. Lum is sipping on a soda in a RadioSpy conference room and choosing his words carefully. He’s speaking of his band’s use of saxophone riffs on a song from its latest release, Temporal, a career retrospective that includes a number of unreleased tracks. Lum was concerned that Sam Rosenthal, Projekt Record’s sometimes finicky founder, might be less than enthusiastic about the sax track.
“[Rosenthal] actually made a positive comment about the saxophone. He said, ‘You know, it fits somehow,” recounts Anji Bee, Ryan’s self-described “partner-in-crime” and recent collaborator on everything from album art to vocals. Lum’s experimentation — with his sound and with the band’s direction — initially met with grudging acceptance from Rosenthal, who eventually warmed to the band’s new sound.
“It’s not his cup of tea,” Lum says of Rosenthal’s reaction to the band’s shift in sound from “shoegazer,” the ethereal style of feedback- and synth-drenched pop defined by British bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and the Cocteau Twins, to drum ‘n’ bass. “But we more or less have artistic freedom to do as we please. I guess being the top seller on the label doesn’t hurt us in that,” Lum says with a chuckle.
Ryan Lum may have tamed the breakbeat. His duo with vocalist Suzanne Perry, Love Spirals Downwards, has turned out three brilliant albums of majestic, guitar-wash dream-pop on the Projekt label, rife with heavenly ballads that conjure images of exotic cultures. But on Flux, the group’s fourth album, Lum adds breakbeats to the mix without compromising the band’s signature sound.
A follower of the dance music scene since the acid house of the late ’80s, Lum had wanted to do a more electronic Love Spirals Downwards album for years, but never found the right style. “When I first heard the more ambient, ethereal breakbeat stuff, I was amazed,” he says. “I haven’t heard music that moved my soul like that in years.” So when work began on Flux, the multi-instrumentalist/producer built many of the tracks on breakbeat foundations. “I’m used to making pop songs, like an A section, a B section,” Lum says, “but half the songs on Flux don’t follow that traditional pattern. It’s like having all these different parts and having them make sense as they flow together.”
LOVE SPIRALS DOWNWARDS FOUNDER RYAN LUM DISCUSSES USING THE SONY MDM-X4 FOR THE BAND’S LATEST ALBUM, FLUX.
I got the MDM-X4 mainly to record vocals, figuring that four tracks of audio would be plenty for our vocal tracks. But soon after I started using the MDM-X4 for recording Suzanne Perry’s vocals, it became apparent to me that I could get much more out of this unit than I first thought I could from a 4-track recorder. By planning my editing, I found I could free up a track or two, which then gave me ideas to add more guitars to many of the songs, which I did. Using the MDM-X4 gave me more creative options with my guitars, which in the end helped make the songs better.
THE DARLINGS OF PROJEKT Interview & photos by Anji Bee
Love Spirals Downwards are known as the darlings of Projekt Records. And with just cause; they are the best selling band, with the hottest moving new release of Projekt for 1998, “Flux.” This latest of 4 popular full-length albums marks a turning point in the band’s ever-fluxing sound. Whereas the last album, “Ever,” showcased several electronic-based songs in the mix, “Flux” concentrates almost completely on the electronica side of band mastermind, Ryan Lum’s musical influences. There has been some slight controversy over LSD’s “sound change” and band member relationships, but all of that seems ludicrous to the mellow, well adjusted Lum. He’s always created the music for Love Spirals Downwards using whatever inspiration happened to hit him, be it a fine dining experience, an exotic vacation, a shamanic vision, or just simply a new piece of gear to fiddle around with. Although a philopsher at heart, searching for his own personal truth in life, Ryan isn’t a terribly serious artist with an attitude or an agenda. He just likes to make music like anybody else does, for the fun of it.
An interview with Ryan Lum of Love Spirals Downwards by Gary Thrasher
Call it post-shoegazer, call it ethereal majesty… call it post-apocalyptic drum ’n’ bass trance… just don’t cal lit goth. Love Spirals Downwards, darlings of the Projekt label, are a blissful masterpiece of hypnotic rhythms and swirling guitars, topped off with angelic vocals… all with a tinge of dark moodiness and Middle Eastern mysticism. With their fourth album, Flux, a foray into the hazed world of melodic drum ’n’ bass, Love Spirals Downwards are poised on the brink of world dominance… it was on this cliff that I spoke with the mastermind behind the music, Ryan Lum.
How did Love Spirals Downwards come together in the beginning and how did you first become involved with Projekt Records?
It’s so long ago. Suzanne and I knew each other and we just decided to try it out… see how it worked with her singing on stuff I had made. I’d been making music for ages. I’m always just recording and making my own music, as opposed to doing the band thing. I don’t mind rehearsing for shows, but I like to record… that’s where my heart is. I sent a few demo tapes out for the hell of it. I didn’t know who Projekt was. One of my friends, the guy who shot our cover for the first album, knew someone in his art school… Susan Jennings (Projekt owner Sam Rosenthal’s former girlfriend). Somehow they got talking and she said, “Why don’t you have your friend Ryan send his tape in?” We sent a few others out, I think 4AD and Creation were the other two, and Projekt was the first and only to respond. It just evolved from that.
Love Spirals Downwards are known as the darlings of Projekt Records. And with just cause; they are the best selling band, with the hottest moving new release of Projekt for 1998, “Flux.” This latest of 4 popular full-length albums marks a turning point in the band’s ever-fluxing sound. Whereas the last album, “Ever,” showcased several electronic-based songs in the mix, “Flux” concentrates almost completely on the electronica side of band mastermind, Ryan Lum’s musical influences. There has been some slight controversy over LSD’s “sound change” and band member relationships, but all of that seems ludicrous to the mellow, well-adjusted Lum. He’s always created the music for Love Spirals Downwards using whatever inspiration happened to hit him, be it a fine dining experience, an exotic vacation, a shamanic vision, or just simply a new piece of gear to fiddle around with. Although a philosopher at heart, searching for his own personal truth in life, Ryan isn’t a terribly serious artist with an attitude or an agenda. He just likes to make music for the fun of it.
Interview by DJs Anji Bee & Justin Jay. Intro written by Anji.
Anji: So this time around, we’re going to talk about the band, your new album, musical influences, and then just generally shoot the bull. Justin: And we’re not going to mention fire tonight. Ryan: Yeah. We won’t mention fire or stripping. Anji: Or Goth clubs? Ryan: Oh, anything, as long as there’s no fire or stripping. (Laughs) Last time, that’s all we talked about. Anji: Yeah, that Coven 13 show seemed to make a really big impression on you. Ryan: The one with the fire and the stripping? Or our show there? Justin: Actually, that <your show> was really cool. You guys did the cover of that Fleetwood Mac song. Ryan: Yeah, “Dreams.” Anji: It was so good. I wish I had a recording of that. Ryan: Cool. We were surprised it worked good. When we first started jamming it, experimenting, it was fun — funny fun. But then it was like, “Damn! This sounds good. Let’s play it tonight!“ Anji: Yeah? Suzanne was holding the lyric sheet on stage. Ryan: I taped the lyrics to the floor. I wrote them out all big for her, but she didn’t want to do that. The thing that sucks is that she still has my CD liner notes! She didn’t give it back, so I don’t have the cover. Hopefully she hasn’t lost it. I still have my original vinyl from 1970-whatever. I was in 4th grade when I bought it. (Chuckles) Justin: The other people that were playing with you that night; are they still in the band? Ryan: We haven’t done any shows since, but hopefully so. Definitely one of them, Drew, who was our percussion player, is going to be working with us. That’s for sure. And hopefully Rodney; Rodney is a little bit more busy. We’ll see. Definitely me, Suzanne and Drew will be doing stuff. It’ll be kinda like what you saw last time; more stuff than before. We’ll have guitars, bass, and all kinds of electronic gear. Anji: Drew has a nice voice. Ryan: That’s right, he was singing with Suzanne on that Fleetwood Mac song. Anji: Yeah, he was great. It was good stuff.
Love Spirals Downwards at the El Rey Theatre, 1998. Ryan Lum with guest, Drew Pluta
Justin: Well, we’ll talk to you about something other than Fleetwood Mac. (Laughs) Anji: Didn’t you tell me some story about Fleetwood Mac and the other band that played after you at that show? Ryan: Yeah, I think so. I forget. I was really drunk, so I can’t remember (Laughs) People couldn’t tell, but I was pretty toasted that night. Justin: You were sitting down, so you didn’t have to wobble too much. Ryan: Yeah, it’s easy to keep from falling when you’re sitting. I’d already had five or six beers before we went on. And then I had, like, three onstage. Afterwards, I went to the other bands dressing rooms and stole their beers, too. I figured, “If they’re not drinking them by now, then they’re not going to drink them!” Anji: That sounds like drunken logic. (Laughs) Ryan: That was a fun night. Friends that came back and hung out with us were surprised at how fun we are backstage. We’re crazy. People think that Projekt bands are — and for the most part, they’re probably right — kinda quiet and uptight or whatever. But not Love Spirals! Justin: You’re kind of the black sheep of Projekt. Ryan: Yeah, I guess so, on all levels. We have fun and laugh and joke around. Projekt bands aren’t known for that. Anji: That’s why I gravitated towards you guys at the Projekt party. You were sitting at the table having fun, so I was like, “I’m going to walk up and introduce myself!“ Ryan: That one at the little apartment in Los Angeles? Gee, we were pretty mellow that night, too. You should have gone to the Projekt barbecues. I think at that first one I had had a Mickey’s 40 ouncer. That is always a crowd stopper. If you’re holding a Mickey’s 40, people are, like, “Woah! You’re serious about drinkin’ here.” Anji: Mickey’s is good, though. Ryan: Oh yeah. It gets the job done. Anji: I used to be into those, but it’s all about wine now. So, back to Love Spirals Downwards, what are you working on now? Ryan: I’m working on getting live stuff together for us to do some shows. Not sure where or when yet, buty ou can check our web site for updates on that. I personally update our news, so there’s no rumors – everything is confirmed, absolute and will happen. Anji: Playing live is not a usual occurrence for LSD. Ryan: No, we usually play only a few shows a year. I don’t know what happened last year; we only played one — the one you guys went to– the Projekt Fest in Los Angeles, at the El Rey. That’s why I always tell people not to flake out on us; ’cause you don’t know when, or even if, we will play next. Anji: It’s always difficult to take such a studio based project to the stage. Ryan: Yeah. The way we work is kinda backwards. Most bands typically have a song first, then they go into the studio and record it. We’re the total opposite of that. We have no song first. I just start messing around in my studio, coming up with ideas, and at the end of a long process, finally, a song emerges. So, it’s kinda weird. We don’t rehearse ever, a song just gets created, almost through chance accident and goofing around. Anji: It’s mostly just you, isn’t it? Ryan: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Anji: You’re the man! Ryan: I am. (Laughs) I put a lot of work into it. Yeah. It takes me a long time to make a record. Justin: How many of the songs that you create end up on the albums? Ryan: Most all. I was telling you earlier that I had a few songs that I tossed away this time (during the creation of Flux). I think that was just because there was a bigger sound change. There were some songs that just didn’t quite click. I think all the songs I tossed were early ones. Right now I’m in that same process again; starting a new album and not wanting to make the same album again. So I’m going all over the place. I mean, it’s still gonna be an electronic record, I’m not going back to all acoustic again, but it’s not gonna be a drum ‘n’ bass record, like Flux was. Anji: It’s not?! Ryan: Nah. I mean, there might be some of that, but Flux, in my mind, is a drum ‘n’ bass record. Six of the nine songs have drum’n’ bass stuff going on, so it makes it that. Anji: So what are you working with now? Ryan: I don’t know yet. We’ll have to see. I have a couple things, nothing’s finished yet. Actually, I completed a song that seems like it might be for a side project. I thought it was going to be a Love Spirals thing, but I go, “OK. No. This is just way too off base.” Anji: How so? Tell us about it. Ryan: Well, it’s got some of my jazz buddies doing stuff on top of, like, more hard core drum ‘n’ bass. A little harder, not insanely hard, but a little more than our album, Flux, is. And there’s some really nicely played funky, bluesy, jazz sort-of Rhodes keyboards and saxophone. I don’t think there’s going to be any vocals either, so… It’ll probably end up being a side project for all of us. All three of us do other bands, so it would be something we do for fun. It’ll probably be just a 12″ only thing, assuming someone wants to put it out. We haven’t even gotten that far yet, but I don’t think we’re gonna go for making albums and all that. Anji: Well, that could drain a lot of energy away from your main project. Ryan: Yeah, that takes up enough time. I wasn’t intending to start a second band. Love Spirals takes up so much time as it is. Anji: I guess we’ll just have to be surprised with the next sound morphing. Ryan: Yeah, I’ll be surprised too. I can’t wait to get it going! I mean, Flux, I was probably working on maybe a year before the idea solidified and I saw what the end result was gonna be. I was just kinda trying different things. And then usually, hopefully, I have this moment of illumination where everything just clicks together, like, “Aha! That’s it!” I’m a firm believer of always trying different things, trying to push myself, not falling back into what I did before — even if it was successful. I get bored, and I feel as if I’ve cheated myself, too, if I don’t push myself to do something new. Anji: Are you still going to work with guitar? Ryan: Yeah. Uh huh. Probably just because it’s so available. I just reach out and grab a guitar off the floor and start playin’ it, and record some tracks with it. Anji: Do you have a lot of guitars? Ryan: Nah, I don’t have a collection or anything. I have like, four or five, or something. Anji: Oh, is that all?! (Laughs) Do you have a lot of gear, in general? Ryan: That depends on what you consider to be “a lot.” It’s not crazy — you don’t walk into my studio and go, “Wow, this guy is nuts!” or anything. It’s very compact and efficient. But I’ve been buying stuff, and recording , since — gosh — over a decade. Anji: I never even thought to ask you if you had a band before Love Spirals Downwards. Ryan: Not really. Just goofin’ off stuff. Love Spirals wasn’t even really supposed to be a band. It just kinda happened. Anji: That’s funny. You seem to believe in just letting life happen to you. Ryan: No, not necessarily. I just never had these aspirations to “make it,” or be a musician and all that stuff. I make music because I love doing it. Anji: That’s the reason to do it. Ryan: Yeah, and I always have to remind myself to keep that in mind. It’s so easy to get locked into, “OK. Let’s make an album, let’s make an album…” That’s what I like to do after an album is done, just relax and get back into making music just ’cause it’s fun. And that’s how I started this side band, whatever you wanna call it. Anji: Yeah, just ’cause you were goofing off and having fun? Ryan: Well, it was gonna be –I thought it would be– a Love Spirals song. That’s what I was aiming for. I just like to make music like most people make music; you just make stuff. You don’t think, “OK, it’s going to be on this album, it’s going to be song four, it’s going to...” — ya know? I just wanted to make a song, just make music, and worry about what to call it –what band it’s going to be and so on– afterwards. Anji: That’s cool. What is your studio like, anyway? Ryan: What is it like? (Laughs) How technical can I get on a radio show like this? (Laughs) Anji: Oh come on! Do you have an ADAT or what do you use? Ryan: Right now how it is? ‘Cause it’s always different, always changing. It’s totally different now than how it was when I made Flux. Anji: Wow! Is it in your house, or your apartment or whatever? Ryan: Yeah, it’s at my place. It takes over a whole room there. Right now it’s tapeless; I’m doing it all off hard drive, digital audio. Anji: I think a lot of people are going that way. Ryan: Yeah. The kind of music I make; it’s great for that, too. ‘Cause I’m always cutting and pasting stuff all over the place. I rarely ever lay down, like, four minutes of an instrument –like, lay down a drum track. I usually just put down a little bit and move it all around. It works good for me. Anji: Do you like to work in the night or the day? Ryan: I usually work in the day. I like to get up about 11 or so, have some breakfast, spend maybe a couple hours doing bureaucratic type things — like e-mailing people, calling people, I like to take care of that in the morning, then I get started about 1 or so, and then go to 6 or so. Anji: Sounds pretty leisurely! Ryan: It’s really intense when I’m working, though. Anji: I was just wondering if the change in your creative process and output is due to a changing interest in the music you listen to, or the clubs you go to? Ryan: I think the biggest reason why I change my sound all the time is because I’m always changing as a person. I mean, I’m a very different person now than I was even at the beginning of this year, and I’m a very different person than I was a year or two ago. The change between the albums is a reflection of the change in me, or Suzanne and myself, over that time. I don’t know if everyone changes like that or not, but we sure do, and I sure do. I don’t listen to the same stuff forever. I always buy new records, and I’m always going out and doing different things. The music is just a reflection of that. A lot of bands on our label don’t change ever; one album could be just like the one before it, and the one before that. I just wonder why anyone would want to buy this new album when it sounds just like the old one? Anji: Because then they’re guaranteed that they will like it. Ryan: I guess so. Anji: Come on; people that go to Goth clubs want to hear the same songs from 10 and 15 years ago every week! Ryan: Oh yeah, tell me about it. That kinda sucks, too, because I’ve been deejaying and Goth clubs have been scared to have me. They say, “Well, if you don’t play the records that everyone is used to hearing, they’ll leave.” It’s like, “What kind of club is that? I can’t play anything new? I have to play stuff that’s like 10 years old that the DJ plays every week?” I can’t come and play my own stuff. I have to play the songs that they he woulda played anyway. Anji: Isn’t that sad? Ryan: I’m not bagging on Gothic music, but Gothic clubs that subscribe to that philosophy, it’s just… it just shows you that it’s dead. Not “Gothic is Dead,” but “Gothic Dance Music is Dead.” They play the same 50 records. One of my friends came out with me to a Gothic club. He used to be a Goth DJ in the ’80’s and he’s going, “God! I could bring my same records — I haven’t bought anything new in 10 years — and I could fit in. I could play a set here.” You can’t do that at any other club. DJs are always buying records — it’s an investment. I’m buying new stuff. I’m blowing a lot of money on vinyl now, too. It just says something… Electronic clubs have been a lot more open to having me DJ, which is kinda interesting, because I’m less known in those circles than I am in Gothic circles. A Gothic club can put my name and “Love Spirals Downwards” on a flyer and it will attract a lot of people, but at Electronic clubs, they’re like, “Who’s Love Spirals Downwards?” But they see us around, they know we’re out and about, they know we have a following and stuff, and they’re been much more open. If I spun at a Gothic club, I wouldn’t be spinning all drum ‘n’ bass, I’d bring a lot of my old stuff. Anji: Cool. Well, we’ve talked about just about everything I can think of. Ryan: I thought you were going to dig all the dirt out, you said? Anji: Indeed. We were talking about Goth girls on the phone; do Goth chicks like you? Ryan: I don’t know. Do they? Anji: You are very post-post-Goth, I would say. Were you ever Goth-Goth? As in ruffles and stuff? Ryan: I never wore all the, like, dresses and, um, swords and fangs. Anji: Oh no! Contact lenses… Ryan: Yeah, the contact lenses that make their eyeballs bulge out. No. I would go to clubs of that sort before they were called that, in the ’80’s, and it wasn’t as crazy back then. People weren’t into vampirism and all that stuff. It was more of a music thing; it wasn’t a life style, it was just about music. I looked different back then. I mean, my hair was freakier and I had some make-up. Anji: No way! Ryan: Yeah. Anji: So what clubs do you go to now? Ryan: A lot of the people I know in Los Angeles throw stuff. The only big one I can think of is Dune, which happens once a year, out in the desert. And then every year, at Super Bowl time, they rent out a bowling alley and bring all their sound gear, and light gear and blast music. They get really drunk and bowl. It’s all free. I bowl like, 30 games. My arm is sore for a week afterwards. I actually go to small, hard to know about stuff. The last cool one was up on a mountain top a couple months ago. There was about 80 – 90 people dancing ’til the sun came up. Very, very spiritual. It was the same for me with Dune, even though that was 4 or 5 thousand people. One of those things where you’re dancing and it starts getting brighter… Anji: You dance? Ryan: Yeah, oh hell yeah. I have to be in the right mood, but yeah. I’m into trance or drum ‘n’ bass. When I get going I dance for three or four hours — I don’t stop. I love dancin’. I’ve been dancin’ since acid house in ’89. I’d dance for hours. It’s a very spiritual activity, I gotta tell ‘ya! I love it, but I don’t get to do it that much because it’s hard to get me in the right mood.
