"[4] Hearing these early cassette recordings while studying abroad in London,[5] Kristen's sister and Lum's then-girlfriend Suzanne[6] decided she wanted to try out for the band when she returned to America.
[9] In January 1991[10] as Lum recounted, Perry “just started singing one night” while he was “jamming something that became the song “Forgo” and it sounded cool, so we carried it out and found out that we worked together nicely.”[11] In the summer of 1991 the newly formed duo sent a demo tape with their first three songs "Forgo," "Mediterannea," and "Dead Language" to 4AD, Creation Records, and indie label Projekt Records[12][13] Pressed to come up with a band name for their demo tape, the duo found inspiration in a late night radio show, where the broadcaster exclaimed, “Love spirals upwards!” [14] [15] Upon the advice of a friend, however, they changed "Upwards" to "Downwards" to better fit the band's genre[16] as well as to avoid a connection to Louisiana State University.
[22] Although the band never officially broke up, in 1999, Lum began releasing music under the shortened moniker Lovespirals, featuring new vocal collaborator Anji Bee.
In January 2000, career retrospective CD Temporal was released by Projekt, including new remixes of songs from Flux and promotional materials that seemed to indicate the band was still active.
West was later replaced by The Von Trapps bandleader, Rodney Rodriguez,[24] who had contributed guitar to Love Spirals Downwards’ final studio album [25] and live performances back in 1998.