LILLIX LOOKING PRIME FOR SUCCESS

With Sarah Lounges
                                                                           
                                                    

Hey everybody!  This month I had the pleasure of speaking with Louise Burns, of the nationally rising rock band Lillix, whose album comes out the middle of next month.  

      Already getting great reviews in such industry trade publications as Billboard Magazine, Lillix is -- guitarist Tasha-Ray Evin (age 17), sister and keyboardist Lacey-Lee Evin (age 19), bassist Louise Burns (age 17), and drummer Kim Urhahn (age 23).  

     “Tasha, Lacey and I have been a band for almost 6 years now.  Kim joined the band last year,” said explained.    

     Originally the band was under the name Tigerlilly, but due to legal reasons, they changed their name to Lillix.  “There are tons of other bands with the name Tigerlilly or The Lilies or something like that, so we came up with the name Lillix...it’s kind of like a derivative of Tigerlilly.”  

     As with all bands, Lillix has its share of musical influences that contributed to their sound and who they have become.  “Kim grew up listening to the Ramones and all the punk rock music stuff.  She’s really into Green Day and Nirvana.... actually, we all love Nirvana.  Tasha and Lacey grew up on stuff like Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Ted Nugent and The Beatles.  Personally I grew up listening to classical music like Beethoven.  The Beatles also, when I think of music I think of The Beatles...we all kind of have similar influences, but diverse at the same time.”

        If you are a big fan of television, you may have heard Lillix’s cool cover of the Romantics’ 1979 hit, “What I Like About You”,  which serves as the theme song to the WB Network sit-com of the same name.  This is not the first time that Lillix has done business with the WB.   

“The WB Network actually approached us last year, and we did a cover of “Who Do You Love?”, produced by Philip Steir, for the network’s Image Campaign.  They liked that so much that they came back to us with the idea for us to cover ‘What I Like About You’, which was also produced by Philip Steir.”  

The debut album form Lillix, Falling Uphill, will be coming out on May 13th.  I spoke to Louise on the experience of recording her first album. “I don’t think that there’s just one word to describe it.  It was stressful.  It was a lot of fun. It was a learning experience. But it was very hard sometimes too.  There were definitely some emotional moments, because it took so long, but overall I think we’re all really happy with the album.  We learned a lot and we grew a lot from it. It’s been a long time coming but  its all been worth it.”  

Unlike most bands who have a set lead vocalist, Lillix trades off  that job between Tasha-Ray, Lacey-Lee and Louise.   

The same goes for songwriting. “We wrote all the songs (on this album) ourselves.  But some of the material is like five years old.  It’s funny because there are two really old songs on there. I know that one of them is from when Tasha was twelve-years-old and I wrote one when I was like fourteen. They both got on the album.  What’s important is that it’s all us though. We’ve always written our own songs.  That’s what being a band is all about.”

  The ladies of Lillix are currently touring their native Canada, but plan on touring the United States later this year.   

Now every band has a fellow artist that they would love to tour with and Lillix is no exception.  “There are so many artists that we want to tour with.  One of them is Weezer...we would love to tour with Weezer!  And The Donnas would be totally cool too.  There’s also a local band out of Canada called Mary Out Of Trent.  They’re amazing, we’d love to do a tour with them.”  

     More times than not, when faced with fame and popularity people tend to change. Louise is aware that can happen, but said fame has not affected much change within Lillix.  

    “In some ways it’s changed us, I guess, but what it all boils down too is egos and that kind of stuff.  We’re still the same girls that lived in Cranbrook four years ago, nothing has changed that way.  But we have definitely grown up and we definitely know a lot more than we did two years ago.  We have matured, we had to learn independence, responsibility, perseverance and effort. It’s been such a learning experience, but I think we’re still very level-headed and grounded.”  

     With the craze of teen pop dying out, I asked Louise what her opinion was on performers who used their bodies rather than talent to sell music.  “I think there’s a place for that kind of music and I think there’s a place for the real music.  That I would consider more the entertainment side of the business.  It’s always going to be there, I have no problem with it, it’s just not our thing.”  

     To end the interview with the charming Ms. Burns, I asked if she had any advice for anyone who would like to follow in her footsteps and pursue a music career.  “Never, ever stop!  Keep going strong and take every opportunity life gives to you,” she urged. 

                                     Have a wonderful Easter everyone.  See you in May.  
   

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