Question: What do two young sisters do to pass the slow time on the farm in the small town of Cranbrook, British Columbia? Answer: In 1997, Tasha-Ray and Lacey-Lee Evin started a band called Tigerlily.
The Evin sisters grew up addicted to their dad’s rock and roll collection, Canadian music channel Much Music and the Wayne’s World movies. Lacey-Lee Evin, the eldest of the 2 recalls her and Lacey performing choice cuts from the Cocktail soundtrack in front of their family. “Tasha and I listened to “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys over and over until we had it down then we sang it in front of everyone!” This began the life as performers for the girls.
Recruiting 2 friends from school, Louise Burns and Sierra Hills, Tigerlily was formed. Tasha began learning her favorite Hanson and Radiohead songs on the guitar while Lacey figured out various Supertramp and Queen licks on her keyboard. Louise and Sierra were left with bass and drums respectively. Soon Tigerlily began playing shows in their small town of Cranbrook and gained a following. The girls’ singing and songwriting talents started to blossom very early on and the band quickly recorded some demos. The recordings caught the ears of their new hometown fans, the local radio station, and eventually Maverick records.
Tigerlily signed to Maverick records in 2001, replaced their drummer with Kim Urhahn and changed their name to Lillix. Tasha explains “The name Tigerlily was taken so we had to change it. We wanted something close though so we got rid of Tiger and added an “x” to the end and that was that.” Lillix’ debut album Falling Uphill, released in May of 2003 sold over a half-million copies worldwide with help from the hit singles “It’s About Time”, “Tomorrow” and a cover of The Romantics’ classic “What I Like About You” (which was also featured on the Freaky Friday soundtrack and had Lindsay Lohan co-star in the music video). The girls played shows on the Warped Tour, shared stages with KISS and Christina Aguilera and toured all over Canada, U.S.A. and Japan (where the album achieved gold status). They also had a Juno nomination for “Best New Group” and “Best Pop Album” that year.
In August of 2005, Alicia Warrington took over the drum stool and Lillix released their more-mature sounding sophomore album Inside The Hollow produced by James Michael (Motley Crue, Scorpions, Sixx A.M.) and Jeff Saltzman (The Killers). The single “Sweet Temptation (Hollow)” was voted one of the “Top 100 Songs of 2006” in Blender magazine.
After the Inside the Hollow Tour of 2006, Lillix decided to take a break and regroup due to Alicia and founding member Louise leaving the group. The Evin sisters wanted a hard-hitting “rock drummer” and found it in Eric Hoodicoff just 3 hours away in another small BC town called Castlegar. Eric Hoodicoff was no stranger to playing in bands since he had been in several other bands around BC prior to joining Lillix. “I’ve been in punk bands, pop bands, metal bands and even a Scorpions tribute band!” explains Eric. Currently, he finds time to be creative in Lillix as well as his metal band Savage Blade.
For nearly a year, Lacey, Tasha and Eric auditioned and jammed with other musicians, trying to round out the lineup. The band moved to Vancouver, BC where Tasha decided that she wanted to switch to bass. All that they needed was a “badass rock guitarist”.
Enter Britt Black, a founding member of the group Liveonrelease who released 2 albums on Warner Music and scored a hit with “I’m Afraid of Britney Spears”, which was featured in the popular movie “Dude, Where’s My Car”. More recently Britt has played lead guitar for international recording artist Bif Naked, and released a solo record “Britt Black” worldwide, touring all over the world including the entire Vans Warped Tour 06.
…and now, with the lineup complete, the new and improved Lillix is ready to rock again… -LILLIX-
For bookings/contact please email: bookings@lillixfans.com
