Lillix: Not Your Dainty Canned Ladies

It's beautiful but boring in small mountain town Cranbrook, B.C., Canada. Three Junior High school pals as young as 11 decided to spend their afterschool hours starting a band and rocking out on guitars and keyboards. Nothing new, right? Except these very young rockers were girls! Seventeen-year-old Louise Burns (bassist/vocalist), and seventeen and nineteen year-old sisters Tasha-Ray (guitarist) and Lacey-Lee (keyboardist) Evin now make up Lillix, a feisty pop/rock trio that, with Vancouver drummer Kim Urhahn (23), are releasing their first album "Falling Uphill" May 13th. You can catch their single "It's About Time" and watch their video now on the net.

The girls admit to being into groups like Hanson when younger but their pop is far from bubblegum. Led Zeppelin was played around the house as well. There is a hard rock edge to many of their songs. Lacey-Lee, Tasha-Ray and Louise rotate their songwriting and lead vocalist gigs throughout their new CD. Their harder-edged version of the Romantics' classic "What I Like About You" launched the WB Amanda Bynes comedy of the same name.

With producers and collaborators like The Matrix who launched Avril Lavigne, Philip Steir (No Doubt) and producers of Pink, Christina, The Corrs and Michelle Branch behind Lillix, the girls have a great chance of channeling their talent to target a wide variety of pop and rock fans.

We spoke by phone with Louise from the girls' apartment in Vancouver where they are busy rehearsing on drummer Kim's home turf for their tour. In a sweet, soft voice that belies her stronger, rocker vibe on the CD, Louise gave me the Lillix story.

TeenMusic: You guys were friends since childhood. When did you first decide to go professional?

Louise: We didn't really decide. Things just kind of happened. We were always into music. It's a very boring town so you have nothing to do if you're not a sports person. All of us have always had little bands when we were little. You know 'wanna start a band?' You'd last like one session. So I met Tasha in school and she one day randomly asked me, 'Hey do you want to be in my band and play bass?' And I'm like 'okay'. It was like Grade 7, six years ago. So I said yes and we started jamming in Tasha and Lacy's basement. We wanted something to do after school. We'd always record ourselves to just see what we sounded like, so, demos and demos later, we actually called an entertainment lawyer in Vancouver for some legal advice about a contract we received in Cranbrook. We told him the situation and he gave us some advice and he was interested in what we sounded like so we gave him a demo. He was expecting a bunch of 12-year-old girls and he was like 'wow, that's actually pretty good songwriting', so we made yet another demo and sent that one to Maverick Records who flew us down to showcase and there it is.

TeenMusic: Were you the only band in town?

Louise: We were so young that I don't even think the boys in town had a band yet. It was a weird age to start (11 for Louise) . There were definitely bar bands and a lot of blues and country bands around Cranbrook. I guess we wanted to do our own thing. We didn't even know there was a music scene in Cranbrook. I hear there are tons of bands now. Maybe we started a trend.

TeenMusic: Were you all playing instruments before getting into the group?

Louise: I believe Tasha started playing guitar a year prior to starting the band and I actually grew up playing the piano. I was classically trained in the Royal conservatory of Music up until Grade Five or something. I just kind of picked up bass as I went. I started bass the day we started the band. We've always been musical, just pick up any instrument.

TeenMusic: Did you listen to any classic girl groups like The Bangles?

Louise: We grew up listening to a variety of people. Tasha and Lacy were big Thin Lizzy fans, Led Zeppelin and Ted Nugent and Beatles of course. I grew up listening to the Beatles and I was actually into a lot of classical music. That's what my parents listened to a lot. So, I'm down with the Beethoven. The Bangles were cool. Actually our major influence is Hanson. Hey, if they can play and write, we can do it. Kim, our drummer grew up listening to The Ramones and The Go Go's.

TeenMusic: How did you find Kim?

Louise: We had a drummer before. She was our neighbor friend. She was younger than us. She had other things she wanted to do and there were differences. We found Kim through Jonathan, our manager. He knew her from other groups in Vancouver locally. She'd played in a lot of punk groups. He told her 'I've got a band looking for a drummer if you're interested'. So we auditioned her, on September 11th oddly. And we said, 'okay, that's it'. Obviously.

TeenMusic; What do you say to people who think you are another manufactured band?

Louise: We say no. Obviously they're going to think that because we're four girls at a relatively young age. It's gonna happen but, we're just like 'we are what we are'. If you don't understand, we'll just keep doing what we do. It's nothing do with pre-packaged stuff. If they listen to the album and read the credits, they'll know. We always encounter that.

TeenMusic: How did you choose the name?

Louise: We were originally called Tigerlilly. We had to change our name because were a lot of other bands called Tigerlilly or something like it, punk bands. The Lillies, Tigerlillies, etc. We went through so many names and they were all taken, every single name, even made-up words. It was crazy. Finally we said 'okay, Tigerlilly X' and then, not good, how about Tigerlillix, they were 'no, just Lillix, that's fine'.

TeenMusic: How would you describe your sound? Rowdy rock/pop?

Louise: Well, it's essentially pop rock but we have so many different influences. There's definitely a classic rock influence to it. There's some hip-hop in it but it's a solid rock foundation with really melodic harmonies. We're not punk but many people think we are because of our pictures. But the video is more what we really are. Photo shoots are dress up. We don't really care what we wear.

TeenMusic: "It's About Time" has a little of an Avril Lavigne quality. Is it okay if people compare you to her?

Louise: We're very different from Avril but it's totally understandable. We wrote that song with The Matrix who also wrote her song. It's an obvious comparison. We're not going to deny it but before people make an opinion that we sound like Avril, they should listen to our entire album. The album sounds nothing like Avil at all. Any new artists coming up that are young and female are going to be compared to Avril. There are three writers, we're a band but it's going to happen anyway in the pop culture.

TeenMusic: How did you get the "What I Like About You" cover on the t.v. show?

Louise: We did a recording with them before for their Image Campaign of 2002. It was a cover of "Who Do You Love?". They really liked how we did it so they came and approached us again with Philip Steir, who produced the majority of our album. He produced "What I Like About You" as well. [her Canadian accent slips in and about became "aboot"]. I just said aboot. I try not to say it. [I tell her our home offices are in Canada and I'm used to the lingo]. We had basically one day to go down and record it. We always have a lot of fun going down to the States and working with the WB guys, they are great!

TeenMusic: On the song "Dirty Sunshine" which of you lives with old pizza boxes on the floor?

Louise: (laughing) Oh my God, we wrote that with The Matrix as well. That's like a joke song. We're not serious at all. We're just having fun. Pizza is a random word we always say. Let's put pizza in the song as a joke. It uses weird metaphors but sometimes you just feel like s*** and you kind of want to because you like the pain. We've all gone through it so it was 'let's write a song about this weird thing'.

TeenMusic: What is your favorite track on album and why?

Louise: It changes daily depending on the mood I'm in. I think my favorite two are Invisible and Sick. Invisible is so classic and wicked and and I like Sick because it's so hard.

TeenMusic: Every group argues. How do you settle it and who is the peacemaker?

Louise: There's a lot of compromising. We stop and think about why we're fighting. We don't really fight that much though. Sometimes we'll get in a disagreement ..'I think we should do this'. 'No, we should do this'. We don't really fight and say, 'I hate you'. I think I would be the peacemaker.

TeenMusic: And who is the Jokester?

Louise: We're all jokesters. Everything we say is sarcastic, seriously. We entertain ourselves by making fun of ourselves. Sarcasm is our life.

TeenMusic: What is your songwriting process?

Louise: Sometimes, I'll have a lot of motivation. We all have pages and pages of random lyrics to rhyme with something. Sometimes you sit down with your guitar or at the piano and just write. It comes both at the same time for me at least (music and lyrics). Sometimes I'll grab things from old songs I've written like five years ago. 'Oh, that's a good pre-chorus. I'll put that into my new song'. I write it down and record it on a shitty boom box. It really helps sometimes getting your emotions out when you just want to say something but you don't know what to say, you write a song. That's what I needed to do".

TeenMusic: Is it harder to write a fun, upbeat song or a heavy song?

Louise: All my songs are full of angst. I can't write a positive song. I don't know why. I think most of my emotions come from the negative side. It really helps me get it out though. I hate saying cheesy things like 'my guitar's a therapist' but it kind of is.

TeenMusic: What is your weirdest fan encounter so far?

Louise: There were a few weird times when we've gotten recognized. I was in Chapters (a bookstore) the other day and I was walking down the street and these two girls walked up to me 'we've been trying to find your CD'. They were Japanese exchange students. I was like 'how did they know'? I think they went to two of our shows and recognized me. That was kind of cool.

TeenMusic: What do you like to do to have fun when you just kick back?

Louise: We like to listen to music.. somebody else's. You get sick of your own songs after a while. Back in Cranbrook, me and Tasha go horseback riding a lot, outdoors, hiking and stuff. It's a really beautiful area where we live. We go out and hang with other people, normal stuff.

TeenMusic: Who have you seen in concert recently?

Louise: Our favorite band is Marianas Trench. They're from Vancouver and we love seeing them. The last big concert I went to was Incubus in San Francisco.

TeenMusic: What are you listening to right now?

Louise: Silverchair, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus. Right now I'm listening to Bob Marley actually. [I hear laughter in the background]. That's Tasha. They're laughing at me.

TeenMusic: Advice to talented teens who want to make it in music?

Louise: Start a band or if you're a solo artist, start going out and playing places, wherever you can. That's what we did. We took every opportunity we had. Just go out and be seen, be noticed. It'll come. If it could happen to us, it could happen to anybody. Go out.. be seen.

TeenMusic: What would you like fans to know about Lillix?

Louise: For the best impression of who we are, listen to our whole, entire album. Don't just us just based on our first single or any of the singles. Listen to the whole album. Then you'll know who Lillix is.

TeenMusic: What's next?

Louise: We have a show in Miami. We're opening for Simple Plan. We have a couple of other shows coming up in Philadelphia and New Jersey and Toronto. We're getting on the road and playing places. We're excited.

Check out Lillix's Website

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.