Lily Frost

Lily Frost started her musical career in Montreal where she was swept up in the local French modster scene spearheaded by The Gruesomes and the Minstrels. With their encouragement she honed her songwriting craft while performing and jamming with them. It was at this time that Lily became obsessed with Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and other Ragtime, Gospel and Jazz singers from the deep south.
Upon returning to Canada after a brief stint in Cairo, Lily settled in Vancouver; here her musical career exploded when she formed The Colorifics with Minstrel Jorge Diaz whom she had previously worked with in Montreal. Together they almost single-handedly gave birth to the early 90s "Cocktail Scene" movement on the West Coast, the flip side backlash to the grunge revolution. Along with numerous tours up and down the coast, the Colorifics released four self-recorded albums, which they sold offstage by the thousands.
Wanting to push beyond the confines of the swing scene and spread her wings, Frost left to pursue a solo career after her fourth year with The Colorifics. Her first album, CosmiComic Country was recorded on a hastily assembled studio of begged, borrowed, and bribed equipment in 1998. Momentum gained with the release of Country led to 2001ís album Lunamarium, which caught the interest of Nettwerk Records who re-released it in Germany, Japan, the U.S. and Canada to rave reviews. The buzz from the single "Who Am I" led to it being picked up for the soundtrack of the feature film Crazy Beautiful starring Kirsten Dunst.
Leaving Nettwerk after touring Lunamarium, Lily enlisted the help of ex-Odds member Steven Drake to record the EP Situation at Greenhouse Studios in 2003. Combining harmonium, acoustic guitar, mellotron and a theremin, for the first time Frost felt that she was fully writing, performing and producing her own art. Invigorated with her new sense of creative independence, she left Vancouver for Toronto where she could be closer to her family, but not before stopping in Tahiti to visit Diaz, who had since taken up permanent residence there. With his help she recorded another song for the album, being careful not to remove her flipflops and rubber gloves, the only insulation between her and the studio equipment that had been grounded in the nearby dirt.

Here among the palm trees she soaked up the culture of the French island, and on a day trip to Bora Bora "Les Vaisseaux Nocturnes" was written for her to sing in French. Other tracks on Situation use Latin rhythms and multilingualism, giving songs such as "Out of Blue" a laid back Latin jazz flavour.
It was in Toronto where she would catch the ear of Aporia Records who offered to release an expanded full-length version of Situation due to be released in the fall 2004. Through honest lyrics and earthy delivery, Situation explores love, lust and longing, compassion towards people, and how beauty and art give meaning to our lives. Lily sees songwriting foremost as a means of emotional communication and cathartic release.