Courtesy Hype Music

Tasha-Ray (left) and Lacey-Lee Evin, the two Cranbrook sisters at the heart of rock band Lillix, are in the thick of all things pop with the launch of their album “Tigerlily,” which was released Tuesday.

Lillix’s new CD “Tigerlily” hit stores yesterday, and if that seems familiar to Cranbrook residents, it’s because the album title is also the original name of the band.

Local sisters Lacey-Lee and Tasha-Ray Evin started their band, then called Tigerlily, back in 1997 here in Cranbrook. When the band signed to Madonna’s record label, Maverick, the band’s name was changed to Lillix.

Since then the band has gone through multiple member changes, two previous cd releases (“Falling Uphill” and “Inside the Hollow”) and changes with their label (they are no longer connected to a record company). Through it all though, Lacey-Lee and Tasha-Ray have remained the core of the band and for the last four years have been working on this new CD.

The band now includes Eric Hoodicof, from Castlegar, Alex Varon and Cameron Brass. Lacey-Lee said putting their third CD together was completely unlike making the previous two.

“Before, we were spoiled and had a record label paying for everything. Now, the biggest difference is we have day jobs. That’s one of the reasons it took so long, because Tash and I only get Fridays off together — so that’s the only day we could go in the studio.

“We would go 9 to 9 and just give ‘er,” she said. “That was the biggest change, I think, doing it on a job. Everything came out of mine and Tash’s pocket.

“We did all the funding, all the management, all the marketing, all the booking, everything. We’re lucky because we learned so much being on a major label for six years.”

Lacey-Lee and Tasha-Ray also did all the writing, and listening to the CD you can get a feeling for the ups and downs the two have experienced over the last few years.

“Some songs are really inspired and ‘yeah, we can do anything,’ and others will be the total opposite, depressed and ‘I’m going to give up on this.’ Just life, really,“ Lacey-Lee said.

“So much has happened in the last four years … for awhile there, Tash and I were ready to give up totally.”

After getting the call to do the Nakusp Music Festival, in 2007, which the sisters had always wanted to do, some new members joined the band, and they started working on the new CD.

A tour is in the works, Lacey-Lee said, although there are no official dates yet.

“It will probably start with B.C. and Alberta shows and I know there’s quite a demand in Ontario and Quebec right now,” she said. “I think we’ll just do some smaller tours and then work towards a cross Canada tour and hopefully Japan.”

Although now living in Vancouver, Lacey-Lee said she misses Cranbrook and remembers the years the banded started here.

“We started the band in 1997, for about a year we just practiced in the basement playing our songs, did a little demo at the Kimberley music store and then I think we played our first show in 1998 or 1999,” she said. “We played Canada Day, I think we did it three or four times. We played everything out there, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Curling Club, and once, when we were practicing for our record deal — we would play anywhere — we played in a video store in Cranbrook!”

http://www.dailytownsman.com/article/20100825/CRANBROOK0501/308259982/cranbrook-sisters-draw-on-experience-for-new-lillix-cd