Bands Through Town
Driven, Eager and Rockin', Liily at the Ready Room
Dylan Nash of Liily
Words: Madisyn Siebert • Photos: Laura Ord
You may never hear Liily’s lead vocalist Dylan Nash say the name of the band, but you’ll be able to hear their music from a couple blocks away. This young alternative rock group is finding its footing in the world with the opportunity to open for Bad Suns on their Mystic Truth tour this fall.
Composed of four friends from the L.A. area, Liily has a lot to be happy for career-wise. They released their first EP, I Can Fool Anybody in This Town, earlier in 2019, have toured around the world, and even helped create and perform at the music festival Brekfest.
It’s evident that the band is very driven and eager to show off what they love doing—performing. According to drummer Maxx Morando, this all started at a very young age for them. “We wrote all the songs on [I Can Fool Anybody in This Town] when we were 15,” he said. “During that time we were making music just to have enough songs to play shows. The shows we were playing were at abandoned factories and warehouses. The songs came from a place of impatience and eagerness to just play.”
The band felt this impatience and frustration while playing at DIY festivals where there was maybe one speaker to project their music, or the stage was located in abandoned buildings. They wanted more for themselves and more for the undercover music scene in L.A.—factors that led to them working with their label to create Brekfest.
We wrote all the songs on ICFAINT
(I Can Fool Anybody in This Town) when we were 15. During that time we were making music just to have enough songs to play shows
Liily has a lot going for them—the members all looking like a different phase of Mick Jagger’s style throughout the years and the intensity to get a crowd to watch them. Being an opener is not always easy, but Liily took it and ran with it.
The band squeezed themselves onto the small stage at the Ready Room on September 8, but made sure they left enough room for every member to head-bang and rock out. The feeling of angst and energy could be felt throughout the crowd as the band performed, their sound possessing more heavy rock influences. Nash would stare down the crowd at points, almost like he was looking for the proper energetic response before moving on to the next song.
He also proved he knew how to take a joke and laugh, which became clear when someone in the crowd held up a note on their phone notifying the singer that his fly was down; he quickly looked down, zipped up his pants and laughed before thanking her and continuing on with their set.
When Morando was asked what his favorite song to perform live was the drummer stated, “We’ve been starting to play new songs not on the EP, and those have been really fun to perform.” This was obvious when the band took the time to perform their single that had not yet premiered, “Wash,” throwing their all into it on stage.
Liily is still finding their place in the world of music, but it’s fun to watch their journey as they discover themselves more and grow with their music. It’s fun to see the band also get their first tastes of success and what it means for them. As a group of friends that started in their teen years, I can guarantee they were told by multiple people to give up on their dreams, but here Liily is, surpassing all of those who told them “no."