PREMIERE: Liily Kicks Off New Self-Titled EP with Music Video for “Swallow”
LIILY IS A BAND HUNGRY FOR MORE — Ever since releasing their first record, I Can Fool Anybody in This Town, in 2019, their sound has become more explosive and carnivorous. Liily’s first EP boasts their stomping grounds of the San Fernando Valley. In 2021, their first full-length album, TV or Not TV, shocked and awed with a sharp turn into the post-punk landscape shaped by bands such as Fontaines D.C. and Model/Actriz.
Now, they’re determined to take their music back into their own hands, so much so that they’ve left their label and will independently release their new EP, LIILY, on Friday. They’re also premiering their music video for “Swallow,” exclusively on The Luna Collective.
“We've been in limbo since ‘Applause’ came out at the end of 2022,” bassist Charlie Anastasis tells me. “We just can't keep doing this anymore… It wasn't gonna be a band anymore if it stayed the way it was.”
Liily, consisting of Dylan Nash, Anastasis, Sam De La Torre, and Maxx Morando, signed to Flush Records in their early aughts, and making decisions around their label held them back from releasing what they wanted, when they wanted. The band toured a lot upon the release of I Can Fool Anybody in This Town, an album they recorded as teenagers and played to near death after it dropped. By that point, what would eventually become TV or Not TV was already written, and it would be years before the album rolled out.
Now there is LIILY, a prophetically titled new collection of songs that point to the band’s newfound independence, confidence, and sonic evolution. Nash writes with the brunt end of his pen, with the speed and force of each song only exacerbating the two years of longing and frustration. “More” unmistakably feels like the album’s thesis: “I’m feeling down / I feel like my life won’t come around … I want it more / I swear to God I want it more.”
“Swallow,” a return-to-form track, is a shove-it closer to the EP. What Nash calls a “bread-and-butter” rock track, it stands out from the punk-leaning songs on the album with each members’ confidence at the front.
Read on below to hear about what Liily’s been up to for the past two years, their relationship to fame, and how hardcore inspired their new record.
LUNA: Since you released “Applause” in 2022, what have you been up to since then?
ANASTASIS: So much bullshit.
NASH: We’ve just been writing, trying to figure out how we’re going to release music. We’ve been dealing with more of the business side of things, and we’re trying to become more independent. That’s been our journey up until today.
ANASTASIS: If we weren’t independent right now, this EP still currently would not have a release date.
LUNA: Really?
ANASTASIS: We just got super gridlocked. We were on tour this March with Bad Nerves, and we just hit this wall. We’ve been in limbo since “Applause” came out at the end of 2022. We just can’t keep doing this anymore… It wasn’t gonna be a band anymore if it stayed the way it was.
LUNA: Was this pause because you were trying to decide what to put out, or did the business stuff get in the way?
NASH: We had been on this label Flush for a long time and we just couldn’t come to an agreement on what was being put out. Finally we were just like, “We got to do this on our own.” There’s no ill will… it just didn’t work out.
ANASTASIS: At the end of the day, it became for us… putting out something that sucks, even if it does, is way better than not putting anything else out.
LUNA: Well, the whole EP is really great. There’s that post-punk sound that still emanates from TV or Not TV, but there’s also songs like “Swallow” and “Taller,” which are a little different. Was there any new inspiration for the songs or anything you were listening to while writing it?
NASH: We got deeper into heavier stuff, a lot of hardcore. For the last record, it was a lot of listening to Black Midi or Fontaines D.C. … those types of bands. As we got older and are more present, it’s been ZULU or bands like that.
LUNA: What would you say about your EP in terms of how it reflects where you are now as a band?
NASH: I think we’re a lot more confident in our ability to write music and not be afraid to let it fly. We don’t really care anymore. If it sounds cool, it sounds cool — we’ll do it. We are a little more mindful of specific things… We want to cultivate our own sound and make something that is interesting to us, but not pretentious and not in a vacuum.
LUNA: You guys talk about “sinking into obscurity,” and I can see that sentiment in the lyrics, like in “More” and “Imitate.”
NASH: I think we were all frustrated because we have a lot of friends who are in really cool bands and they are constantly putting out music and are allowed to play music. We hadn’t been for a long time. We felt like we didn’t have a footprint anymore, we weren’t doing anything… That’s what it felt like. We were disappearing creatively, and as people.
ANASTASIS: We got signed when we were really young and then were immediately busy… You get high off that momentum. When that’s not there for an extended period of time, it forced me to confront a lot of ideas about myself and a lot of ideas about my self image and the band’s image. I’m so lucky to be able to play in this band with my best friends. After that, nothing else really matters. I’m in this amazing band, and if it blows up, that’s great. If not, I’m just proud of what we’ve been able to do. I don’t think I could have confidently said that a year ago.
NASH: In 2019, when we were touring and doing festivals and our EP was doing well, I felt an enormous amount of imposter syndrome going. For that to get all pulled away from us, that was a big mental block for us… When we weren’t able to put out music for two and a half years, I was like, it just proves my point.
LUNA: I actually remember when you guys would tour and have multiple shows a month for two years straight. So, especially if you’re having imposter syndrome during that time, I can totally see how that’s a blow. It must be empowering for you guys to release this now, especially without a label.
NASH: Yeah, totally.
LUNA: You guys are premiering the video for “Swallow” with us. Was it important for you to release this video alongside the EP?
NASH: We weren’t ready to do the whole EP rollout because we had this music for such a long time. I think we’re just like, maybe just do one single then release the EP. Let’s just get this out there. “Swallow” is the perfect song to be the lead track because it’s the most straightforward of the EP.
DE LA TORRE: This EP has been done for a minute. Because of the tribulations we were going through, it just sat for a long time. I think the minute we became independent, we just wanted to get it out and move on.
LUNA: Is there an LP in the future after the EP comes out?
NASH: We have music coming out very soon after. It’s nothing that we’ve ever done before, from the collaboration standpoint and the intensity. The music’s only getting heavier.
Liily is on tour beginning on July 17, with support from Niis and The Mainliners. They will also support Together Pangea on their Badillac 10th Anniversary tour starting August 7.
