From touring with Fidlar to performing at Miley Cyrus’ New Year’s Eve Party, Liily is climbing the ranks in the indie rock scene. The Los Angeles-based group consists of Charlie Anastasis, Maxx Morando, Dylan Nash, and Sam De La Torre.
Known for their unique blend of grunge, punk, and aberrant rock, the band is set to continue their energetic live shows in 2023. We spoke with Charlie about creative processes, their latest single “Applause”, what’s next for Liily, and more. Read the full interview below.
MSM: Why did you guys want to start a band together? Was it a long thought process or something that you suddenly realized you wanted to do?
C: We were 15 and attention starved, and all these years later not a damn thing has
changed. Except I am significantly less funny than I was at 15… But really there wasn’t
that much thought put into it at all, we just like each other. Except Maxx, fuck that dude.
MSM: Describe your sound in 3 words.
C: Bunch of Bullshit.
MSM: You guys have some thought-provoking cover art, walk me through the creative process for crafting these images. Does your cover art always relate to the music?
C: We try to not overthink any of the artwork because it can get pretty self-serious pretty
fast. Sam usually takes the reins when the time comes to figure it out, and this time he
introduced us to a guy named Charlie Korman who’s an ungodly talented artist and we
really left it up to him. Design by committee sucks.
MSM: There is a notable shift in sound between your 2021 single, Anvil, and your 2022 single, Applause. What changed in that span of time? Will you guys continue to venture with your new sound?
C: I think that change is just a natural reflection of how awful our attention spans are.
Sometimes we get really envious of bands who are able to write entire records with
really similar sounding songs. We have never been able to do that. Every time we’re
working on an idea that sounds like something we’ve already done, we naturally just
start writing that same song again and it sucks. It’s the worst kind of music. So yes as
long as we keep making music together it will keep radically changing for better or
worse.
MSM: You guys recently released ‘Applause’ and performed it Miley Cyrus’ New Year’s Eve Party, which most would think is quite the accomplishment. How do you guys, personally, measure success?
C: We’re all still experiencing a little whiplash from that performance. We’ve obviously never
done anything close to that before and it was one of the coolest things we’ve ever done.
I don’t really know how we measure success yet, l know thats kind of a pretentious
answer because we couldn’t be more grateful for that opportunity and every other
opportunity that we have been lucky enough to be offered. But truly l have no idea in the
slightest how to measure success. I guess if l could comfortably pay my rent every
month that would feel like a hell of a start.
MSM: What’s next for Liily? Are there any exciting projects you guys are working on right now?
C: We’re going back out with our favorite band, FIDLAR, next month, and trying to get some
new songs together to release as soon as possible.
*Featured Image Credit: Kristy Benjamin
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