Lily Frost

Lily Frost, a singer and songwriter, weaves strands of 1960s pop, fashion, and art into a distinctive sound that resists simple classification. Deeply reserved by temperament, she channeled her private reflections into diary pages for years before gradually adapting the entries to melody and applying her classical piano background. In 1989 she pursued studies in jazz and French at Concordia University in Montreal while performing 1920s material with the local ensemble the Sheiks. Eager to avoid harsh Montreal winters, she spent six months singing standards and torch songs seven nights a week aboard a ship in Cairo, Egypt, then returned to Vancouver in 1992 to serve as frontwoman for the Colorifics, whose 1950s-style swing drew steady audiences along the West Coast. The band earned college-radio notice with her composition “Soda Pop,” yet Frost’s desire for more contemporary textures prompted her to issue the solo album Lunamarium, which Nettwerk later repackaged and reissued after signing her. While promoting the critically praised record she appeared onstage with Coldplay, Cowboy Junkies, and the Dandy Warhols; she also sustained parallel work with the band Mimosa.