Lily Frost

Lily Frost
Background information
Origin	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Pop / Cabaret / Western Swing
Years active	1989-present
Labels	Aporia Records
Associated acts	The Colorifics, Lindsey Davis and the Sheiks
Website	www.lilyfrost.com

Lily Frost, born Lindsey Frost Davis, is a Canadian independent singer-songwriter from Toronto, Ontario. Bilingual in French and English, she is a cross-genre, multi disciplinary singer/songwriter/performer and recording artist. She also designs jewelry, teaches yoga and vocals.

Born in Toronto, she studied jazz at Concordia University in Montreal and honed her craft in Vancouver as the lead singer of the lounge band The Colorifics, signing as a solo artist to Nettwerk Records. She moved back to Toronto where she has released several records with Aporia/Outside and one with Marquis/EMI.

Career

Born Lindsey Frost Davis, Lily Frost is a Toronto-based singer, composer and producer. Her parents are Martha Clara Louise Starr Davis and Alfred CW Davis, brother Matthew Davis.

Lily Frost studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, beginning with piano at age 7. She then studied ballet, tap, modern and jazz dance as well as modelling in her teens as a way to overcome childhood shyness. Her family spent summers in Lake Huron where she and her older cousin, Canadian singer-songwriter and alt hip-hop artist Kinnie Starr began singing together. She started writing at age 14 and spent time in France on a student exchange. She started putting melodies to her writing at 19.

Lily went to Concordia University in Montreal in 1989 to study Jazz vocals, where she also taught herself guitar while playing and singing at the university, leading to her affection for echoing, reverb sound. She met South American composer Jorge Diaz de Bedoya who introduced her to the sounds of Bossa Nova, Serge Gainsbourg and ‘Tropicalia’, all of which influenced her writing. She left Concordia after two years to work full-time as a singer-songwriter, performer and recording artist.

Lily and Jorge Diaz de Bedoya wrote and performed in Montreal in various groups including Les Minstrels. Lily met John Davis of The Gruesomes at Montreal’s Cheap Thrills record store who asked Lily to audition for a band called The Shieks. Her first show with The Sheiks was at The Rockaway Revue in Montreal. They went on to play at Club Soda, Station 10 and Les Foufounes Electriques. Lily performed with John Davis, Bobby Beaton, Phil Giaro and Dave Lachance, and co-wrote with Phil Giaro a cassette of originals and covers called The Recession Blues.

In 1991 she moved to Cairo, Egypt for six months, singing in a piano bar with Berkley-trained jazz pianist Rashad Fahim.

In 1993, Lily began to sing as the featured vocalist for Ray Condo and The Swinging Dukes. Ray became a mentor and friend. When he passed away in 2004, Lily paid homage with her album Lily Swings, an album of Billie Holiday done western-swing style with Ray’s band and Rick Kilburn backing her. Due to its popularity, a second album - Too Hot For Words - was made, both distributed by Marquis EMI. It was produced by José Contreras and recorded with Terry Wilkins, Mitch Lewis, Jeff Halischuck and Bob Stevenson. With this lineup, Lily toured across Canada as well as appearing at the Montreal Jazz Festival, Massey Hall Blues Revue and Burlington Jazz Fest with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

In 1992 Lily moved to Vancouver where she reunited with Jorge Diaz de Bedoya and several other Montreal-based musicians. They performed and busked rockabilly/swing music and evolved into The Colorifics, a popular Vancouver lounge band at the time of the Cocktail Nation resurgence. The original lineup was Lily Frost, Jorge Diaz, Dave Lachance and Bernie Boulanger (of the band, Rattled Roosters). They performed with The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Royal Crowns & Colin James, and they played at The Vancouver Jazz Fest, Winnipeg Blues and Jazz Fest. They also came to the attention of Jurgen Gothe on CBC Radio and were asked to record in the CBC studios more than once. The Colorifics released three original albums - Girlie Door, Guilty Pleasure and Living City, and toured the entire west coast, from Vancouver to San Diego for four years, selling out venues at every stop. The band eventually parted ways due to inter-band tension.

By 2000 Lily Frost was writing all her own material, taking on a more modern pop sound while integrating the rhythms of 60's pop. Nettwerk Records signed her as a solo artist for the album Lunamarium, with her single from the album Who Am I appearing on the soundtrack for the feature film Crazy/Beautiful.

Lily was awarded West Coast Vocalist of the Year in 2003, and opened for Coldplay, The Dandy Warhols, Blue Rodeo, Cowboy Junkies, and toured with Au Revoir Simone, The Flashing Lights, Neko Case and Hawksley Workman. Upon her return to Toronto, Frost met and married Chilean-born singer/songwriter José Miguel Contreras of By Divine Right in 2004, resulting in a further immersion in Latin American music and culture, which permeated many of her recordings including You’ve Shaken Every Part of Me - co-written with José Miguel Contreras. They went on to write, record, produce, engineer and perform her next five records together. Lily was signed to Aporia Publishing who distributed her releases: Situation, Cine-Magique, Viridian Torch, Flights of Fancy, Do What You Love, Rebound Bitch, Motherless Child. The video for Silver Sun was directed by James Genn, and won Bravo's video of the year award. Cine-Magique was released in France by Boxton Records, and Lily toured France several times, appearing at Les Femmes S'en Meulent festival and solo gigs.

In 2009 Lily and Trevor Yuile co-wrote the theme song and score "All I Ever Wanted to Be" for the popular CBC TV series Being Erica which was nominated for a Gemini Award. She has had her songs appear in Grey’s Anatomy, Crazy/Beautiful OST, Workin' Moms, Charmed, Felicity, Stargate SG-1, MTV’s The City and in ads for Chevrolet and Hudsons Bay.

In 2015 Michael Feinstein invited Lily to perform live in studio for NPR NYC after the release of her single Motherless Child.

In 2016 Lily released original singles with Aporia Records and worked as a staff writer for the label, leading to co-writing in Toronto, Nashville and Los Angeles with Chris Unck (Pink), Eleni Mandell, Skye Machine, Dreamspeed (Beatchild, Slakah the Beatchild), writing for artist Chloe Watkinson and with others like Myshkin Warbler, Matt Lipscombe (Me Mom and Morgantaler), Jane Bach, Benita Hill, Adam Searan, Tom McKay (Joydrop), James Di Salvio (Bran Van 3000).

In 2017 Lily released her most recent album Rebound on the Aporia label.

Television

Frost co-wrote the theme song entitled "All I Ever Wanted to Be" for the CBC show Being Erica.

Her song "Enchantment" was featured on a third season episode of Grey's Anatomy. The song was also featured in a 2007 commercial for The Bay department stores, and in the third episode of the CBC show Being Erica.

Her song "Who Am I" was featured in the season 7 episode of Stargate SG-1, "Fragile Balance", as well as the season 4 episode of Charmed, "Hell Hath No Fury". It also featured on the OST of Crazy/Beautiful (2001) starring Kirsten Dunst.

Her song "Two of Us" was featured in a 2007 Chevy Cobalt commercial.

Her song "Where is Love" has been featured in the television show 15!Love several times.

Her song "You've Shaken Every Part of Me" was featured on an episode of MTV's The City.

Discography

Tours

Canada, USA, France, UK, Egypt

Notes

External links

• Lily Frost Official Website