The Sweet Lillies' music is first and foremost heartfelt and collaborative. Those defining traits are given life by the quartet of musicians who make up the Lillies. Together they have combined their individual strengths to deliver powerful narratives of life in song. With their lineup of electric guitar, viola, upright bass, drums and ethereal vocal harmonies that float like a dream, the Sweet Lillies' music has a hard hitting original flavor with a forward looking eye. They have incorporated all of their cumulative life experiences into their music, songwriting and artistry, crafting an uncommonly beautiful style which is a nod to the band’s all encompassing musical tastes and willingness to experiment with genres ranging from folk and rock all the way to hip-hop.
Serafima’s songs, in the realm of cosmic country, dustbowl folk, and a soul-baring feminist romanticism, are cutting and witty. Her lyrics seem straightforward and earnest – but then the knife slips in. And then it twists. While shows with the Shakedowns feel like a party onstage, Serafima’s solo work is introspective and insightful – a look at twenty-first century love and friendship from a position just outside the bounds of time.
Serafima finds influence in the likes of Johnny and June Carter Cash, Kimya Dawson, Joni Mitchell, Lily Allen, Dan Reeder, and Cake – somewhere in there among the honest and the groovy. Her lyrics hit you in the heart and stick in your head – wry, time-twisting verses as deceptively complex as her protagonists and their experiences. She won’t lie to you, but she just might tell you a story.
Serafima has shared stages with Rose City Band, Lee Baggett (Little Wings), Vincent Neil Emerson, The Sons of Rainier, The Barry Walker Unit, Coleman Williams, Chris Acker, and many more artists she admires from across the country, folk, Americana, and psych rock spectra. She sings backup with the Bellingham-based Grateful Dead band the Wild Geese of the West. She’s also got a lo-fi side duo, Smooth Legs, with Austin-based singer and poster artist Franny McLarty. But when she’s on the road, it’s as a solo folksinger. Singing the truths, and breaking all the hearts.
