Back in 2002, Toronto singer Lilia Silveira released a solo album Radio Friendly that didn't get much attention but planted the seeds for what was to come.
Silveira put a band together to tour behind that album, a rock band which evolved into current critic darlings The Cliks. But it's not the only transformation Silveira experienced as Lilia Silveira changed genders to become Lucas Silveira prior to releasing the group's debut album Snakehouse.
"The fact I changed as a human being and I got to know myself as a human being, I think that is what helped me grow as a songwriter," Silveira says from Saskatoon. "For me to say none of the songs on that album had anything to do with the fact I was transitioning would be a lie. It was all about just change. It wasn't about gender identity specifically but just about identity as a human being and getting to know who I was."
The Cliks, opening for The Cult tomorrow night at Toronto's Sound Academy, made several inroads with Snakehouse including having its song Complicated appear on the hit television series The L Word.
Silveira says making Snakehouse opened his eyes to the creative process thanks to producer Moe Berg.
"It was the first time I was working with a producer," he says. "At the time I was a bit of a control freak so it was weird to put it in somebody else's hands. But it became a liberating experience because I realized having an outside perspective and having somebody else tinker with it made the songs a lot better."
While on the road for most of the last year, Silveira has written a few new songs for the forthcoming sophomore album despite the rather cramped confines travelling brings.
"We're touring in a van so you can't really sit in the back of a van with four other people in the van on tour and write," he says. "We have three new songs we're performing live already but at the end of the day you don't know if they're even going to make the album.
"I progressively started writing music I think is a lot harder from the roots of the music that I come from originally which is folksy and bluesy. I've always wanted to do solid rock music on a little bit of a heavier side and I think the music has been progressing more to that."
In the meantime, The Cliks will be on the road for the first half of 2008, rejoining this year's True Colors summer tour alongside Cyndi Lauper, the B-52's and Joan Jett. While eager to meet Joan Jett this year, Silveira says last year's jaunt was great.
"It was awesome," Silveira says. "To be thrust into doing a tour when your album is barely out, it was pretty magical. And everybody was so supportive of us on tour. We were kind of like the new kid brother who they're bringing out to meet all their cool friends."
The Cliks will take a few months off to write album two and hope to have it out in early 2009. Silveira also says he's getting used to wearing two hats: being a rock and roller and a role model to the transgendered community.
"I am just by default because I have to be one of the only open and out in the media trans(gendered) people," he says. "I've had a lot of kids come up to our shows who are 11 to 15 and tell me what a difference I've made in their lives. So I think it's cool."
