illScarlett was formed by drummer Swavek Piorkowski and singer/guitarist Alex Norman, who met while attending Iona Catholic Secondary School in the Clarkson area of Mississauga, Ontario. Around the same time, Norman was working at a skateboarding shop at the local mall. Norman approached a customer named Daniel Krolikowski after mistaking Krolikowski for bassist Jason "Cone" McCaslin of the popular band Sum 41; despite the mistaken identity, Norman discovered that Krolikowski also played bass guitar. The two became friends and thereafter began jamming with Piorkowski as a trio. The name "illScarlett" was based on a local street called Will Scarlett Drive: the band stole the street sign as a prank and removed the "W", leaving the name "ill Scarlett Drive". Soon after illScarlett was formed, the trio began to seek additional members. They recruited guitarist Will Marr and disc jockey Pat Kennedy. The band played its first show at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario with stand-in John Doherty, son of singer Denny Doherty, on guitar. After many performances at small venues, illScarlett went into the studio to record their first demo called the Five Dollar Demo. The demo was recorded at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario. In 2004, the band released a full-length CD titled iLLP. Shortly after the release of ILLP, the band performed in the parking lot for the 2004 Vans Warped Tour in Barrie, Ontario. They weren't actually scheduled to play inside the venue, but they set up their equipment beside the line where people were waiting to get into Park Place for the concert, using a generator to power their equipment. IllScarlett played an hour and a half set for the concertgoers. Within three songs, they got word from one of their friends that Sublime's old roadie who worked as tour security radioed the organizer of the Warped Tour, Kevin Lyman, telling him that there was a band sounding like Sublime playing in the parking lot powered by generators. Lyman asked the band to play at his private barbecue later that night; the band accepted his offer. After the band's performance at the barbecue, Lyman extended an invitation for the band to perform a few dates on the 2005 Vans Warped Tour. In September 2006, the band played at the inaugural Virgin Festival in Toronto. By October 2006, the band had sold 15,000 copies of self-released CDs. On October 31, 2006, the band released the EP, EPdemic. In August 2007 and 2008, the band played at the Cutting Edge Music Festival in Grand Bend. In August 2009 the band played at Cutting Edge Music Festival in Kitchener. The band finished recording their first major-label album in Los Angeles, California under the production of Matthew Wilder, producer of No Doubt's diamond Tragic Kingdom album. The new album was released on July 10, 2007 across North America. The album includes such hit songs such as "Who's Got It?", "Paradise Burning", and "Life of a Soldier". Also on the album are redone versions of the songs "Nothing Special", "NTF", "Clearer Now", and Pacino. IllScarlett toured Canada, Japan, Germany, the United States, and throughout Europe, promoting the album All Day with It. On September 29, 2009 the band released their follow-up album to All Day with It titled 1UP!. This album featured singles such as, Take it for Granted and Milkshakes & Razorblades.
Awards and nominations
IllScarlett's song "Who's Got It" was selected as the official song for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup soccer tournament hosted in Canada.
