Erik Paul Ilyin-Chirkoff (EPIC) - "Hollywood"

Rhythm Guitar & Background Vocals

Erik Paul Ilyin-Chirkoff — EPIC — sat down at a piano at five years old and never really got up. He taught himself guitar in high school, and by his early twenties the Okanagan Valley knew him as a leading man. He played Chad in Kelowna Actors Studio's All Shook Up in 2016, where a KelownaNow reviewer singled out his dancing and vocals. He followed it as Danny Zuko in New Vintage Theatre's sold-out Grease, then as Drew in the company's remount of Rock of Ages at Kelowna's Rotary Centre for the Arts in January 2018 — a show that had already broken the venue's box-office records.

The camera came next: the short films Hangman's Tree (2017) and A Short in the Mind (2019), and the role of Liam in Young Ronin (2022), a martial-arts feature shot entirely in Vernon with local talent.

The music travelled further. Erik took his songs to the Yarraville Club in Melbourne, Australia in 2018. Later in 2018, he relocated to Los Angeles where he wrote, recorded and performed out of West Hollywood. Writing as epcWrld, he penned and sang the topline for "When The World Falls Apart," the progressive-house debut of US producer Holmzen — his first remote session, and the first spark of the electronic sound that defines his work today. In 2019 he wrote a song called "Limitless" and hand-delivered it to MrBeast at VidSummit. Then it sat on a shelf for five years.

The turn

The floor gave way. A startup Erik had invested everything in collapsed, and it took his savings, his home and, for a season, his footing with it.

(Get Erik's Free 37-page EBook written about the startup collapse at: www.epicworld.world )

In 2025 he made the decision that changed everything else: he got sober and started rebuilding from zero. In his words, the mess became the message.

What he's doing now

That rebuild is EPICWORLD — the soundtrack of personal transformation.

Blending cinematic pop, electronic production and unflinching storytelling, EPICWORLD releases through Amalien Records into the Virgin Music Group ecosystem. "Limitless," the song that waited five years, is finally out in the world, alongside "Moods," "Girl Of My Dreams," "Solar Trip 31," "Anchor" and "Worth It In The End."

On the band side, Erik is "Hollywood," rhythm guitarist for Black Lysted. He directed the music video for the band's debut single "Redline," an anthem for men's mental health, and toured to the USA with the band in 2026 behind "Dangerous," their first release on Cranked Up Records, distributed by Virgin Music Group.

Off stage, Erik speaks about brain health, practical tools for recognizing the patterns that run you, building a daily practice that survives dark seasons, and asking for help without feeling like a burden.

Where he's going

In November 2026 Erik launches Epicworld Coaching, built on Neuro-Transformational Therapy training with coach Luke Hawkins and on the frameworks — metacognition, mind-anchoring, rewiring pain and pleasure associations — that made his own change stick. The mission is concrete: teach 100,000 people how their brain works, and that change is available to anyone, by 2030.

The music keeps building alongside it: new EPICWORLD releases, new Black Lysted songs, and a live format that pairs a Black Lysted rock show with a mental-health session Erik facilitates. Concert and classroom, one night.

EPICWORLD is music for the ones rebuilding their world. Erik knows the work, because he has done it.