Erik van Lier was born on April 6, 1945 in Haarlem in the Netherlands and began his professional career at the age of 17 in the Dutch radio big band The Skymasters. As a representative of the Dutch broadcasting company NOS, he played three times at the jazz workshops of the European Broadcast Union EBU and once at the European program Nordring.

During the Loosdrecht Jazz Festival he took part in a "Trombone Battle" with Slide Hampton, Ake Persson, Urbie Green, Kai Winding and Frank Rosalino. In 1974, he received a scholarship from the Dutch government to study with George Roberts ("Mr Bass Trombone"). During his stay there, he also studied with Phil Teele, Paul Faulise and Ed Kleinhammer.

Erik van Lier was the bass trombonist in the legendary Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band. He played in the Slide Hampton-Joe Haider Big Band, the Mel Lewis-Joe Haider Big Band and in Thad Jones' Ball Of Fire. He also played with Peter Herbolzheimer in Germany and with the Skymasters, The Netherlands Concert Jazzband and Bart's Bones, his brother's trombone quartet. Together with his brother Bart, he performed as a star guest at the workshops of the International Trombone Association (ITA) in Nashville in 1987 and Eton (England) in 1989.

He teaches bass trombone at the Amsterdam Conservatory, the largest jazz department in Europe, and leads the two big bands.