Maia Gibbs sits down with Oli and Louis from Lime Cordiale to discuss life in the industry post-pandemic, their new EP Country Club, their work with Idris Elba, and how they will inevitably make a statement in the UK this month.
Australian band Lime Cordiale are ready to take the UK by storm on their long-awaited tour – playing our local Rescue Rooms in Nottingham on the 27th of September. Fronted by brothers Oli and Louis Leimbach, Lime Cordiale have enjoyed massive success in their motherland, winning Breakthrough Act at the 2020 ARIAS for their #1 album 14 Steps To A Better You, which also saw them break the record for most tracks in Triple J's Hot 100 list and have had 9 songs go Gold or Platinum. The tour, rescheduled from this January, is to celebrate the release of their EP with the iconic Idris Elba, Cordi Elba, which they recorded while Elba was in Australia filming. The band play 14 dates throughout September including two sold-out out nights at London's Electric Ballroom. So it was a pleasure to sit down to talk to them as they had started their first stretch around this great isle.
Me: Well, I’ll start off with a question that probably seems quite tedious by now, but I do feel somewhat obligated to ask - it is firstly, how does it feel to be back live, performing post-pandemic? And how would you say your music specifically over the past two years has changed?
Oli: Well, um, I mean it feels absolutely great, you know, especially to be on the other side of the world. In the middle of the pandemic, you just sort of like, can't imagine getting on a plane, again. Or, you know, even touring in your hometown, let alone being on the other side of the world – so these tours, you know, actually be doing it feels so good. It’s easy to forget that it [covid] ever happened. That's, that's the greatest thing. I think we were a bit sceptical that like music would go back to being the same thing. We did a lot of recording. We did a lot of songwriting and, you know, daydreaming about it for bloody two years’ time. Like we were able and ready to do what we wanted to do when we finally got back to playing, again.
One of the tracks they’d been cooking up is their new EP Country Club. Offering a variety of sprightly keys, enticing hooks, smart-mouthed lyricism and an undeniably fun time, Oli has been quoted as saying: “I just love how ridiculous this song is. It’s full of contradictions. I guess that’s the point. In Country Club, we imagine the downfall of a highly privileged character with no sense of the cushy world that surrounds them. A lot of us have got it good, yet some people are just so disconnected from the rest of society that if they aren't careful, it will come back around and bite them in the butt.”
Me: Every capital has its own scene or niche of music. How would you describe Sydney's to our non-Australian readers? And how would you say it's influenced your own sound?
Oli: I think like it's difficult, you know, to get a leg up in the music industry as an Australian artist. Like there are a lot of great bands, you know, if you just walk along the main streets in Sydney - there are bands, like a majority of the time, they're good. It’s a competitive industry. We have this thing called Tall Poppy Syndrome - I don’t know if you guys really know what that means. But Australians love to bring you down to the ground. Like it’s a tricky thing to navigate the music, and it kind of keeps everything pretty grounded, and humble. And in some way, it makes people work really hard. Sydney does bring a lot of good music. I think the Australian music industry is like it definitely can branch out into the US and the UK. But the ones that you guys really get to see, are the ones that have really worked over the years and have finally managed to get overseas.
Me: Okay. You are now on the European stretch; you posted on your Instagram “that this time around [you] hope you don't die of beer bellies or OD on cheese”. Are there any European or foreign luxuries you find yourself overindulging in while you're travelling?
Louis: Definitely still the cheese, you know? And the bread!
Oli: European venues are very generous. Especially places like Germany, you just know, like the last tour we didn’t even sell many tickets, and you just get there and it’s like food and booze. Like I don’t know how they’re making any money to be honest.
Louis: Just so much cheese!
Me: I'm seeing you at Rescue Rooms in Nottingham late later this month. Uh, what would you say your best UK gig has been? Whether that be festival concert has been so far?
Oli: We haven't done that many so far. I mean, Manchester last time was one of the most wild we’ve played. English fans, they’re a bit like football hooligans, you know, they don't sing the melodies, they just yell them <laugh>. And there was a festival just outside Dublin called Electric Picnic, that was great. I think with these festivals, like being on the other side of the world, it's like we kind of go out onto the stage expecting there to be only a few people there. But this one really surprised us, you know, the whole tent was people singing our lyrics, everyone on people’s shoulders. It was like really like a big buzz for us! They were really energetic. It's a real big party. In Australia we fear putting one [a show] on a Sunday night, here people come out on a Monday.
Me: You said in your press release how much you enjoy the ridiculousness in your music. Have you listened to The Wiggles' cover of Apple Crumble yet? And if so, what's your review?
Oli: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We formed a bit of like a communication between The Wiggles. They aren't that big in the UK, so I'm surprised you asked that. They’re massive here. They sold out Square Garden. Just everyone knows them in Australia, and America. They’re one of the biggest children’s bands in the world, so we grew up with them, you know, they were band the first band we were listening to really. I guess that’s a bit of a full-circle moment?
In January of this year, Lime Cordiale and jack of all trades actor/musician/DJ and record label boss Idris Elba’s Cordi Elba, debuted at #9 on the ARIA album chart. Hit singles Apple Crumble and What’s Not To Like, which landed at #14 and #41 on the triple j hottest 100 respectively. It was an unusual collaboration, with the artists seemingly coming from two different worlds of music and countries two continents apart.
“We’d seen a lot of movies and TV series with [Idris Elba] in already, so it was surreal for us. But it only took half a day before, you know, we forgot about all that. ”
Me: Your recent collaboration, with Idris Elba has also been very popular. What attracted you to working with him specifically?
Oli: We stumbled across each other really. We were already looking for someone to feature on one of our songs, that already existed and give it a new lease of life and a new release. He was in Australia, and someone showed him our music. And was like: “yeah, yeah. I’ll do that for sure”. We met with him in the studio, as he was doing our feature and we thought he was gonna be, you know, running off to film set. But he stayed and got out his computer and showed us one of the songs that he was working on. And he was like “guys, so how about we, you know, maybe work on this song I've been playing. It has a bit of an Arctic Monkeys feel to it.” And from that it was a very late first night, and then that went on to be like being six weeks of working with him and around his set. And getting in the studio any day he had off, just working on new music. And I think we would have just kept on working with him, if he didn’t have to go back to the UK. So yeah, it was like a really great creative process. We were just pumping out music, he’d never made music in a studio, working on music from the start all the way through to the end. So, I think he got a real buzz out of that. We’d seen a lot of movies and TV series with him in already, so it was surreal for us. But it only took half a day before, you know, we forgot about all that. We’re working with him to create - he's a storyteller and with an amazing voice.
Me: Your recent stuff seems to be a lot more genre-defying than your earlier work. Do you think it's specifically important to bring in new creative partners with stuff like that?
Oli: Louis was always craving doing some sort of hip-hop music. I think he just was like our ticket to be able to, to have permission to do something different, you know? Like we didn't just have to sound like a band. We could just do whatever we wanted, we worked on lots of different stuff - like that's like a bit of a house-sounding track, there's another one's that’s like this weird hip hop song. We worked on other stuff that’s more soulful, bringing in new people definitely helps in creating things that you may have been craving and wanting to do. Um, so I think now like we do have permission to sort of experiment and do other stuff. But I think we’re back to our music now after a bit of collaboration – it’s kind of nice to just going back and focusing on that.
Me: If you were to name your dream artist (dead or alive) to collaborate with, who would that be?
Oli: Oh man. That's a tricky one. Like as we were growing up, there’s a lot of inspirations from the early days we wanted to be like a lot of bands. Maybe –
Louis: *in a quite poor Jamaican accent* Marleyyy.
Oli: Yeah! Bob Marley. Or can you say John Cage. He does these four minutes of silence. Literally, just of absolutely nothing. We could do a collaboration there. And we’d look awesome.
Me: And finally, and it's a question I'm personally very interested in coming from a family with a lot of siblings. How do you find working with your brother? Because I could imagine my brothers would be the most annoying co-workers imaginable.
Oli: Louis?
Louis: Awful. I’m at breaking point. I can’t do it anymore.
Oli: He’s had enough.
Louis: I have had enough.
Oli: No – We get along just fine. Probably better than working with other people. We can fight and get over it. You just say whatever you want to each other, because your brothers, you know, we've been doing that. We've practiced that our whole lives. We confront each other and we know that we're gonna get over at some point.
Maia Gibbs
Edited by: Roxann Yus
Cover and in-article images courtesy of Lime Cordiale via Facebook.
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