20th November 2019
Q & A WITH LIME CORDIALE
Two brothers who started writing music together at the end of high school. We had no idea what we were doing but just kept doing it.
Tell us… who the hell are Lime Cordiale?
Two brothers who started writing music together at the end of high school. We had no idea what we were doing but just kept doing it. We played house parties, local bars and pubs on the Northern Beaches of Sydney and then just didn’t stop playing. We’ve got 3 others in our band; James on Drums, Nick on Trombone/Guitar and Felix on Keys.
As brothers, when did you both realise that music was something that you wanted truly pursue as your sole career path?
A part of you thinks it’s going to be easy when you first start playing in a band. You daydream about riding in limos and staying in lush hotels. That idea leaves you pretty quick and suddenly you realise that you’ve gotta work fucking hard for it to even be close to a sustainable career. But the harder you work, the more obsessed with this project you become and I reckon it grounds you. We’ve always loved playing and writing music. We grow prouder every day of what we’re doing and what we’ve created. It’s hard to imagine doing much else.
How would you describe your sound?
Whenever people ask what type of band we play in, I really struggle to answer. I think the songs sound different to us than to other people. We love vintage bass and drum sounds and when we add that to a layer of horns, people tend to say “soul” or “Motown”. I’ve never thought of our music as very “chill” but others do and will label it “surfy” or “beachy” music. I just say we’re a pop band but then people think of One Direction. Just get online and decide for yourself. Saves me the hassle.
Do you feel your taste in music heavily informs your fashion sense?
Not really, but I’m sure it comes hand in hand. If there are holes in our music it’s due to the holes in our jeans. I’d say we get more inspiration from our friends than any of our idols.
Who’s a new contemporary band we should be getting around?
We just did a run of shows with Approachable Members Of Your Local Community and Teenage Dads. Awesome live acts. We have Jaguar Jonze joining us soon and I’m very keen to see her. Our mates just started a new project called Le Shiv. They’re based in LA and already doing great things.
Who/what is your biggest musical inspiration?
Some of the old timers really do it for us. We never stop listening to The Beatles, Ray Charles or Elvis Presley. We’re constantly striving for the beautiful simplicity in this music.
How do you guys keep yourselves inspired?
Mostly the sun and surf. We have this vision of moving to London one day but we’ve grown up at the beach and we always suffer when we’re away from it for too long.
If you could travel to one place in the world right now, where would that be?
Mexico. We’ve only ever been just over the border from LA to Tijuana. It was kinda sketchy. I’d love to be on a tropical beach lying on a bed of tacos.
Your brand new single, Robbery has hit the ground running. What was your creative process surrounding this particular song? We wrote the song over a year ago but took ages recording it. We often wig out about the style and the production, get sick of the song and say we don’t want to release it. The same thing happened with Temper Temper. We didn’t even really like the song until we released it. It’s a strange thing. In saying all that, the recording process for Robbery was really fun. I love the mix of dirty horns and synths.
Does your creative process vary from song to song or do you have a set formula you tend to follow when creating each time? Nah, we’ve never had a formula. I know a lot of people do but we write differently every time. Sometimes we sit down at the piano and other times we start with a drum loop on the laptop.
Fave denim item you own? Why?
We have a few vintage jackets with custom embroidery on the back. We got our mate (he goes by “All My Relations”) to do his thing on the back of them and then we’ve added our own Lime patches. Love having an item that’s unique to ourselves.
Something new/cool you discovered lately?
We just moved into a new house next to a massive national park. Our roommate flew his drone over the park and found a waterfall so the other day we bashed through the bush with our Mum and had a swim. It’s a bit leechy and we stumbled across a black snake but I still think it’s gonna be mad for Summer.
What’s coming up?
We’ve still got over 20 shows before the end of the year to keep us busy but we’re gearing up for an album release in 2020. We’ll be overseas for a lot of next year. We have new management in the USA so we’ll be over there a lot. Can’t wait to get back to Europe for their Summer. Touring Europe is incredible. Other than that, we’ll just be swimming with the leeches.