Interview with Lime Cordiale
Credit: Jack Shepherd
A pop rock band from Sydney, Lime Cordiale has been busy touring Australia and US, followed by their first headline tour of Europe and the UK.
The band released their debut album Permanent Vacation in 2017. Earlier this year, Lime Cordiale premiered their new single Inappropriate Behaviour, where they also talked about their forthcoming new album. As the queue outside Sidecar in Barcelona was growing longer and longer, we found ourselves sitting down in a green room.
Credit: Jack Shepherd
Who are the 3 greatest living musicians?
Louis: Paul McCartney.
Oliver: Yeah, Paul McCartney is definitely one of them. When we’re on tour we are trying to listen to every single Beatles song in the car. Trying to listen an album a day, which is pretty fun. However, it’s a hard question. Talking about our favourite musicians, we’ve always been really influenced by Julian Casablancas, he’s kind of a genius. Also, Citizen Cope - we've always been obsessed with this guy.
Louis: We really love his music, he’s a big influence.
What’s your favourite 90s jam?
Oliver: We’ve been listening to Every Morning - Sugar Ray. It’s a good one, a nostalgic song.
Louis: I would go for Rage Against the Machine. They are pretty iconic from that era.
What are the tips to overcome the creative block?
Oliver: We are probably in a big block right now, as we are touring and haven’t been writing. So, you need to get that muscle going again. We are looking forward to September when we’ll finish touring and will get home and do some writing. Sometimes you really need to step away from a song and listen to other music, get these ideas before you get back to it. You just disconnect and enjoy other music for a little while.
Louis: When I was younger, I used to listen to a song that I loved. Then I’d go for a walk at night, and I would get a melody from that melody. Is that stealing? Maybe it is stealing…
Credit: Jack Shepherd
What's a song you've written that came out of nowhere?
Louis: I think Dirt Cheap was kind of that song.
Oliver: Yeah, you just get to the mike and go – “Oh, I love you whole…”. You don’t really know from where it came from.
If you could steal credit for any great piece of art, song, film, book etc which one would you claim?
Oliver: Maybe John Cage's 4'33", it’s a four minutes thirty-three seconds of silence, and that’s the whole meaning behind it. I find it pretty genius. I’ve watched many interviews, this man, he’s obsessed with sound. There’s music everywhere, it’s not just music you’ve written. During his performance he’s trying to show that when you are not playing anything, there’s so much else going on in a room. I just love the whole concept.
What’s your favourite album art?
Louis: I really like King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard; I think they’ve got some great art. They did one with Mild High Club, which is “Sketches of Brunswick East”, it’s beautiful.
Louis’ favorite album cover art - King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard with Mild High Club - Sketches of Brunswick East.
Tell me about your favourite performance venues.
Louis: I like small venues.
Oliver: We’ve been doing big stages for the first time in a while in Australia, maybe like 500-2500 people. It was really fun, but we were looking forward to this European tour. Here it’s all like 100-300 capacity venues. We haven’t done that for so long, so we are very excited. It’s almost scarier to play the small venues. You can see someone, one person’s reaction in front on you.
What was the craziest thing that happened to you during the show?
Oliver: We had a band supporting us last summer, they are cold Gold Member. They always come on stage and dance with us, there’s really cool vibe. So, this guy (Gold Member) jumped out of stage to crowd surf. He was wearing these big Dr. Martens shoes and accidently kicked some girl in a face. Was pretty terrific.
What’s the most embarrassing song in your music library?
Louis: Oh, so many! There are things that are funny to listen now.
Oliver: Probably it would be “Make Your Mind Up Girl”, which is on our first EP. I still love the fact that we did it. It’s hilarious.
What was the first concert you attended?
Oliver: Mine was Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2001 at the big stadium. It was really, really good.
Louis: Mine was Parkway Drive. I wore slippers to this metalcore show and lost my shoes during the first song, so I was barefoot in the crowd. It was a great show.
What secret conspiracy would you like to start?
Oliver: I like fake band-rivalries. There always been a few bands hating on each other. Rolling Stones and The Beatles, The Kooks and Arctic Monkeys...
Vinylwoman: What about you guys? Did you get any band?
Louis: Sons of the East. Tag them.
What are the unwritten rules of where you work?
Oliver: As a band touring, you’ve got to be considerate of each other. You’ve got to be positive, there has to be a lever of generosity to each other. When you get selfish, you start to make enemies. There’s no passive-aggressiveness that goes in our crew. As soon as someone starts to be passive-aggressive, they get shut down pretty quickly. Louis: We’ve got a lovely crew.
If you were arrested with no explanation, what would your friends and family assume you had done?
Oliver: Probably just taking drugs.
Louis: Totally drugs.
If a hacker hacked into your computer and was threatening to release your browser history to your friends and family, how much would you pay them to avoid it?
Oliver: I wouldn’t worry about it.
Louis: I have history of Barcelona and a bit of porn.
What is the thing you are looking forward?
Oliver: We tend to plan for the next 6 months. So, for the next 6 month we got a lot of touring in Europe and Australia, we are going to do few shows in US as well.
Louis: And 6 months prior to it, the existing thing was to come here, that was always a dream. And now we are doing it.
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