Lime Cordiale Gifted Us With Some Sweaty Behind-The-Scenes Photos
Lime Cordiale cracked open their old photo albums for your viewing pleasure.
There aren’t many harder working bands in the country than Sydney’s Lime Cordiale.
After spending most of 2019 on tour — here and overseas — and releasing a string of singles including ‘Inappropriate Behaviour’ and ‘Robbery’, the Northern Beaches brothers (that’s Oli and Louis Leimbach) secured a whopping four spots in the Hottest 100, three of those landing in the top 20. Instead of using the COVID-19 lockdown to take it easy, they’re pressing ahead with the release of their second album, 14 Steps To A Better You, out July 10.
To celebrate its release, Oli and Louis shared with Music Junkee some behind-the-scenes snaps they’ve taken over the years, telling us the stories from their very first gigs to their biggest ever sets to Louis sitting in an Esky. Dive in.
2009 — Sydney’s Northern Beaches
“One of our first gigs at L.A. Bar in Avalon on the Northern Beaches. I had been talking to an older guy Rory in the surf who i knew was a local muso and mentioned that my brother and I were also played. He knew the owner of the bar and said we could play out the back in exchange for beers.
The place packed out so the owner started charging five bucks at the door. The place sadly no longer exists due to neighbours complaining about loud music — seems like that happens to everything good in the Northern Beaches. Feels like a lonely place to be a musician starting out nowadays.”
2010
“Poster for one our first gigs at L.A. Bar. Oli and I sitting on the toilet together.”
2010 — Trackdown Studios
“Just finished recording out first three songs produced by Iva Davies at Trackdown studio. We played in a talent comp at Palm Beach RSL and came second. He was on the chugging panel and seemed interested so we agreed to record three songs with him as part of one page deal that eventually went sour.”
2013 — Drummoyne
“Recording our extended play Falling Up The Stairs in Drummoyne, Sydney, in a corner store converted into a Studio. We were set up with producer Daniel Denholm because he was a friend of Chugg.
I think Daniel Denholm was a little pissed off that he had work with a bunch of pretty naive young wannabe musicians but went along with as favour. He was harsh and intimidating but a true master. A lot was learnt and lot of filthy burgers were consumed. This is Oli sitting outside with Daniel’s old dog Cassie.”
2014 — Chugg Offices
“Finally signing our Chugg Music deal. In 2013 one of our family friends forced Chugg along to one our shows and it happened to be a good show with an enthusiastic crowd. Chuggy liked what we saw and we entered a handshake deal for about a year. Chugg Music was formed, Andrew Stone joined the team and we eventually signed in it in ink.
Not a lot of people in the music industry backed us, but they definitely did. Still the happiest of family today. Here, Andrew wears Chuggy and demands Oli to sign.”
2014 — Yosemite National Park
“Us on our USA tour. We had just played SXSW and we were on our way up the West coast on a 15 day tour in an old Chev. Our Amercian guitarist and old family friend Willow had persuaded us to stop in Yosemite National park as he had been there earlier in the year hiking and swimming.
As soon as we got into the park, we lit a BBQ and it started snowing. We had no warm clothes and had rented a tent for the weekend. It didn’t stop snowing. Pretty magical.”
2016 — Lost Paradise Festival
“We got booked to play this show at about 1pm on New Years Eve. Someone stuffed up the schedule and we got moved to 9pm that night. Definitely the biggest show we had ever played at the time and it was the last show of a massive tour.”
2018 — Gold Coast
“We played four shows this weekend and this was the last night of that weekend. Each night got increasingly hotter and this was definitely the hottest gig we’ve ever played.
Apparently someone in the audience killed the air con just before we played and they couldn’t get in back on so this is Louis after the show in the chilli bin. A few people in the crowd passed out and our trombone player just about passed out during this one. It was a great show.”
2019 — Manchester
“This was our first European tour. Oli and I almost had to force this tour on our management in Australia. They were looking at stats online saying that it wouldn’t be worth it. Fair enough. But we just wanted to play music whilst travelling through Europe.
So we fabricated a little story that our English Grandmother was sick and we needed a month blocked out from Australian touring to go and visit. So might as well add in a little tour too? It ended up being 30 shows — with surprisingly great turnouts across England, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium.”
2020 — Our Beautiful Family
Nick, Louis, James, Adam, Oli, Felix.
Lime Cordiale’s new album 14 Steps To A Better You is out July 10 via Chugg Entertainment.