From growing up as ‘feral little kids’ on Scotland Island, Oli and Louis Leimbach are now playing to sell-out audiences world-wide. Editor Michelle Giglio gets the low down on the new Lime Cordiale album
Oli Leimbach has his brother Louis in a headlock, and is playfully tussling his hair. The boys are hamming it up for our photoshoot at Freshwater beach, not far from where they live. They exude calmness, quirkiness and a general ‘chill’ vibe – a lot like their music which is so popular in Australia and has garnered them fans across the world.
It’s been four years since the band launched an album, and now new offering Enough of the Sweet Talk is out, Lime Cordiale are everywhere. They have done an enormous run of interviews, television appearances (Spicks and Specks, anyone?) and there was even a selfie with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after a gig at Parliament House.
And the fun is just beginning, as they head to Europe in August for a one-month tour of major cities including London and Paris, backdrop to their iconic Robbery 2019 single. Not long after they return, Lime Cordiale will start their biggest-ever Australian/New Zealand tour, playing to stadiums holding thousands – with many shows half-sold after just one day of pre-sales.
It all sounds exciting, but exhausting – especially when you see how energetic they are on stage, constantly moving, engaging with the crowd, and jumping around like seasoned rock stars. “I feel like the shows are the least exhausting part of the whole tour,” Louis says. “The shows are like: ‘Oh thank God we’ve got a show now. I can just not think about anything.’”
It’s been quite a journey for Oli, 34 and Louis, 32, since they were young boys running around with all the other ‘bush kids’ on Scotland Island. “It was pretty feral,” Oli admits. “You’d run off without your shoes on and you didn’t come back until dark. Just causing a ruckus, exploring caves and being little bush kids. And I think a lot of the people we know that grew up on Scotland Island have a feel to them, (as) ‘boat access only’ feral kids. It’s such a strong part of our upbringing.”
Their parents, Bill, a filmmaker who had escaped the USA to avoid drafting for the Vietnam War, and Karen, a musician, were attracted to the upper Northern Beaches as it was – and still is – a hub for creative people. As Karen was a cello teacher, music was always part of their lives, with the children growing up surrounded by guitar, piano and violin. Oli trained classically in clarinet, and Louis the trumpet.
“We were definitely pushed down the music path of life,” Louis remembers. “It felt pretty normal for us because mum was always playing and teaching and so it just felt like something you did.”
As the boys grew older, they started sharing a love for similar music, and then wanted to write songs themselves, but couldn’t do this on wind instruments. “We just started writing songs together and you need a polyphonic instrument to write songs on,” explains Oli. “So Louis played bass just because I played guitar. We didn’t want to play the same thing.”
By this time, the family was living in Avalon to make it easier for Karen to commute to work. Oli had dabbled in a few bands while at Pittwater High School, but they just kept breaking up.
“Then eventually I got Louis to be in a band. (I said) ‘You’re in a band with me because you’re my brother and it’s not going to break up if you join the band!” Oli recalls. “Louis was pretty hesitant. (Then) he was like, ‘alright, I’ll be in a band, but I don’t want to play gigs. Because he’s a pretty shy boy. He still is.”
At this point, they burst out laughing as on stage, Louis is anything but! He was not quite 18 when Lime Cordiale started playing in pubs, which meant he had to be sneaked in or a deal made with the owner to allow a minor into a licensed venue.
Father Bill was Lime Cordiale’s manager initially when the band formed in 2009, and he booked ‘any show under the sun’: weddings, parties, pubs in the city – even the Avalon fete. “We just played kind of everything,” Oli says. “We played a lot of shows to no one. And a lot of weird ones.”
The early song writing process was quite organic, and the boys would ‘jam out stuff and record crappy demos’ in the downstairs area of their parent’s house. It was not necessarily appreciated by the neighbours. “We got some hard-core complaints, pretty threatening letters actually from a couple of neighbours,” Louis recalls. “I’m still angry at that sort of thing. Sometimes I’m walking down the street and I’ll see a band playing in the garage and it’s just one of the coolest things ever.”
Now when they sit down to write, it’s more likely to be separately at a keyboard or desk, with ideas they later workshop together. Louis says his inspiration often arrives as he is going to sleep. “It’s that moment where something will get stuck in your head, you wake up and record it on your phone, and (listen to it) in the morning and it’s usually crap!” he laughs.
“It’s pretty Frankenstein, our way of recording and writing. Nothing is ever the same really.”
But it obviously works. Fans just can’t get enough of these Beaches boys, whose listening stats are staggering. LIme Cordiale has had 500 million streams on Spotify, 40 million on Apple Music, with 30 million views of their videos on You Tube.
How do they define their music? “Indie, pop, rock, weird, quirky,” says Louis. It really is their own definition- busting genre.
Lime Cordiale first cracked Triple J’s yearly Hottest 100 song chart in 2018, which is seen as a bit of a barometer of a band’s success in Australia, coming in at 86 with single Dirt Cheap. “That was just an amazing feeling,” reflects Oli. In the 2020 Hottest 100 chart, they had five songs in the top 26 – a feat only achieved by big-name international stars like Billie Eilish and G Flip.
Louis does all artwork for the band’s album covers and tour posters using a lino press he bought from Holland
Yet there has been no ‘career making’ song for this band, just a slow build of followers over 15 years. “We have never really had the big breakthrough song ever,” Louis says. “We have been touring the old school way. We’ve never had the explosion.” That ‘old school touring’ comment is an understatement, with Oli admitting it has taken its toll as the band has striven to become known locally and overseas. In 2022 they toured for six months. This year will end up being four months of concerts, with four stints overseas.
“We tour a lot and then we don’t give ourselves a break at all,” Oli reflects. “Which is probably something we need to reassess in my mind. I’m like, ‘next year we’re going to chill out a little bit’. Because we go on tour and then we put in a bunch of press and interviews to keep promoting the shows and our band overseas. And then we’re trying to song write as well while being on the road.
“So you’re fitting all of this stuff in and it gets pretty overwhelming. We’ve made it difficult for ourselves.”
Brother Louis agrees, but can see the positives. “It’s a pretty hardcore way to do it. But I feel like it’s been good for us. We’ve gotten tighter as a band and we haven’t had these big highs followed by lows and having to follow something up.”
The band – James Jennings (drums), Felix Bornholt (keyboard) and Nicholas Polovineo (guitar) – is tightknit, so much so that Louis says he’s ‘loving touring more and more every time’. “You get over there and it’s just kind of hanging out with your 10 best friends for six weeks. Everyone gets along and knows how to give each other space and is keen to do creative stuff in the free time.”
That creative process is what has turned into album number three, Enough of the Sweet Talk. It’s all about the cycle of a relationship – strangers to lovers or friends to lovers, and back to strangers, Oli explains. The songs were written over many years, and the boys have put a lot of their personal experiences into it. When I’m Losing It is one of Louis’s favourite tracks on the album. It tells of some mental health struggles he went through. “I guess that was admitting anxiety and admitting to myself that I was going through some mental health stuff. And so that’s probably a pretty powerful one for me. I hope that people can relate.”
Louis on tour in Japan
Louis fronts the stage at Spilt Milk, 2023.
Music was part of their lives from a young age
With such an intense schedule, the boys prioritise their health and eating well while on tour. “When you’re starting out, you’re really excited being in a band, and a show is a bit more of a unique experience,” reflects Oli. “So you get drunk and you have a party and go out until four in the morning. I guess the more shows you play, and especially when you’ve got 20 in a row, you just can’t do that every night.”
Now their band rider is ‘less cases of beer and booze’ and more ‘fruit and vegetables’ with a Nutribullet for them to make smoothies. “Or else you just go insane!” Oli says.
Despite all their success, the boys are still ‘hustling pretty hard’. “When do you feel like you’ve made it?” Louis asks. “I don’t get that sensation that ‘we are here, we’ve made it.’”
Oli adds: “You (would not) be having fun if you weren’t doing the hustle though, because there’s got to be that excitement. Right now we’re really concentrating on overseas and if we get booked for a big festival in the USA over the next year, that’s what we are really aiming for. So that is the hustle, you know?”
I ask Louis if he ever pinches himself when he reflects on where Lime Cordiale is at. “I’ve got pretty massive imposter syndrome and I don’t think I’ll ever get over that,” he admits. He even coined the song Imposter Syndrome which reflects on this theme. “I’m a happy boy, but I feel like I haven’t hit the target yet.”
Oli reflects on the fickle nature of their industry. “As musicians, you’re constantly paranoid that it’s all going to fade away in one second. I think it does happen in Australia. People are all about the newest thing that’s happening, so you’re constantly worried about staying relevant and being able to continue to do the same size shows and festivals that you’re doing.
“That doesn’t happen as much overseas, and that’s a big part of why we’re investing so hard overseas.”
Perhaps in an effort to stay relevant, Lime Cordiale juggle many balls in their lives. They are environmentalists, surfers and even beer brewers (check out carbon-neutral LARGO!) in addition to being song writers. It’s all being documented in a book Louis is writing about the band’s 15 years since formation, with a movie about whether bands can be sustainable and tour at the same time also in the works. Set to be released in June, 2025, Lime Cordiale: On the Road to a Better Tour will look at the environmental cost incurred by touring. “We feel bad about the carbon footprint,” Oli admits. Hoping to inspire a movement for change, the Mushroom Studio movie will document the band’s search for ways to keep touring while protecting the planet. “Should we quit and not tour and save the carbon footprint?” Louis asks. “Being a band and destroying the world by doing it: Is the message worth the cost of it?”
Before they head off on tour next month, the boys will be getting some surfing in, one of their favourite ways to relax – and also why they love the Northern Beaches. “It’s just so stunning,” remarks Oli. “You don’t really understand until you go overseas and then you come back, have a coffee on Avalon headland and you look out at that view and you’re like, ‘this is ridiculous.’”
In between all the tour frenzy, Oli is also preparing for his marriage to long-time girlfriend Emily Bester, which will happen in October after the Australian tour. The couple will tie the knot at the Leimbach farm on the mid-north coast of NSW, which the boys use as a ‘little haven’ to record music.
Louis and Oli’s closeness as siblings is obvious, and they often finish each other’s sentences. Do they ever fight? “Maybe not as intensely as other brothers or siblings do,” Louis says. “I guess we just know each other so well. You figure out when each other needs space or how to help when they’re feeling a bit down.”
Oli adds: “As brothers you’re just really good at fighting, so you can have a big shouting match and then 10 minutes later you’re best friends, going to get lunch together.”
These boys have come a long way from the days when they only paid themselves $50 a week to get by from gigging. Oli says the plan for now is to ‘just keep going’. “I think we’ll be okay to just continue writing music for the rest of our lives.” Which is just what the fans want to hear.
See limecordiale.com to buy Enough of the Sweet Talk or tickets to their concert at the ICC on October 11.
