His band led last year's ARIA nominations taking home the Breakthrough Artist award; released a #1 album at the height of the pandemic; signed a co-management deal between Chugg Music and Post Malone and his manager Dre London; scored five tracks in triple j’s Hottest 100's top 26; just announced their biggest ever headline shows; and they’re currently putting the finishing touches on an EP with an Avengers star. . . but there is nothing boasty about Lime Cordiale's Oli Leimbach.
The elder Leimbach brother was enjoying a swim before production meetings begin to figure out the details for their '14 Steps To A Better You' tour. "The whole show's going to be bigger – the production will be bigger, like we start thinking about these shows now and start getting ready," Oli says."Whereas on some of those other tours you can almost get away with some of the first shows being you trying stuff out, and then towards the end you're really polished. . . You can't really afford to do that with these sort of tours. So yeah, I'm a bit nervous. . . Like we'll just go and do these shows and get off stage and it'll be like, ‘wow, that was it.
"We just spent months and months of preparation, now we're done.' But yeah, it's insane. It's just a completely different environment playing to thousands and thousands of people instead of lots of little shows. It's a different energy and you've got to bring something different.
"So I think the show will definitely be something that we haven't presented before, that’s for sure."
"At the ARIAs, it hadn't kicked in yet that people knew our band. People like Delta Goodrem and Guy Sebastian." - Oli Leimbach
It sounds like anyone planning to attend the tour will be in for a treat. "You have everything at your disposal," Oli says.
"You could be like, 'oh yeah, I want to fly above the audience and shoot a flamethrower and drop down in a big bubble onto the crowd,' and everyone's like, 'well, okay, cool, we can make that happen'.
"It's almost like you've got to imagine the show as though you've just dreamt it up, and everyone will just make it happen around you. Whereas at the smaller 500 capacity shows, you've definitely got a bit of a, ah, limit on what you can do."
Lime Cordiale ticked Sydney's Enmore Theatre off their venue bucket list back in March, and later this year the Northern Beaches brothers will hit a bigger iconic Sydney venue – the Hordern Pavilion. "I've been there so many times but never been behind the stage at all. . . It's pretty surreal, really," Oli says.
"We've seen so many artists – everyone that we grew up listening to, from Kings Of Leon to Blink-182 – then I've seen newer acts like Tame Impala and just so many bands that we look up to. So yeah, it's really, really weird to think that we'll be doing that venue."
Oli acknowledges the band have been luckier than many to be travelling and working somewhat regularly in recent months, though they have shared the frustration of COVID cancellations and rescheduling shows.
"The last couple of months have felt great – amazing – but music festivals and concerts are the first thing to get canned as soon as there's a couple of cases, so it definitely has felt like we're getting back to normal, but we're not taking it for granted, that's for sure.
"We were hanging out with Dylan Alcott [Australian wheelchair basketballer] the other night, and he was saying that he has played in front of 10,000 people during COVID, and there was a footy game going on.
"Last weekend when we were in Melbourne, with a restricted audience, for the Homefront gig – which was an ANZAC Day thing as well, so you'd think you might get a little bit more credit – the footy was going on [at the MCG] and there was 80,000 people there.
"So we were trying to devise a plan where Dylan would play a tennis match with 80,000 people [in attendance] and he'd just take time out after one game and we'd come on for a very largely extended half-time show."
Lime Cordiale had the dubious honour of playing to a virtually empty Star City when they performed at last year's ARIA Awards, instead of the usual crowd of music industry reps, media and fans, who were all kept away due to COVID restrictions.
Oli says it was just part of a surreal experience for the band. "We didn't think a band like us could, you know, be nominated for ARIAs. . . I mean, we knew we could, but we couldn't really imagine it.
"I think with COVID you get nominated for these things and we were selling, releasing albums but we weren't really playing big shows, so there was a part of us that didn't really know if the album was doing well or not.
"So being at the ARIAs, it hadn't kicked in yet that people knew our band. People like Delta Goodrem and Guy Sebastian; people that you just see on TV, and these commercial musicians going, 'oh I'm a big fan of your music', and you're like, 'really?! Wow, okay. . . Cool!' It's like, I didn't know that our music would get to you.
"It just seems like a different world. It's like the TV world of music or something. Not that that's been our goal in life, to be appreciated by Delta Goodrem, but also. . . Not just them, there were a lot of artists there, like Briggs was there, Amy Shark was there – some really great musicians. It felt really cool to be up in that tier of musicians, for sure."
Delta and Guy aren't the only big names who are fans of the brothers Lime – 'Avengers' star Idris Elba, who made headlines with the boys when he jumped up on stage at that Enmore show earlier in the year – is fan enough to be recording a whole EP with them.
"Idris was in Sydney and we just got connected because we were looking for a feature for a song and we were looking at these English female singers, and even French female singers.
"We wanted something a bit different – we didn't want to just go with an Australian artist, mainly because we thought that would be a bit too obvious, and I guess we just wanted to open it up a bit more worldwide. . . and someone suggested Idris Elba," Oli says.
"It was kind of so perfect because we'd always been a fan of his, and actually our warm-up before jumping on stage is a song that he sings with Sean Paul, so it was kind of so weirdly perfect. We thought it was just going to be one song, and before we knew it, it turned into seven songs.
"So, I don't know. There might be five to seven songs on this EP, but it's pretty exciting!"
Lime Cordiale tour nationally October 2021. They also headline the inaugural Fresh Produce regional festival series.
Lime Cordiale 2021 Tour Dates
Sat 9 Oct - The Riverstage (Brisbane)Fri 15 Oct - Hordern Pavilion (Sydney)
Sat 16 Oct - Hordern Pavilion (Sydney)
Fri 22 Oct - Sidney Myer Music Bowl (Melbourne)
Fri 29 Oct - Fremantle Arts Centre
Sat 30 Oct - Fremantle Arts Centre
Fresh Produce 2021 Tour Dates
13-14 Aug - Murray Sports Complex (Townsville)20-21 Aug - Hay Park (Bunbury)
27-28 Aug - Maitland Showground
3-4 Sep - Toowoomba Showgrounds
10-11 Sep - Hobart Showground
17-18 Sep - Exhibition Park In Canberra
24-25 Sep - Prince of Wales Showground (Bendigo)
1-2 Oct - Adelaide Showground
