“Melancholic fun with a dash of good old fashioned rock n roll”. That’s how fast-rising alt-indie-rock band Lime Garden would describe the essence of their sound. Slightly out of the capital craze, the Brighton-based group found solace and inspiration in the British seaside, rising today as one of the most promising up-and-coming bands of its kind. Now, they unveil a new single, “I Want To Be You”, teasing listeners to their forthcoming debut album, One More Thing, out on the 16th of February via So Young Records.
Speaking about the track, Lime Garden’s Chloe Howard said: “‘I Want To Be You’ was inspired by a very specific memory I have as a 14-year-old at my first gig looking at the band playing and thinking, “do I Want to be you or be with you, or do I want both?”. This feeling has continued to raise its head on many occasions in my life, and it’s become quite an obsessive process at times. Growing up with social media and the constant ability to follow your idols, with access into ‘their world’, has fuelled this in an unhealthy way.”
Here, we connected with them to get a deeper insight on the producing days of the track, what can listeners expect from their debut album and… why Brighton?
Listen to the single…
Read the full interview…
How did you first form as a band?
Chloe + Annabel met through a facebook group looking to find housemates at college, which then led to meeting Leila at college, and then Tippi when we moved to Brighton! We wanted to form a girl band, and so we started jamming stuff like Arctic Monkeys together and then that led to us gigging. It took a few years of being pretty rubbish before finally finding our sound- especially throughout the lockdowns.
What about your connection allows you to augment each other’s musicianship?
I think being such close friends means that we aren’t afraid to be honest with each other about music and we feel comfortable enough around each other to experiment musically. Without this bond, it’s hard to really try stuff as you can often feel fear of judgement- I think this is our secret key to writing songs together and curating our vision of Lime Garden.
How would you describe your essence as an act?
I would say, melancholic fun with a dash of good old fashioned rock n roll.
What inspires you, stylistically and thematically?
We are generally inspired by pretty mundane things in ordinary life and find the quirks and beauty in them. And then in terms of style that can change on a daily basis, we have always found inspiration from artists that continue to adapt and change their sound. That’s something we hope to do in our time making music, there is a real sense of full creative freedom when you just allow yourself to make whatever you want without it having to fit in a genre sized box.
What positives and negatives (if any) come from living and building your career from Brighton?
Brighton is an amazing city for us to have started out in. Its music scene is amazing, and all the venues/promoters/other bands are super supportive of one another. It meant we could be a medium-sized fish in a small pond and find our feet as musicians and really hone in on our sound. Negatives (other than the winter wind) are that because it is such a small place you do have to ensure that you are looking to experience playing outside of the city, it’s a real bubble that you can get stuck in if you aren’t looking outwards.
Do you ever feel the pressure to move to the capital?
There definitely is a big pressure to move to London as so much stuff happens there. We often meet people who are SHOCKED at the fact we don’t all live there yet. Annabel has actually already moved to London last year, but I think that Brighton has a special place in our hearts. And something about staying in our little seaside town feels a bit rebellious like we aren’t following the creative worlds rules.
What have been your career highlights to date?
Probably having Hayley Williams from Paramore be a fan of the band; that was one of those moments where we were literally screaming at one of our childhood heroes saying she had been listening to us before recording their album. Jonny Marr also had some nice words for us on 6music. Name dropping aside(!), playing in the U.S. for the first time and Glastonbury have definitely been highlights this year.
We love the new single “I Want To Be You”! Talk us through the creation and meaning behind the track?
This track was written about 3 weeks before we went in to record the album – we work well under pressure! Leila and Chloe wrote this track, inspired by a lot of the guitar music of our youth. Annabel added in some synths and pianos and then we took into a live room and it just fell into place really easily. Lyrically, the songs concept is centred around the idea of seeing someone and being unsure if you want to be them or be with them. Chloe felt this experience watching Wolf Alice when she was 14 and we have all felt it since, it’s probably a very common emotion, especially being a music obsessed teenager.
Congratulations on the news of your debut LP! What can listeners expect to hear from it?
It’s a pretty good diary of us growing up together in the band. It’s got an old song, written about 3 years ago that’s been reshaped, it’s got songs that were written 3 weeks before going into the studio- but overall it just shows us figuring out life + relationships, showing our upbeat side, but also showing a slightly more vulnerable side to our previous singles. It’s our perfect marriage of guitars and technology we are so proud of it.
What does the album mean to you?
Literally everything. We have all been dreaming of having an album out ever since we were younger, and to actually create a body of work that we are so proud of is pretty epic.
What’s to come from you apart from the album?
Loads more live shows, playing in more countries, another album and maybe a brit award!?