Lime Garden inject fun, pop and zest into the bright young music scene saturated with post-punk boy bands. Indisputably one of the most exciting artists to keep an eager eye on in 2022, they’ve landed themselves enviable places in the NME 100, Dork Hype List and DIY Class of 2022.

FKA LIME, the band were forced into changing their name due to the 1980s Montreal-based disco group also taking inspiration from green citrus fruits. The UK group knew LIME was shared with others across the pond but never dreamed they’d be in a position where this would be a serious issue until they were signed by So Young Records last year - bittersweet success! The band have grown into their mature new name and into their slinky-electronic-funky-guitar-synth-bop sound in synchrony. They satisfyingly steer away from the cliches of the often predictable post-punk mode but lean nicely into their foremothers, The Raincoats and Mo-dettes. Lime Garden’s observational lyrics cover the expectations, pressures and stresses shared by young people, predominantly from a female perspective; their third single ‘Sick & Tired’ explores this with a certain directness. This is a band creating delicious pop sprinkled with enough grit and wit to keep things tangy.

We had the real pleasure of catching up with Leila Deeley (guitar) and Tippi Morgan (bass) at Bad Luck Social Club in Brighton. Annabel Whittle (drums) and Chloe Howard (vocals/guitar/synth) were otherwise caught up with work and uni deadlines; a reminder of the tricky reality of balancing life commitments with band commitments despite recent rising success. The girls embody and emit girl power. Girlfriends turned bandmates, Lime Garden began as an organic collective of pals living and studying together until Tippi was roped into learning bass to complete the band line up. Over a coffee we chatted about their recent sold out Brixton Academy show supporting Idles, their chaotic signing celebration with champagne whilst having Covid and their exciting summer of festivals that lays ahead. We also got the hottest inside scoop on Lime Garden accidentally supporting no other than Rick Astley at Latitude.

Most potently, being all of a similar age and mindset, we unanimously agreed that greater representation of women in bands when we were younger would have directly and positively encouraged us to pick up instruments from an earlier age. Lime Garden remedy the scarcity of female musicians that we as women currently involved in music culture once desperately needed to relate to during our teens. Leila reflected on this full circle and noted that her favourite thing to see at a gig is a gang of girls dancing to their music. In the contemporary moment of Lime Garden, Goat Girl, Prima Queen, Dream Wife and Deep Tan representing some of the best of British girl groups and with Warpaint and HAIM rocking it in America, the musical future is more promising and plausible for young girls in crowds who now have more tangible images to aspire to onstage in front of them.  

Thanks for chatting with us today. How did Lime Garden become a band?

Leila: In Guildford, Chloe and Annabel met over housing because they both needed a housemate. Me and Chloe were in the same guitar class and we were the only girls so we sort of formed a little supergroup. Chloe said her housemate (Annabel) played drums and we started jamming together… It was really bad but fun. That progressed when we moved to Brighton and started looking for a bassist. Tippi was mine and Annabel’s housemate at the time and we’d tried finding other bassists but it wasn’t right. It was always a fun friend thing and we wanted someone to absolutely fit in.

So you got roped in then Tippi? Did you already play bass?

Tippi: Yeah! I always thought it was cool anyway so I was happy to be in. But no, I didn’t play bass. My dads a bass player so luckily he helped me out a lot. It took me about a year to feel confident though… even now I still get nervous!

It’s cool how organic it all was for you guys.

Tippi: It’s great how it’s worked out because of how much we see each other. We literally see each other everyday. 

Leila: We’re either writing, rehearsing or hanging out. We actually live together with Annabel so we really are together all the time.

As fellow honorary Brightoners - what do you think of the scene here?

Leila: I definitely think that Brighton has much more of a community feel than Guildford. There, it was very much every man for himself so it was great coming to a city that felt so collaborative. I think that reflects in our music for sure. There’s lots of supportive people around. 

I have to get right in there and ask how the sold out show with Idles at Brixton Academy was?! 

Tippi: Oh, you know, it was fine…

Leila: We were so nervous! 

Tippi: We were literally meditating in the van before we went in.

Leila: I was pacing back and forth listening to Britney Spears.

Tippi: The whole crew were lovely, Idles were sweethearts, we were so well taken care of and the stage was insane. The biggest venue we’d played was five hundred capacity with Fur, so this was ten times the size!

Do you miss being LIME or did Lime Garden usher in a newfound power source?

Leila: I think we’ve grown into our name and it feels a bit more mature. LIME was like our citrus-colour-teen phase. We had to change it when we got signed but we came into our sound. I don’t miss LIME, I see it as a sweet baby.

Tippi: It definitely feels more grown up and it looks like an actual name rather than a four letter word. We had to think about it for days and days. It’s just annoying that we’d put all our LIME stickers up everywhere!

You self-released your first singles ‘Surf N Turf’ and ‘Fever’ just before and during lockdown. How was that for you? 

Leila: We had the ‘Surf N Turf’ single release just before lockdown. That was really lucky timing and I’m glad we got it out. ‘Fever’ was during lockdown though. The lockdowns actually really helped our songwriting because we were forced to write in a different way; being alone and experimenting more. We’d send each other ideas and take more time to ponder. I think it made our sound more modern and electronic. It was weird that all of our growth happened over lockdown.

I read that you have a fan Whatsapp group chat. How does it work? What does it mean for you guys?

Leila: I’m glad you reminded us because it’s funny and chaotic when it works. 

Tippi: Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard have a group chat and we were advised to make one for posting updates. Obviously, random people decided to join and it got seriously spammed.

Leila: We were confronted with pictures of mouldy toes… it was meant for talking about music!

Oh no! Aside from mouldy toes from strangers, were there any nice people on the group chat that you didn’t know? 

Leila: Yeah! There were people from Spain and a bunch of other places. That part was nice because they asked us about our synths and how we make different sounds. I think  I would love that with smaller bands I see. I always want to ask but I’m too shy! It’s a nice way of creating community.

You’re now signed to So Young Records! How did it feel and how did you celebrate?

Tippi: We all used to read the magazine when we were like fourteen! I remember the first time that So Young featured us on a playlist we were like ‘oh my god’.

Leila: We all had Covid when we got signed. We imagined being fancy in the office and popping the champagne but instead we did it over Zoom.

Tippi: I opened the champagne and spilled the whole bottle over Annabel’s bed, all over her laptop, all over everything! 

Leila: It wasn’t quite what we imagined but it was a sweet moment of having Covid… and very us.

Your new single ‘Marbles’ is out now! It’s an introspective disco tune about disconnect and self-discovery. The limited edition 75 copies 7” via Rough Trade with Clockwork on the A-side and lyric book sold out insanely fast on pre-order. How does that make you feel?

Leila: Every time this happens I’m like: “what?! Who’s buying this?!” It’s so weird but great.

Tippi: I didn’t even have time to appreciate that it was out. I was at work when it was released and when I’d finished they’d all gone. Hopefully some have been kept aside for us for the box!

Nice, you guys have got a memory box?

Leila: Yeah! I’ve got our first ever gig poster that was typed in Comic Sans and printed out from the library. I’ve the first t-shirts we printed, stickers…

Tippi: I’ve got all of our gig wristbands and gig passes.

I love that, I’m very sentimental too. I really appreciate your sound in the current musical environment that’s saturated with post-punk boy bands. How do you conceive of your sound and what it does for people listening?

Leila: I think we’ve just always wanted to make our music very observational so that people can relate to it. And obviously, if we inspire more women to pick up an instrument that would be so cool.

Tippi: I like to look at our statistics on Spotify to see what percentage of men, women and non-binary people are listening. We hope to appeal to the women and non-binary categories! At the moment it’s 60% men, 40% women and less than 1% non-binary. I’d really like for women to hear us more.

Leila: The best thing at a gig is when there’s a group of young girls dancing around. When I was growing up, I would have loved to see a female band like us. I feel like the only female idol I had was Avril Lavigne… no hate, I’m her biggest fan! But, I just think that having someone to watch in a band and in closer proximity to who we were would have been helpful. 

I totally get that. When I was younger, I didn’t see any all female bands and went to gigs with my dad because no girlfriends would come with me.

Leila: So did I! My dad was a legend for that. There are hilarious pictures of me in band merch by the merch stand at the end of gigs. It was such a new lease of life coming to Brighton and suddenly being surrounded by girls who knew exactly what I was going on about. 

Tippi: I’m so glad we’re a girl band. It’s very easy and honest. Most of my family are musicians but I was stubborn about learning the guitar and piano because I never had the confidence to do it. It’s frustrating that I didn’t pick up music sooner.

I think I’d have been more encouraged to learn if there was a greater culture of young women talking about and playing music when we were younger.

Leila: Exactly, I think you’re less likely to start young when there’s not enough representation of women in music.

Your trajectory has been cool to watch unfold. Singles and a record deal, what’s up next for you?

Tippi: Well we’ll be doing a bunch of festivals in summer in the UK and Europe which is cool… we can’t give away too much information yet though!

Have you played overseas before?

Leila: Only once. We went to Paris and played at Supersonic. It was so fun, the audience were so sick and the rider! Wow, European riders are different. Usually, at home we get a bag of crisps and a beer and we’re happy.

Tippi: But in Paris! They got every band a big baguette, a bunch of cheese, different salads, cherry tomatoes, grapes, Peroni and wine… so accommodating! We devoured the cheese apart from Leila because she’s lactose intolerant so she missed out on that part unfortunately.

Here’s to European rider and festivals!

Leila: When we played Latitude, it was Tippi and Chloe’s first time going to a festival and it was mine and Annabel’s first festival we’d ever played at. It was just after Covid and it was an overwhelmingly happy time.

Tippi: It was so much fun. We would have literally paid to go but we were playing it! Dry Cleaning were great, so were Hot Chip and Rick Astley.

Leila: We actually kind of supported Rick Astley! He played a secret set and we were on the stage before him. It was iconic. He was just doing covers of pure dad rock anthems. 

Article by Meg Sweeney originally written for Bad Luck Magazine.