Lime Garden, you are an energetic genre-blending band from Brighton, formally known as just Lime. You play with noise in a way that is reminiscent of many genres but comes together in a spirit only you embody – a little bit of post-punk, a little bit of disco, pop and surf, and a lot of what makes alternative indie music new and refreshing. How would you describe Lime Garden and the music you create?

I read that you formed through chance Facebook meetings and a shared love of The Talking Heads – an influence I can clearly see in the bubbly aspects of your sound. How did this happen?

I recognise that your musical influences span many more genres that just the new wave scene of the ‘70s – some members of the band growing up with metal, some with psychedelic sounds, some with indie, and some even in the emo scene. Who are the bands biggest influences and how do you manage to fit all of these attitudes into one project?

Your first successes bloomed during lockdown in 2020, when you self-released the tracks Surf N Turf and then Fever, the first being a jumpy post-punk anthem with a music video straight out of a ‘90s computer software, and the second being a slick, jazzy ‘70s inspired track. Why were both of your first two songs so wildly different?

Can you describe what it was like to enter lockdown as an unknown band, and emerge with a fanbase? What was it about this period that contributed to your success?

It was because of your sudden growth in these isolated months that the band had to change its name from Lime to your current title Lime Garden, as not to be confused with another band named Lime – a Montreal disco group. I like that you took this change as a huge success in your story as a band, and as a way to outgrow your original name, while still having large dashes of lime green in album art and music videos. Out of curiosity, where did the “garden” come from?

Since then, you’ve signed with So Young Records, and released the tracks Sick & Tired, Clockwork, Pulp, and your latest 2022 single Marbles – a cheerful and upbeat pop song with the more unsettling underlying tone of losing your grip on sanity. How would you describe this experience? Vastly different to self-releasing tracks from your lockdown bedrooms?

Pulp immediately grabbed my attention, with its huge classic rock guitar hooks and electronic backing that almost sounds like a videogame. The video depicts you as a group of spies, clad in leather trench coats and sunglasses, tracking down a man in the spirit of what seems like vengeance. When I first heard the song, I assumed that the man depicted in it was a more sinister character coming after the girls, telling them to wear scandalous clothing and repeating the tagline “society’s a test,” but the video completely reverses this idea, putting the women in power. What was the inspiration for this, and what crimes are these secret agent girls fighting against – society itself?

Your latest single Marbles, also combines these old and new elements of music, the cheerful groove of it accompanied by your signature twangy electronic backing noises. The album cover for this single is a giant pile of green marbles in disarray, which goes along with the message of the singer having lost their mind, in a strange antithesis to the happy pop sound of the song. I read that this song is about “adulthood uncertainty.” Can you expand on that?

Lime Garden, to me, is a lot of things at once. It’s chaotic and ever-changing and new. Do you know what direction you are going to go in with new tracks, or possibly an album?

You’ve already sold-out a headline tour, signed to So Young Records, and played a support slot for Katy J Pearson, and now have been named one of NME’s top one hundred artists for 2022. How does this feel?

What is your dream as a band?