Lime Cordiale Making Merch Out Of Op Shop Wear
"That’s one way that we’re trying to be a bit more sustainable."
Lime Cordiale (Source: Supplied)
Lime Cordiale recently got back from a massive tour of North America and returned to the ABC Sydney studio to discuss one of the hot topics among artists: making touring sustainable.
Between flying to the US from Australia and taking a tour bus across the states, it’s fair to say that touring in a sustainable way internationally as an Australian band isn’t an easy thing to do. Add to that, pressing vinyl records and needing to sell t-shirts, and a band makes a larger carbon footprint than they’d like.
Stating that they feel like “hypocrites” because they call themselves “environmentalists”, Lime Cordiale’s Oli Leimbach discussed their jetting around the world on recent tours (they head to Europe in August).
ABC Sydney’s Craig Reucassel then discussed selling merchandise, pointing out that there’s no point in an act going on tour if they can’t sell t-shirts, hoodies, and the rest.
Oli said, “We’ve got these little projects we’re trying to get better at. Merchandise is one of them. Louis does all our designs and things – what was the thrift shop that we like?”
The footage panned to the duo holding up a plain green T-shirt and shopping at Goodwill in the US. “We hit Goodwill in the States,” Oli commented.
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Louis stepped in, adding that they found black shirts at Goodwill, bought them and turned them into merchandise.
“We get them painted on,” Louis explained, with Oli adding, “It’s actually really cool. Across the East Coast, we went to a few Goodwills and found blank shirts. You ruffle through and it’s kind of cool because you find cool designs, and then for the last show of the tour in LA, we hired a guy to screen print there, next to the merch desk.
“You can choose your own Goodwill shirt and then print one of Louis’ designs on the shirt. That’s one way that we’re trying to be a bit more sustainable.”
The video interview on Instagram also shared footage of the t-shirts being screen printed. You can watch the interview below.
Back home, Lime Cordiale recently performed at the massive Lost Paradise and Party In The Paddock festivals. In March, they dropped the new single The Big Reveal; Ou L’Hypocrite! to commemorate their world tour.
Lime Cordiale are leading the charge for sustainability in music when it comes to merchandise, but in terms of vinyl, US megastar Billie Eilish is also sticking true to her ethics around sustainability.
Eilish is only releasing two variants of her new album, Hit Me Hard And Soft, on her Australian merch store: 100% recycled black vinyl and 100% recycled compound blue eco-mix vinyl. The records will be shipped in 100% recycled boxes, and the sleeves will be 100% recycled and reusable.
The singer made her stance on artists releasing tons of vinyl variants (including herself with her Happier Than Ever release) known, calling out the practice for “how wasteful it is”.
When followers claimed that she was targeting Taylor Swift in her comments around “some of the biggest artists in the world making fucking 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more,” she rectified the drama by stating on her Instagram Stories:
“I wasn’t singling anyone out. These are industry-wide systemic issues. When it comes to variants, so many artists release them—including ME! which I clearly state in the article.
“The climate crisis is now, and it's about all of us being part of the problem and trying to do better”.
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