Mosh pits galore, beer sprayed over the crowd, singer/guitarist Phoebe Lunny and bassist Lilly Macieira pouring unequivocally British perry drink Lambrini into fans’ mouths. Lunny climbing structures, intense crowd surfing, and bulldozing through contentious political issues one by one – Lambrini Girls have the audience in the palm of their hands at every venue and every show, with their heady mix of punk, hell-raising energy, and unabashed politics.
There's a palpable fervor surrounding a band on the brink of major success. Since the release of 2023’s six-track EP, You're Welcome, which established the Brighton-based noise-punks as the outspoken duo the UK's alternative scene so desperately needed, Lunny and Macieira have become one of the most theatrical and talked-about live acts around.
The pair wield their Fender Mustangs almost as extensions of this theatricality – a choice Lunny explains was a no-brainer, considering the model’s tolerance for the rigors of heavy touring paired with heavy shows.
“Mustangs are just sick. They’re not too heavy. They’re quite a compact body. You can throw them around. You can jump around with them, and they can take quite a beating,” Lunny explains.
“You're literally chucking yourselves around. You can rely on it to be okay. Also, the tone you get off Mustangs is really nice – it's scratchy and trashy enough, but not as much as a Stratocaster, where I feel like it loses a bit of the body.”
“I think me and Phoebe are just intrinsically Mustang girlies!” quips Macieira.
And speaking of chucking guitars around, Lunny credits L7 as the band that opened her eyes to this kismet.
“It was L7 playing on [British talkshow] The Word. The guitarist just gets up on the amp and everyone's like, smashing shit up, going crazy, and they just pull their pants down and just start shredding. And I was like, ‘I want to do that.’”
Lunny found her partner in crime in the form of power bassist (and friend) Macieira. “When Lilly joined, everything sort of fell into place,” asserts Lunny.
“I played piano when I was a bit younger, never really had any proper lessons, and I tried to get along with guitar, but it just wasn't for me,” Macieira explains of her bass origins. “I used to work for Fender, and we had instruments strewn around in the office, and there was a bass behind me, and this was just before lockdown.
“I was listening to a lot of Pixies and Sonic Youth at the time, so I started to learn Break My Body by Pixies on bass.”
Macieira borrowed her bass from work, and after lockdown kicked in, she unexpectedly ended up with it for two years – during which time she started depping for Lambrini Girls. The rest, as they say, is history.
The learn-it-as-we-go mentality permeates Lambrini Girls' ethos as a band – and, by extension, their upcoming album, Who Let The Dogs Out, whose recording sessions Lunny helpfully summarizes: “We wrote 10 really fucking sick songs at Oxford on a farm when we were drunk.”
Recording with Gilla Band's noise bassist and producer Dan Fox further honed the songs – while still keeping Lambrini Girls' nonchalant spirit alive.
“I think for pedals and stuff used on guitar, it was more just an embellishment. I used my Mustang pretty much for the entirety of it. I could just twang away, but Lilly, she had a wall of fucking amps!” says Lunny.
The “wall of amps” consisted of three amps and a DI, plus, at times, even a bass synth underneath.
“One of them is my amp, which I use live and holds a lot of power. It's only a 4x10 Rumble Stage 800, which is a modeling amp, but it sounds fucking amazing.
“I know that there's a lot of purists out there who like valve amps blah blah blah. Like, if an amp sounds good, it sounds good, it doesn't matter how you get there," Macieira adds passionately.
As the two gear up for their debut album release in a few weeks and an already packed 2025, Lunny and Macieira admit it all still feels a bit surreal.
“We did this shoot with Sleater-Kinney for Kerrang! We went for drinks afterwards, and were there for a good few hours. It was quite mental because we could see similarities between them and me and Lilly,” says Lunny.
“We also had a few good conversations with Amy [Taylor] on that Amyl [and the Sniffers] tour,” remembers Macieira. “We were talking about femininity in the alternative scene. Punk and hardcore are supposed to be very inclusive, and even though it's been very male-dominated, it's also where a lot of women really bloomed.
“But still, there seems to be a certain sort of distaste towards hyper-femininity in those genres, or in those scenes in general, which I think we've all personally experienced: me, Phoebe and Amy.”
As their audience has come to expect, Lunny and Macieira don’t shy away from uncomfortable conversations – in this case, the realities of the industry and being in a band in 2024, laying out the long hours, minimal pay, lack of boundaries, and mental ramifications of it all.
“We wouldn't be able to be in Lambrini Girls if we hadn't sacrificed pretty much everything,” asserts Macieira.
“What me and Lilly are learning only just now is that we do need to set boundaries for ourselves, because otherwise, you're just flip-flopping all over the fucking place,” Lunny says.
“It's such a unique and special position to be in and to go to places that you never thought you'd be able to go or meet people or have friends all over fucking Europe and America. And, you know, get to play massive stages. It's amazing, but it's also making sure that you're able to be able to be present in those moments.”
- Who Let The Dogs Out is out on January 10 via City Slang.
