
Lambrini Girls Are Undeniable
Jan 13, 2025
PAPER’s first run-in with UK punks Lambrini Girls is at a posh, Soho House-esque space in Iceland called Kjarval. They’ve just finished a cigarette break, and they’re dressed better than anyone else filing in and out of the sterile space. It’s freezing out, but in vintage fur, lace, bright blonde disheveled hair and an aesthetic that could only be described as unachievable-but-by-lifestyle rock and roll chic, vocalist/guitarist Phoebe Lunny and bassist Lily Maciera are chatty and warm.
Our first chat takes place a few months before the release of their album, Who Let The Dogs Out, an in-your-face, gritty, 11-track expedition into the risky world of queer life, love, work and everything in between. They’ve recently got off tour with fellow potty mouths and PAPER stars Amyl and The Sniffers, which was their first time in the US. “Your drinks are so big,” Lunny says, beaming. “And you’ve got frozen cocktails everywhere. And your drinks are well strong, I love it,” Maciera adds, before talking about sangria served in a shot glass while playing San Francisco. “I’m Portuguese, so I thought, Criminal," she jokes. “Me and Phoebe were still drunk the next morning.”
They tell us they'll be back in the States in December for two shows in Brooklyn — first at Union Pool and then at Baby’s All Right. Their previous NYC gig was at Sultan Room, a night they described as “mad.” Lunny adds, “It sold out and we’re a band from Brighton so to go to New York and play a show, it was crazy. It was bonkers, everyone was going for gold.”
Later that evening, as Lambrini Girls take over Rekijvak’s Art Museum for their Iceland Airwaves debut, the room is charged with electricity. Lunny is in a vintage silk bralette and a mini-skirt, wildly wielding a guitar and microphone, and Maciera is brandishing a bass guitar in a lace slip. Their feminine garments are a stark contrast to the brash noises coming from the stage. They play “Mr. Lovebomb” from their EP,You’re Welcome, sharply singing, “This next round is always on me, Mr. Lovebomb!” They follow it with “God’s Country” after rallying against government powers. It goes off like a grenade. “It’s a critique of social infrastructure and landscape of the UK,” Lunny tells PAPER. “But it always resonates with American audiences because our politics are extremely parallel. It resonates with everyone because it’s undeniable. Both of our countries are on fire.” At one moment in the set, Lunny runs to the center of the room, mic in hand, and asks the crowd to put her up on their shoulders before stirring them into a moshpit. Despite not knowing all the words, the audience's howls and cheers overcome her voice.
Iceland has an insular scene, where acts rarely make it out into the greater pop consciousness. For Lambrini girls, the same was true for coming up in Brighton. “It was quite cliquey and exclusive,” Lunny says. “People wouldn’t talk to you until you were in a cool band. Now that we are in a cool band I don’t know if it’s changed, or people are just nicer. It’s such a melting pot. There are so many great bands coming out of Brighton and it really is such a tight-knit community.” It was going from Brighton to a bigger scene in London that initially got Maciera’s attention. She wasn’t an original member of the band but subbed in on bass for one of their gigs and was catapulted forward and into the official line-up thanks to her shared vision with Lunny. “I was playing the show and was playing in other bands as well but we had a chat together, exchanging frustrations about the dynamics in other bands we were playing in,” Maciera says. “We connected over the fact that we wanted to do this full-time and wanted to give it a proper shot. There was this weird moment when it felt like the universe clicked into place. We looked at each other like 'Yeah, me too!’”
Their shared vision carried over into the themes of Who Let The Dogs Out, making it a ‘fuck you’ to the powers that be and showing off their individual experiences in a male-dominated scene. In their track, “Big Dick Energy,” they defiantly explain: "Oh my god, Hi, do you remember me?/ You reposted that thing I wrote about women in music/ Thank you so much for doing your bit” before adding a riotous “Big dick еnergy, big dick energy!” at the chorus. “We talked to City Slang about what singles we wanted, and they were very supportive,” Lunny says when I ask about the album singles and overall theme they’ve decided to go with. “But if we were like, ‘The next single is going to be Lily pooing on a table for five minutes,’ they’d be like ‘It’s gonna be a hit!’” she laughs.
In December, the night before their Baby’s All Right debut, PAPER sits with the duo at a corner booth at Brooklyn's Rocka Rolla. They’re sipping lemonade and Maciera is answering questions via her notes app after having come down with something that’s made her lose her voice. After seeing them perform at Iceland Airwaves and wondering about the heavy topics they lift over the crowd, we dig deeper into the album themes and one track in particular that delves into the mental turmoil of trying to fit into societal beauty standards, called “Nothing Taste As Good As It Feels.” “That song in particular, I’m singing about my own experience with beauty ideals and [eating disorders],” Lunny says. “These are issues that the majority of queer people and girlies I know have faced and it’s a very transferable subject. What the goals were for this song, because I do think with ED there is so much shame around it, I know I feel a lot of shame about my own issues. I just hope that other people who also feel ashamed or embarrassed or guilty, to be like ‘Well, if there’s a band singing about it, so unapologetically, maybe I don’t have to be ashamed.’ Because it’s no ones fault. It’s capitalist and patriarchy, women from such a young age being conditioned to hate ourselves in our bodies. So, I just hope people hear this and feel less alone with their issues they might be facing.”
For all of its topics that most people avoid in polite dinner conversation, Who Let The Dogs Out, still generates a elevating buzz in room full of kids wearing party hats (an in joke with the band) during their Baby’s show. The same antics from Iceland are there: Lunny jumps into the crowd, fans hop on the microphone to profess their gender identity, and everyone's happy to mosh and stage dive. It’s like watching a veil being lifted, a sign that people are eager to talk about reality, even in its darkest and most painful form, backed by the buoyant energy of a chaotic punk show.
Two months earlier, before they head back into Iceland for a few pints away from the chic co-working space, I ask how they’re feeling on the lead-up to their debut. “I’m so proud of what we did and I genuinely really like the album. I’m excited to see what other people think, too,” Maciera says. “Personally, for me it’s a milestone, obviously recording a debut album. But I’m also proud of myself for doing that in the first place. I’ve really struggled with a lot of insecurity around my musicianship and that comes from being in a music scene where I didn’t see a lot of women on stage and also internalized misogyn played into it. I wanted to be in a band my whole life. I’ve always done music it’s just that there was this weird thing in my brain where I always saw myself on the arm of a musician instead of on stage myself. For me, having done this is all I really wanted in the first place. That’s where my fulfillment comes from.” Lunny nods before giving her own take on the album’s impending release. “If people don’t like it, they can go fuck themselves,” she smiles. “We’re really proud of it. It’s like, get on board or get out of the fucking way!”
Last Friday, Who Let The Dogs Out dropped to stellar reviews.It's a reflection of what Lambrini Girls say they wanted the reaction to be. “I want to get it in front of people who won’t necessarily think about these things. I want it to make them question their own beliefs and values and privileges and close-mindedness,” Lunny says. “I think art is an important tool to incite change because you can change minds. So that’s one goal. And the other goal is for anyone who is affected by the issues we’re singing about I want them to feel affirmed and I want them to hear us and feel less alone. That’s what’s important.”
Photography: Jim Taylor
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