January was only ten days old when the Lambrini Girls unleashed Who Let The Dogs Out, a record of immense rock ‘n’ roll rowdiness which is our first Album of the Year contender.

Also smart, funny and angry – the likes of ‘Big Dick Energy’, ‘Company Culture’, ‘You’re Not From Around Here’ and ‘Cuntology 101’ are based on the bitterest of personal experiences – the Brighton duo’s debut long-player is produced by Daniel Fox from Gilla Band who they supported recently in Europe.

“I was utterly obsessed with Gilla Band for many, many years,” bassist Lily Macieira tells me. “Luckily we have the same booking agent, so when the tour came along I was like, ‘Please, you have to put us on it even though it’s going to lose us thousands of pounds!’ Not wanting to see a grown woman cry, he said ‘Yes’ and we became good pals.

“After that we played a few more festivals with them, got talking to Dan and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to get him to produce our next single?’ We wanted our sound to be a bit more polished and he’s used to recording loud and rowdy bands and making them sound glossy.”

Whilst the resulting ‘God’s Country’ 7” – sample lyric: “All hail God’s country / Bankers pay no tax / Grandma can’t afford heating/ Strong and stable, you’re joking / Pizza Express in Woking/ We can’t afford to eat there / But a paedophile can” – did indeed signal a move away from the meat grinder production of previous singles ‘White Van’ ‘Help Me I’m Gay’ and ‘Lads Lads Lads’, it remains a violent assault on the senses and guarantees that they’ll never be invited to a Royal Garden Party.

Audition passed, Fox got the job of producing the aforementioned Who Let The Dogs Out, which was dashed out in ten extremely frantic days.

“You know how Fleetwood Mac almost dedicated Rumours to their cocaine dealer?” Phoebe noted afterwards. “I think we should dedicate this album to all the booze we bought at Tesco.”

Lambrini Girls by Harv Frost.

The Lambrini Girls came on to the Clarkian radar twelve months ago when, a few hours before their official Eurosonic showcase festival set, they laid waste to Groningen’s Plato record shop.

“With distortion pedals set to ‘infinity’, they tear through ‘Help Me I’m Gay’ like a pack of rabid Rottweilers,” read my Hot Press report. “I’ve got ‘Wet Leg go Riot Grrrl’ written in my notes which is perhaps a bit glib but I’m going to stick with it. Phoebe Lunny – that sounds suspiciously like an Irish name – decides to disinvest herself of her dress at the end of it and plays the rest of the set in her undies, which is something you don’t get from Hozier.

“Much to the chagrin of Plato’s security guard, Phoebe decides to do a spot of crowd-surfing. Despite a wardrobe malfunction, she doesn’t skip a beat as she travels up the middle-aisle and back.

“No matter how anarchic things get in the Lambrini world, which is very, they never forget to include a killer pop chorus. I fucking love ‘em!”

Looking back now, I was probably underselling their talents – and propensity for causing mayhem.

“That was fucking funny!” laughs Ms. Lunny. “I told one of the shop guys at the start that I’d be going into the crowd and he was like, ‘You can’t do that.’ I asked ‘Why?’ and he goes, ‘Because you can’t, that’s why’. I said, ‘Okay, I won’t’ and kind of meant it but as soon as we started playing and saw that people were getting into it, I mouthed ‘I’m so sorry’ to this bloke who was actually really sweet and went for a crowd surf up and down the middle aisle.”

“As soon as we finished playing we were like, ‘Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go!’” Lily recalls. “If you’re ever in Groningen, check out Plato because it’s a really cool record shop.”

Albeit one that will put a serious dent in your credit card such are the vinyl delights contained within it. There’s a Twitter video of Phoebe falling backwards from about ten feet into another Dutch festival crowd who, sans wardrobe malfunction, then pass her over their heads. Has there ever been an occasion when the crowd hasn’t caught them and they’ve splatted on to the ground?

“Yeah, Manchester,” Lily winces. “Phoebe got on someone’s shoulders when we played ‘Help Me I’m Gay’ and a man, who I’m sure is lovely, took this as a sign that I also wanted to be on someone’s shoulders and unilaterally decided to lift me up. I look down, see this head wedging itself between my legs. I wasn’t ready for it and we both folded like a fucking lawn chair onto the floor. That was a humbling experience and a warning to other audiences not to try it because I hate being picked up.”

I suggested in my Eurosonic review that with a name like Lunny, Phoebe must have Irish blood. Is that the case?

“Yes, I do,” she nods. “My dad and all his side of the family are Irish and I’ve an Irish passport so I’m very lucky and am a duel citizen. They’re from Dublin and Donegal but I was raised over here by my single parent mum.”

She may have heard that we have a very famous musician called Donal Lunny.

“I’m familiar with him… he’s my grandad on my dad’s side!” she deadpans. “So, I know all about Planxty and The Bothy Band!”

As things currently stand, you’ve two chances to see the Lambrini Girls this year in Dublin – first on April 5 when they headline Whelan’s and again on June 7 when they join Trupa Trupa, blood brothers Gilla Band, Warmduscher, SPRINTS, The Scratch and Iggy Pop at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham’s In The Meadow blowout. It’s not their first time opening for Mr. Osterberg.

“Our small label paid for a plugger who got us onto BBC 6Music, which Iggy presents a show on,” Phoebe explains. “One of his producers found us on the 6Music database, brough it to his attention and Iggy was like, ‘Yeah, I really like this!’ Which we didn’t know until one day somebody said, ‘Iggy Pop just played you on the radio!’ We were freaking out, going ‘What the fuck?!’ because we weren’t getting any airplay at the time. Then Iggy asked us to play with him, Blondie, Stiff Little Fingers, Buzzcocks and Generation Sex – which was the Pistols with Billy Idol – in Crystal Palace Park. After that, everything started to move for us at a faster pace.”

Iggy isn’t the only member of punk royalty that the Lambrini Girls have rubbed plectrums with.

“Phoebe was totally starstruck meeting Kathleen Hanna and, after reading her Girl In A Band book during lockdown and loving every word of it, I couldn’t believe that we got to play in Prague with Kim Gordon,” Lily says. “Along with L7, Hole, Huggy Bear and The Raincoats, Bikini Kill and Sonic Youth would be two of our biggest influences.”

Despite her musical DNA, Phoebe had no grá as a teenager to be in a band.
“I played the piano when I was younger and was quite good at it, but what I wanted to be for quite a long time was a doctor,” she informs me. “I fucking loved science but then, aged fifteen, I started taking loads of drugs and semi-got kicked out of school. I was never formally expelled, just told, ‘You can’t go to your prom or be in the school yearbook’ which was kinda constructive dismissal.

“Anyway, medicine no longer being an option, I did a BTEC music qualification and afterwards did shit jobs like working in Burger King, a vape factory and a children’s play centre, all of which I was fired from. I got to a point where I thought, ‘I love music and I’m good at it, so instead of flipping hamburgers I’ll join a band.’”

Not harbouring any ambitions to become a medical professional, Lily had been busy “playing in every fucking band that would have me. Before Lambrini Girls, I was in Wife Swap USA, a Brighton band called Sit Down and a really cool, political noise group from Brooklyn, Pure Adult, who got me in on bass when they toured here. Unlike Phoebs, I knew from age eleven that I wanted to be in a band and that anything else would be second best.”

Spoken like a true rock ‘n’ roller! It’s never been much of an issue here, but in the UK there’s been lots of talk about ‘industry plants’ with bands like The Last Dinner Party and Wet Leg accused of being record company creations.

“We haven’t got it ourselves yet but I’m sure we will,” Phoebe bristles. “The industry plant notion is 100% misogynistic because no one’s saying that about IDLES and Yard Act who’ve had money shovelled into them by their labels and have been nothing but celebrated. They’re saying it specifically about women who are successful because, in their world, women can’t be successful unless there are men pulling the strings.”

Talking of IDLES, did they enjoy supporting them before Christmas in London’s fabled Alexandra Palace?

“I’m very grateful to them for having us on the bill,” Lily responds. “It was fun and cool to play to 10,000 people but we missed the sense of community we get playing our own shows. What makes all of this so worth it is when you and the crowd become the one thing. When you’re on a tour bus and 90% of the time feeling lonely, that connection becomes essential. Sharing that love and excitement, to me, is the essence of being in a band.”

Hot Press aren’t the only ones who’ve been compiling their ‘Hot For 2025’ lists.

“We fucking love our friends from Belfast, Enola Gay,” Lily enthuses. “They’re so talented, as are CLT DRP from Brighton who get five stars out of five for their musicianship and empowering lyrics. I took a lot of inspiration from them when I was writing my parts for Who Let The Dogs Out. There’s another queer-fronted band from Brighton, DITZ, who are almost doom-y but in a fun way. We fell in love with a Chicago band, Edging, and Ekko Astral from DC when we were over in the States. SPRINTS and NewDad are fucking awesome too but you know that already!”

• Who Let The Dogs Out is out now on City Slang. Lambrini Girls play Whelan’s, Dublin on April 5 and join Iggy Pop, The Scratch, Gilla Band, SPRINTS and more at In The Meadows in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on June 7.