lambrini girls I’m not the type to hold my breath. Whether it’s their fiery punk expressions, unflinching passion, wickedly captivating performances or their relentless touring schedule, the Brighton duo is pushing forward with his 100%. Guitar and vocalist Phoebe Lunny and bassist Lily Maseira met on the Brighton live circuit and have forged a creative partnership over the years, releasing their debut EP ‘You’re Welcome’ in May last year. Haha has made the leap from a staple of the local scene to essential listening for anyone angry at the world.
We caught up with them earlier this month as they were about to take the stage at YES’s iconic Pink Room in Manchester.
Rock Sound: You weren’t even in the countryside at this time yesterday! I just played Eurosonic, and it feels like they’ve been going non-stop since “You’re Welcome” was released. how was it?
Phoebe: “Yeah, I played Eurosonic in the Netherlands yesterday and I missed the ferry home! I got back around 10 or 11 o’clock and came out again this morning. It’s been a long time, but Christmas… I was on vacation during that time.”
Lily: “Just a little bit! There were still shows, recordings, etc.”
Phoebe: “I’ve been super busy, but that’s because there’s been no new music, so I fucking know what the new music is going to be!”
RS: How has things changed for you since the release of “You’re Welcome”?
Phoebe: “The most noticeable difference is that we have a team around us. We signed [Big Scary Monsters] We went from being a DIY band to suddenly having press people and bookers and stuff like that. People suddenly say, ‘We’ll do this for you, you need to be there, you need to do that…’ ”
Lily: “It was a bit of a whiplash moment. Everything went from zero to 100 really, really quickly. If we didn’t have people like us around us, we wouldn’t be here now. Previously Well, we were very busy organizing everything and doing all the normal things that bands do. Then we didn’t have to do that anymore, but now we’re playing a lot more and traveling a lot more. Have to!”
RS: Momentum is definitely building. With all the hype for 2023, has your creative process changed in any way between Welcome and what comes next?
Phoebe: “Probably the next little piece of music you might hear is one of our most political songs. From a musical standpoint, it’s still catchy, fun, funny, and very tongue-in-cheek.” It’s like, it’s just us, but it’s even better!”
Lily: “When we wrote the EP, we wrote it with Cat on drums, who is a permanent member of the band, and Cat had a big hand in the songwriting and songwriting. So it’s definitely changed, but not necessarily for the better. No different for the worse. Me and Pheebs have always bounced off each other very well. Catt isn’t in that mix anymore, and we bounced Catt off well too…now sometimes we’re new Sometimes I’ll be in a room with a drummer and a song will be created from scratch. It’s completely different.”
RS: Using your platform to advocate for transgender rights has brought you some unwanted attention. What was it like to deal with that, overcome all the hate, and continue to speak out?
Phoebe: “That was insane. We literally just did a show with a visualizer in the background saying ‘Trans Lives Matter’ and that shouldn’t be controversial at all. But the next day, those of us still at the festival woke up to all the mentally deranged TERFs on Twitter. At the end of the day, I think it’s really important to keep these conversations mainstream. With people like that, it’s like putting a swarm of hornets in a jar and shaking it up – they want a fight, and it’s gotten to the point where it gets very out of control.
“All you can do is be as reasonable as you can and keep doing what you’re doing. The last thing we want to do is let the conversation revolve around us. uses she/they pronouns in both AFAB and relatively femme expressions, so we want to amplify the voices of our trans friends and people in this field because it’s not a challenge we face every day. And at the end of the day, the hate you may face is just a fraction of what people of marginalized genders do every day.”
RS: Through all of that, did you feel like you were able to gather the right community around you? Did you manage to make the impression you wanted to make as a band?
Phoebe: “I think it’s great when other people stand up and it encourages other people to speak up about these issues. The more political you become as a band, the more people you I say the people you end up wanting to interact with are the ones who support your decisions.”
Lily: “I think we’re very clear about our stance on things and we’re sending a very strong message. No one, no label should look at us and say, hmmm, yeah, these two I don’t think you would think that you could make something out of a girl, you could make something of great value.”
Phoebe: “[laughing] These lovely and sweet girls! It was a natural deterrent for such people. The reason we do this is to have a platform to talk about these things. ”
Lily: “Actually, since I’ve been in this band, I’ve become more politically active. When you’re in an environment like this, especially me and Phoebe’s friendship, but our friendship… A lot of it is based on values that we agree on. It’s come hand in hand.”
RS: Your music is very political, social, and sometimes very angry. But it’s also a lot of fun to listen to, and your live shows are a riot – was it intentional to combine these two aspects?
Phoebe: “It’s a mixture of both. First of all, we love to laugh because me and Lily are silly little people. But at the same time, the easier the message is to hear, the more people will listen.” The more approachable, inspiring and fun your message is, the more people will pay attention to it.
“I think ultimately women and queer people are going to be held to a different standard than male bands. [a band like] IDLES, they have a very political stance in a lot of their music, but they can also sing about things that aren’t political, and that’s good too. no one questions it. On the other hand, if we don’t consistently exceed the expectations of what people think we should be, we will receive hate. ”
RS: Do you think you have the freedom to write non-political songs now or in the future?
Lily: “We already had some songs that weren’t necessarily about anything particularly political. Phoebe writes the lyrics, so I’m just hypothesizing, but ultimately as a musician, And as a well-rounded person, you’ll reach a point where you want to explore different kinds of themes. Generally speaking, any band will write things that aren’t necessarily political, or do things in a more relaxed way. I think we reserve the right to explore things while being mindful and using our platform at the same time!”
Phoebe: “We’re always going to be political as a band. I’ve always wanted to write songs about politics. There’s no way in the world that is inherently scary and that we should be angry about and use our platform to There’s always something you need to use and talk about. But at the same time, you can also write songs about looking inward. You can write six songs about observational politics and then just for shit and laughs. You could even write a song about pancake recipes.”
“You’re Welcome” is currently in theaters.