With their sophomore album, Maybe Not Tonight, panic at the disco has a whole new meaning.

The greatest antidote to a breakup? A frothy, ice-cold pint – preferably several. For four-piece band Lime Garden, heartbreak didn’t arrive politely or one at a time; it hit all at once, a collective emotional pile-up that, in a twisted case of serendipity, left them clinking glasses at the bottom of it together. Where most of us stagger out of that fugue state with nothing but a headache and a few regrets, Chloe Howard (vocalist), Leila Deeley (guitar), Annabel Whittle (drummer) and Tippi Morgan (bass) birthed their most disco-ready ‘wonk-pop’ record to date.

Maybe Not Tonight plays like the night out you swear you’ll keep under control and absolutely don’t. Feral, looping synths snake around bouncy basslines; glitchy textures flicker like unhinged strobe lights; rhythms pulse with the anticipatory energy of a sticky dancefloor. Each track ricochets between hedonism and heartbreak, euphoria and that creeping, post-3am dread, like an overactive mind pinging between the thrill of the moment and the dire consequences waiting with your lukewarm McDonalds order, impatiently, on the other side.

Lyrically, it’s all delivered with a wink and a warning. There are sharp little annotations tucked beneath the anarchy: self-esteem, grief, the morning-after reckoning – not just with the night before, but with the hasty arrival of adulthood itself. The storytelling becomes an acerbic fable laced with the dry humour and self-confidence of an extra dirty martini.

There’s a cocktail of influences here – Alright, Still-era Lily Allen, the flamboyance of Scissor Sisters, the inimitable cool of New Order – but Lime Garden resist anything resembling a formula. The result is gloriously, deliberately unpolished in all the right ways: as intoxicating and unpredictable as a night that refuses to end when it should.

Somewhere in that chaos, they’ve landed on an unlikely sweet spot: music that makes you want to lose yourself on a dancefloor and unpack your emotional baggage as the fog-machine beckons in anonymity. Is a therapist at the club a gap in the market? Maybe not. But Lime Garden have done something beautifully antagonistic: soundtracking mid-twenties anxiety to a fucking good groove.

I don’t like to be competitive but I know who won their break-ups… On the day before the album drops, as they start gearing up for their UK tour in October, I caught up with the British indie band-to-watch on how their creative process and partying blurred into a never-ending night out to remember.

Can you tell us the story of how you all first met?
Chloe Howard: We all met whilst studying at music college, we were the only girls on our course so naturally banded together. We would rehearse in these basement rooms at our college every day after classes. I remember the first song we tried to play together was “Arrabella” by the Arctic Monkeys. And as they say…the rest is history!

What is the Lime Garden essence?
CH: Being messy, loud and having fun.
Annabel Whittle: And a lot of chaos.

Congrats on the new album! What made you land on Maybe Not Tonightas the name for it?
CH: The song “Maybe Not Tonight” was a turning point in our writing process for this record. To me, it was when it all made sense and our vision became clear. So it made perfect sense for that to be the name of the record.
AW: And the album is all about a night out, so it just made sense.

It’s been on repeat in the Wonderlandoffice! The record begins in that bright, anticipatory energy of stepping into a club and slowly moves toward something more dark and reflective. Did you always know Maybe Not Tonightwould follow that emotional arc?
CH: Why thank you, Wonderland! It was never intentional, it sort of just happened when we were recording the album. Annabel pointed out how the songs follow this story. An accidental concept record if you will.

The songs capture that very specific mid-twenties feeling of comparing yourself to where you thought you’d be by now. Was that something you found yourselves talking about a lot while making the record?
CH: I’ve always been plagued by the voice in my head telling me I’m running out of time, I literally wake up everyday in a panic at the prospect of being a failure (I am seeking help don’t worry). I also think with social media, Gen Z (myself included) is obsessed with age and aging, and comparison has been a part of our lives since we all got phones at like 8.

The album also seems to circle around the idea of confronting uncomfortable truths about yourself, from personal habits to self-image. What was the emotional state of you going into the album, and where did you find yourselves on the other side?
CH: I think with every year and every album I become more self aware of who I am whether that’s my good traits or bad. This album made me realise how I had been trying to run from the darker parts of myself and instead of keeping on running I embraced them…through lyrics and synth bass [laughs].
AW: I think the emotional turmoil was the secret sauce for this record. When we started writing the record, we had all gone through crazy breakups and general life shit and by the end of it, it’s safe to say, we are all in a more stable place. Writing this record and having this to channel all that energy into was so important.

How did that shared emotional upheaval change the way you wrote and supported each other as a band?
CH: Band practice became like the therapy room lowkey. We would cry and laugh and scream together. It was extremely cathartic to be in a room of four women who all truly understood the rollercoaster of what you were feeling. It made writing the safest and easiest it’s ever been.

How long did it take to make the album from start to finish?
CH: The writing process took place over a six to eight month period, one filled with turmoil and a lot of partying.

What song took the longest to write?
CH: I think maybe “Do You Know What I’m Thinking”. I had that first verse for months and we could never figure out where it was going.
AW: We were lucky though that most of these songs were written pretty quickly. It’s in the albums nature for them to be chaotic and have this sense of intensity and rapidness to them.

There’s a wide palette of influences running through the album, from Scissor Sisters and The Breeders to New Order. Were there particular references that unlocked the direction of certain songs?
CH: I think we will all have a different answer for this but for me, New Order was the major influence. A bizarre love triangle is maybe the best song ever written.
Leila Deeley: The Breeders definitely inspired some of the guitar tones for “Lifestyle.” But generally throughout the record…I rarely directly reference songs as it’s usually based more on how I’m/the song is feeling, but I was listening to a lot of the The Voidz, Spirit of the Beehive, ML Buch and The Stone Roses at the time, so I think glimmers from those artists absolutely peep through.
AW: I was listening to a lot of Scissors Sisters around the time of writing “All Bad Parts” [laughs], but also lots of New Order. As well as reference points like Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Phoenix, Gorillaz, old school Calvin Harris…and hypepop and everything on the PC music label was defo a production influence for me.

Are there moments of creative synergy from making this album that really stick out to you?
CH: I think for me spending the day jamming with Dan Carey was magic, as soon as Annabel got the synth line for “23” we all sort of looked around and got that feeling that something cool was happening.
AW: I think when we got into the studio with [producer] Charlie Andrew to record, everything just glued together perfectly and you could hear this cohesion across the record that we didn’t even know existed.

You’ve described rediscovering the feeling you had when you first started the band at 17, that sense of “we deserve to be here”. How did making this album reconnect you with that earlier version of yourselves?
CH: We just stopped over thinking it. Great music can’t come from overthinking.

AW: Yeah, I think there’s this sense of owning what we are doing now. We have all grown up in this band and I guess at this point we feel really confident in what we are doing and saying. I think that was the essence we had when we were young and a bit naïve, when we were just starting the band.

What’s the ideal listening experience for the album?
CH: After two pints walking home a bit lonely.
LD: Getting ready in your room for the most fun and amazing night with your friends…all the while digesting all the heavy stuff that’s guaranteed to hit ya in life, grief and loss…Oh the wonderful bitter-sweet binary of this existence.
AW: Five pints deep on the bus home after just seeing your ex, or one pint deep on the way to the party/pre’s.

What makes you most excited about the album being out in the world?
CH: I love writing songs and I love hearing people’s interpretations of words I’ve written. Two people could be standing next to each other and take away something completely different from a show or listening to the album.
AW: Yeah just seeing people’s reaction and interpretation of it! And people letting loose and having fun to our music. Ultimately, it’s a party record and we want people to dance.

What is the key ingredient to a good night out?
LD: Sweets. Plus, either loud music, dancing and no catching up…or low music and lots of chatting….the two simply can’t be mixed in my opinion.
AW: Good company [laughs] and being in the right frame of mind. Best nights out are always the ones you don’t plan.

You’re touring the album later this year. Do you have any pre-show rituals?
LD: We have had this funny little tradition since November last year where Annabel, our very serious aerobics instructor, leads us on a hilariously sincere stretching/warm up journey. It’s always a spectacular and overwhelmingly funny time, and gets us riled up to ROCK. I really miss it during our downtime when we’re not on tour [laughs].
AW: Maybe I can do a video tutorial for us to do at home?!What song are you most excited about playing live?
LD: I love playing “Maybe Not Tonight” live so much, the guitars are so razory and feedbacky, it always feels really fun to party to and play to an audience.
AW: “23” is probably my favourite to play, it’s so hypnotic and it gets everyone dancing.

What makes a great band?
LD: An epic drummer (check). Catchy hooks (check). Expressive vocals and lyrics (check), and brute force behind every single member when you play in a room together (check).

How are you going to celebrate the album’s release?
LD: We have a TOP SECRET surprise planned in Brighton….(we may or may not be playing in the STREET…OUTSIDE THE GOLDEN GATES OF THE GREEN DOOR STORE)…but we don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Finish the sentence with your most common excuse: Maybe Not Tonight, ___.
Tippi Morgan: Maybe Not Tonight, I have work tomorrow.
AW: Maybe Not Tonight, I need to be in silence and a dark room.
CH: Maybe Not Tonight, I’m feeling emo.
LD: Maybe Not Tonight, I am overstimulated.

Words — Ella Bardsley