There are two assets that every bona fide gang needs: an attitude that says it’s us versus the world, and a ride-till-you-die bond that’s thicker than thieves. PINS, the Manchester band that’s dubbed itself a “girl gang for life”, certainly has the goods.

The four-piece is generating highly charged buzz over its debut album, Girls Like Us, and it seems ready to take the music industry by storm with Mancunian cloudbursts of gutsy garage rock. But beyond the tough, Chelsea-boot-clad image are four musicians who are simply excited to be where they are now.

“Going on-stage, there’s more bravado, because you have to put a bit of a screen up,” explains singer-guitarist Faith Holgate. Cool as an English cucumber despite the desert heat, she’s calling from Joshua Tree’s Rancho de la Luna studio, where PINS is working on its second album.

“People who come to see you, they’re not always there because they like you,” Holgate says. “So, on-stage, we do put a bit of a tough front up. And then, off-stage, we’re really quite soft. We just never did anything that anyone told us to do, music-industry-wise. We always did what felt good to us, and it’s got us this far. So I think it’s a good attitude to have: don’t be told what’s good, do what your heart tells you to do.”

Laughing, she adds: “Show no weakness.”

Having come together out of a collective frustration with being the “token girl” in otherwise all-male groups, PINS has stayed true to its stalwart sense of independence. In 2012, the band founded its own record label, Haus of Pins, in order to release its first single. Although the quartet has since signed to Bella Union, Girls Like Us was recorded, mixed, and produced by the girls themselves in only a week. And as stressful as that experience sounds, Holgate and Co. still managed to get some kicks.

“Recording in Liverpool, we were quite influenced by the Beatles—some of the recording techniques used on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” she says. “We had a go at, like, running the tape backwards. That was my favourite bit. It was like, ‘Try this, try that, try and make it sound like an old, warped record,’ playing around and seeing what comes out. We were influenced by a lot of ’60s girl groups, like the Shangri-Las and those Girls in the Garage compilations. So we were doing loads of backing vocals and harmonies.”

While huge fans of Joy Division and the Smiths, PINS is also motivated by contemporaries Beach House, the Black Lips, and Hookworms. Its love of both modern and timeless sounds is evident on tracks like the postpunk-kissed “Lost Lost Lost”, the hypnotically catchy “Get With Me”, and “Girls Like Us”, which matches fresh pop hooks with a primal, guitar-powered beat that smiles on dirty garage rock. And with a treasure trove of sonic stimulus to plunder still, PINS clearly has more to offer in years to come.

“I really love this band, so I put all of my effort into it, and that’s what the other girls do too,” Holgate says. “I’m not saying that other bands don’t put their effort in, but you’ve got to be fully involved in your project and make it happen. There are so many bands that are amazing, but they don’t get half the chances that we do. And I don’t really understand why some people get the opportunities that others don’t. Even right now, I’m here in America thinking, ‘How did we even get here, just from making some songs?’ But you have to strive for what you want and be happy with what you get.”

PINS plays Electric Owl next Wednesday (October 15).