Lead interview: The Meteoric rise of Wet Leg

Style of Wight caught up with Wet Leg’s Rhian Teasdale just before the band left for their sell-out US tour, and hot on the heels of a glowing recommendation from Dave Grohl, no less! This Island band have taken off like a rocket since their quirky single Chaise Longue launched online in June 2021 – the video currently has 4.5 million hits and counting.

By Jo Macaulay

Four singles later (Wet Dream, Too Late Now/Oh No, Angelica, Ur Mum) and with their debut number one selling album ‘Wet Leg’ now out on Domino Records, the band is being feted as the next big thing. They appeared on Later… with Jools Holland in October, on the Stateside chat show Late Night with Seth Meyers, in December, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in March and The Late Show with James Corden on April 1st. Fronted by Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, the girls are supported by Ellis Durand on bass, Josh Mobaraki on guitar and synth, and Henry Holmes on drums. All the band members are from the Island – although Rhian was born in Merseyside, moving to the Island with her mum (who was born and raised on the Island) when she was about eight years old. Right now, however, they’re all living out of suitcases! Wet Leg will be back on the Island to play the Big Top at the Isle of Wight Festival on Sunday June 19th, 2022 – but what are Rhian’s earliest memories of the Isle of Wight Festival? Rhian: Probably just being a really naughty reckless teenager. It was kind of like the first time I was let loose, so maybe it involves mainly drinking in the campsite. It was a real coming-of-age thing. But mainly I remember being in like Hipshaker, and I think I saw the Bees play a little set. They were sooo good. And I really love that tent. There’s lots of Northern Soul going on in there late at night. Style: You played the Isle of Wight Festival last year. How does it feel to be up on one of the main stages? Rhian: It was really kind of strange because we’ve always been able to be there with our friends’ bands, like in previous projects, just playing the Kashmir café and like the small local stages, so it felt really strange to be there, to even be on the line-up. Style: But was it fun? Did you really enjoy it? Rhian: Yeah, it was really good. It was kinda nerve-racking because sometimes playing hometown shows is more pressure. But it was really good and, do you know what, it was so nice because after we finished our set we just pootled on home. I went for lunch with my mum and then slept in my own bed that night. It’s such a luxury being able to play a big festival and then go home and sleep in your own bed. Style: I think you all met at Platform One, didn’t you? Can you tell us how you got together? Rhian: We both did the BTEC and then we both dropped out of the degree. It wasn’t until a few years after dropping out of uni and having proper jobs that took up all of our time basically. It was just something that we tried to fit in when I was back for Christmas, because Hester still lives on the Island, and the rest of our band are all on the Island. But we’re all away so much at the moment, we’re all just living out of suitcases. We’re in London right now doing a bit of a promo session pre- the album coming out and pre- going to America at the end of the week.

Style: That’s going to be exciting, isn’t it? Rhian: Yeah, it’s so wild but it will be our second time… (They played several sell-out shows in NYC, LA, and San Francisco just before Christmas). Style: Did you have time to get out and see the sights? Rhian: Yeah, we had one day off, and we all walked around New York together, which was really nice, but it was very, very busy Style: You were on the Seth Meyers show. What was that like? Rhian: So surreal. So surreal. Like, being in America itself was really surreal, you feel like you’ve walked into TV-land, movieland, so being in a studio environment in the Rockefeller Center was just so unreal and we were literally just there to play Chaise Longue, the one song. So, we sound checked in the morning, at about 9 or 10am and then at 2pm or something, after just waiting around and going through hair and make-up, which was really funny, it was like “It’s time for you to play the song now,” and we got up and went out and played the song. Also, what was funny is that they had their house band — that’s the way their format works for these American talk shows — so they always have a house band. So, it’s funny with us having our set-up and then right next to us are the house band – two bands looking at each other. Style: When was the first moment that you realised that this might get really big? Rhian: I don’t know! I think we’re still kind of in disbelief about it really and we’re so new, we’re such a baby band. It’s all so new. We get told that we’re doing things like going to America and we’re going to have a tour bus, and it’s so crazy, and you can’t really internalise any of this until it’s actually happening, and the pace is so fast, and sometimes you forget to take anything in. But we did have a really nice session — we got on a flight, and we didn’t really have anything to do and me and Hester just went through her camera roll then, over the past six months, and had a moment then taking in everything that we’d done, and we were like “this is our life, this is nice, listen to it”. But yeah, we’re so so busy doing so many exciting and fun things but sometimes you do forget to take a moment, take a breath and be like “this is cool”. Style: How do you think growing up on the Island influenced you and your art and music? Rhian: I think having the festivals

there was pretty key because it’s so expensive to go over the water to see gigs and so on as a young person. Who has 40 quid to go and see a gig when you’re 16? And there’s this thing where you’re going to miss the last ferry or miss the last song. Having the festivals in the summer was really inspiring, having all this free time and space. There are so many people on the Island making music now… Style: I think maybe Platform One have helped with that. Did you have a favourite music teacher at Platform One? Rhian: We had JC and Angelina and they would come in once a week and do songwriting workshops with us and they were such truly inspiring people. When I dropped out as well Angelina reached out to me. They’re just really cool, and really supportive and they’re just the best people – I can’t even put it into words – they were truly inspiring. Style: How did your relationship with Domino begin? Rhian: In lockdown Hester and I, just because we were bored, and both hanging out on the Isle of Wight, we happened to make the video for Chaise Longue and then we also made a couple more demos and we actually found our management and Martin Hall — that happened in lockdown. We sent him our promos and the video, actually it may have been our friend, and he said, “I’d really like to meet these girls,” and we were a bit reluctant at first because it was never really our agenda to be doing something with Wet Leg. We just kinda wanted to play a few festivals in the summer… Style: In Chaise Longue, the muffin buttering – that’s from the ‘Mean Girls’ movie isn’t it? Rhian: Yeah, it was from a film that we probably watched when we were like 13, and it was kind of like a cult classic, like chick-flick movie isn’t it and (realisation dawns) we were ten or eleven! Oh, my goodness!! (Laughs) Style: Who made those amazing videos for you? Rhian: We made them ourselves, we made Chaise Longue ourselves and we directed Wet Dream but we had a small team down from London that we used – a production company called Mister Mister – female-led and DOP Elsa. We like to work with as many women as possible. Style: You made another film in Ventnor Exchange didn’t you? Rhian: Yeah, for that one we used a little production company called Tea Films and that was a Tiny Desk production. Style: That Little House on the Prairie look, which I loved because it was so cute and tongue in cheek, you sort of dumped it. Was that intentional? Rhian: We do revisit that. That ultrafemme theme but just in different formats like for Wet Dream and in our photoshoots and stuff. We do revisit it, but we don’t set ourselves rules like “we are this” or “we are that” because it’s just good to think how you feel that day isn’t it? Some days we’ll wear our Little House on the Prairie dresses and other days our business-lady suits. Style: So, what’s your favourite place on the Island? Rhian: Hester and I have a real soft spot for Alum Bay, the beach there, it’s just like really beautiful. At low tide it’s just really chalky underfoot in the sea. Style: You did your video for ‘Oh No’ there? How did you get that Yeti type of costume? Rhian: Yeah, I stole it! I was doing a commercial – because I’ve been working in London as a wardrobe assistant – and it was left over. I borrowed it and repurposed it and made it into something new. Reuse, recycle. It was so heavy; I think it weighs about 50kg. It’s actually the weight of a person. It was in lockdown, so everything was closed, which was great because the beach was absolutely empty. Style: I notice you used some of the comments made about you on social media in that video. How would you say your relationship with social media has changed since this all happened? Rhian: It’s so strange being visible on social media. It’s not like something that me and Hester have had to contend with before, but it was really nice kind of repurposing those comments and making them into something new. We had help from our friend Lava La Rue. She’s like the number one harvester of these comments. We did an evening of harvesting these comments and then I couldn’t sleep. Might need to just lay off the comments now. It was really funny, people just post the weirdest stuff. Like “Wet Your Leg” was one of my favourite comments. It’s like, what does that even mean? It’s not good, it’s not bad, it’s just the online equivalent of someone going “Argh!” Style: Do you have other favourite places on the Island? Rhian: Blackgang Chine, Sheer Pink Coffee (Shop) in Newport and we love to have sandwiches in Peach vegan café, also in Newport, run by the guys in Coach Party, and also we love a cocktail at the Exchange. This is like a food tour of the Isle of Wight… So if you want to bump into Wet Leg on the Island you know where to go. Make sure to catch them in the Big Top on the Sunday of the Isle of Wight Festival!