Impish charm, that’s Wet Leg. The Isle of Wight duo – Rhian Teasale and Hester Chambers – penned their debut album over lockdown, a series of in-jokes and tongue-in-cheek jibes that was never supposed to see the light of day beyond their bedroom.
And yet it did. The duo’s debut album is undoubtedly one of 2022’s most electrifying success stories, sailing across social media, demolishing streaming, and (rightfully) claiming its place at No. 1 on the UK charts.
Summer has brought some stellar festival slots, including a high profile slot at Glastonbury. In between all this, the pair have found time to write new material, peppering their sets with a few sonic surprises for fans.
Shooting a very special Fender Player Plus session, Wet Leg took time out to chat to Clash over Zoom.
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It’s been an incredible 12 months for the band, what’s it been like to be in the centre of that?
Hester: Everything is moving so quickly, it can be hard to remember to actually take stuff in. You just have to take it day by day. Otherwise it can make you spin out a little bit! But it’s been fun – we’ve some brilliant people around us.
The first time I saw you was in South London’s Bermondsey Social Club, which holds maybe 150 people – and now you’re best mates with Harry Styles!
Hester: I mean, that gig was fun! At the time, we couldn’t believe how cool it all was. It was definitely a ‘pinch me’ moment. Then we got to play Latitude festival, and it was like: holy moly… how did we get here?! Having all these opportunities is actually quite hard to grasp. You spend most of the day doing really normal stuff, and it’s only during interviews that the mirror gets held up and you think: oh, this isn’t exactly normal…!
Your debut album went to number one on the charts, how did you celebrate?
Rhian: We cried! Honestly, a lot of tears.
You introduced new material during your Electric Ballroom show, how do you find the time to keep writing?
Rhian: I think it’s the opposite, to be honest. We’d love to have more time to write.
I actually read somewhere that you’d completed your second record…
Rhian: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re not quite there yet! (laughs) No, we made a joke in an interview that it was finished, and the next we knew that’s all everyone was asking us about. We thought it was an obvious joke, so now when we joke in interviews we say – JOKE CHECK! – after the sentence. Just to make sure everyone gets it! (laughs) But I don’t regret the joke.
Wet Leg’s music has enjoyed huge popularity on social media, but those platforms come with good and bad sides, don’t they?
Rhian: I mean, there’s no manual to using it. It just feels like something about what we do has caught on with people. When it all took off, I still had about 100 followers. As its grown, though, I spend less time on there and I put less of myself out there. It’s weird. When we’re away, it’s nice to use, and we can keep tabs on where we’ve been.
Hester: I like social media, but I’m also petrified of it. I prefer to think of it as being like a little diary. It’s really cool to interact with fans online, but I find in doing that you encounter a lot of bad vibes. People do say mean things online, so sadly I just have to take myself away from that. To have a healthy relationship with social media, you have to be quite reserved from it.
To focus on good vibes, you guys always seem to have an absolute ball onstage!
Rhian: Well the album was recorded before we even had the full band. We sound really different onstage, I think, than on record. And that’s a really nice thing, to have two aspects to the band. The live show changes every night, because you’ve got five different people, with five different moods, and five different days. So it all comes together in this weird ‘team sports’ kind of way!
Hester: We recorded the album mid-lockdown, so we didn’t get a chance to play any of it live before we started recording. When I hear the album versions now, I’m like: woah! This sounds so different to what we’re used to hearing every night.
The Fender Player Plus sessions looks fun, what was it like on the day?
Hester: It was a fun day! Everyone was super creative, and we haven’t actually done many things like that.
Rhian: Fender supply us with all our guitars and amps, actually. I remember the first delivery – all these instruments, and tech. It’s kind of dream-like, to be honest.
There’s been a sea change in the people buying guitars in the past two decades, with the number of woman – and non-male – musicians seemingly at record levels. Do you feel like your success can open things up for others?
Hester: It would be nice, yeah!
Rhian: I think we had that when we were younger, that feeling of: oh, electric guitars aren’t for us. It took a while for us to think, actually, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be.
Hester: It was really important for us to see other female musicians when we were like, 16 or 17. I remember going to see Anna Calvi and just being so inspired – she’s an absolutely incredible musician.
What have you been listening to on the tour bus? Is there something the full band can coalesce around?
Rhian: ‘Fuzz Jam’ by The Lazy Eyes is one we can all get around, if we need a sing-along number! And – weirdly – a bit of Tenacious D. ‘Tribute’. We all have different tastes, and tend to be in our own little world, but we like that one!
Photo Credit: Hollie Hernando
