Wet Leg have been having too much fun lately. “I just went pretty hard at Glastonbury,” explains Rhian Teasdale over the phone from London. “Me and my housemates all got back to the apartment and we were taking turns to throw up in the toilet.” It was like that scene in Bridesmaids where the women are trying on dresses and they get violently ill. Kind of. “It wasn't quite as bad, I guess,” she laughs. “But it…was bad.”
Truth be told, Wet Leg have more than earned a day (or weekend) of fun at a music festival. Over the past year, the duo of Teasdale and Hester Chambers have skyrocketed to fame within the indie rock community and beyond. Their success surprised them just as much as anyone else. “It’s just really, really surreal,” Chambers says in awe over the phone from Isle of Wight. “Without a doubt, it's the last thing we ever would have expected from life.”
It’s challenging to pinpoint one thing that’s made Wet Leg irresistible. The band has charmed music fans with its sweet banter, self-deprecating sense of humor, and timeless post-punk sound (though they’d describe it as “the Wild West of their hearts”), and the pure joy that radiates from their freewheeling tracks is the opposite of gimmickry. That sweet intimacy of sharing an inside joke with your best friend is what has cemented the duo’s authenticity. It helps that Teasdale and Chambers are like non-biological sisters—they often share the same thoughts, finish each other’s sentences, and are always holding space for each other’s feelings. So, perhaps what’s made the band so special is their bond.
“We were like, ‘Let’s do a band and it will just be our hobby, and because it’s our hobby, we’ll make sure it’s the most fun thing that we can be doing with our spare time.’”
—Hester Chambers
Back when they were 16 and 17, respectively, Chambers and Teasdale met at the Isle of Wight College and forged their foundation as friends. For several years they played in various bands and worked day jobs—before Wet Leg took off, Teasdale was a wardrobe assistant, Chambers a jewelry designer. “We were just being normal adults, happily working, and we were cooling down music to pay the rent,” recalls Chambers. But it wasn’t until 2019 that the band actually formed, the name a combination of emojis that felt right. “We were like, ‘Let's do a band and it will just be our hobby, and because it's our hobby, we'll make sure it's the most fun thing that we can be doing with our spare time,’” she adds.
Ultimately, they just wanted to “play some cute festivals” and enjoy gigging together. But soon they signed to Domino Records, and in June of 2021 everything would really change thanks to what would become their runaway hit single, “Chaise Longue,” brimming with apathy, anxious percussion, and a sly reference to Mean Girls. “I remember [this guy] called us up on release day and was like, ‘Oh, the numbers are doing very well,’ and obviously this was our first experience of releasing any music with a label, so it was kind of cool but intangible,” recalls Teasdale. They were able to quit their day jobs by November. “It's very normal for indie bands to have their day jobs and then do the music on the side, even though they're in a signed band. That was what I thought was the best-case scenario that would happen.”
“Chaise Longue” gave them an even better-case scenario. Penned on an actual chaise lounge, the sardonic jaunt deadpanned dirty jokes like, “Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?” which fans love to shout back to them energetically from the audience at their live gigs. The cheeky innuendos that ended up in their lyrics came quite naturally to Wet Leg—Teasdale says they come from “just hanging out being dumb together, I guess.”
The earworm seemed to not only revive the spirit of early-aughts indie rock, but spurred a sensation akin to Beatlemania. As the UK’s buzziest band, they found themselves trending on Twitter and finding fans in everyone from Lorde and Paramore’s Hayley Williams to Dave Grohl and Iggy Pop. When asked how they feel about the hype, Chambers responds in disbelief: “Being asked the question is like putting a mirror up, and then my brain closes both of its eyes to that. It's like, ‘No, that's not real, we're just a band writing some songs and playing some gigs.’”
But they were particularly in awe of Harry Styles delivering a cover of their other single, the catchy breakup song “Wet Dream,” in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. “When we first saw the video of him playing ‘Wet Dream’ it was like, ‘What in the world is going on?’ It felt like we were watching intergalactic television in this really strange, other universe,” explains Chambers. They haven’t had a chance to tell them how much it meant to them to have him cover it, but let’s just say, it still hasn’t felt real.
Wet Leg at the Mohawk at SXSW 2022 / photo by Daniel Cavazos
It’s meant a lot to them to get some guidance from other artists along the way. While making their first TV appearance, Savages’ Jehnny Beth and Johnny Hostile shared their own story of coming up in the industry, which reassured them as their lives were beginning to change. “We felt a real sense of community because it's such a strange lifestyle being away from home so much, having to be visible,” explains Teasdale.
“Everything’s just moving so fast that no one really knows what’s going on.”
—Rhian Teasdale
They’ve been quite determined to not let the fear of fame get in their way, though it has prodded at them. “We have the capacity to worry and get existential about where we're at—if it's the right place, or if we should be doing something different,” says Teasdale. But for now, they’re trying not to let it overwhelm them too much. Both Teasdale and Chambers have yet to become self-serious about any of their success. “We're just taking it one day at a time,” Chambers laughs. Teasdale adds that their busy schedule has made it nearly impossible to take it all in. “Everything's just moving so fast that no one really knows what's going on,” she says flabbergasted.
It’s true. Even before they landed their big break or had the hit of “Chaise Longue” on their hands, they had already completed the release of their self-titled debut album. Recorded in London in April 2021, Teasdale and Chambers enlisted Dan Carey (Squid, Black Midi) to produce the majority of the record. With his help, they turned their gritty demos into more fully formed indie rock tracks. And like “Chaise Longue,” the album showcases a handful of giddy, absurd lyrics alongside blistering guitars and hooks for days. While making the record, Chambers was consuming music from The Velvet Underground and Irish post-punkers Fontaines D.C., while Teasdale was listening “exclusively” to Julia Jacklin (“I was going through a breakup,” she remarks).
The quirky headbanger “Oh No” features not only a mention of the legendary “pizza rat” but a cleverly childish kiss-off: “You're so woke / Diet Coke.” In a nutshell, their music is the best kind of acid trip. The juxtaposition of the band’s extremely online lyrics with its ’70s psychedelic soundscape on “Angelica” is simply spellbinding. “I don't wanna follow you on the ’Gram / I don't wanna listen to your band,” they retort. Teasdale and Chambers will fool you with their sweet lilt while giving you the worst takedown of your life—on “Loving You,” for instance, they quip, “Hope you choke on your girlfriend.” But there’s nothing scarier than two women embarrassing a man who deserves it. Therein lies the joy, the playfulness, and the attitude that comes with Wet Leg.
“When we first saw the video of [Harry Styles] playing ‘Wet Dream’ it was like, ‘What in the world is going on?’ It felt like we were watching intergalactic television in this really strange, other universe.”
—Hester Chambers
Before they released their debut, though, they never had a chance to play it live. Had they done so, Teasdale says, “it would be a really different sounding record.” But because of lockdown, it just wasn’t possible. What it has transformed is their live gigs, thanks to their expanded setup of Henry Holmes on percussion, Ellis Durand on bass, and Josh Mobaraki on synths. “I hate to use the word ‘vibe,’ but here we go—the vibe is very different,” Teasdale quips.
For them, that means the live show doesn’t sound exactly like the record. “I think you go to see a band because you like the music they make, and it's a totally different way of experiencing it [than] on the record,” Chambers adds. And it’s certainly worked for them: Wet Leg has gained even more momentum from their concerts, earning supporting slots with everyone from CHVRCHES to Inhaler along the way, with 2023 dates locked in opening for certified Wet Leg fan Harry Styles.
Wet Leg at Glastonbury 2022 / photo by Joshua Mellin
Because they had somewhat of an untraditional start playing live, with their current lineup Wet Leg is unsure of what their process will look like when they decide to make more music. But that’s what invigorates them. “I'm really excited to get writing with everyone because we haven't really managed to do that as a band all together yet,” Teasdale remarks. “It's good-little-family-on-the-road vibes. I look forward to seeing what our process is.” One thing’s for certain, though: contemplating collaborations fills them with fear. Teasdale is nervous about putting someone she admires through a collaboration. “It's an intimate thing—like, take me out to dinner first,” she teases.
“I spin out a lot. I think Rhian has probably seen me cry more in the last couple of years than in the whole time we’ve known each other.”
—Hester Chambers
Wet Leg are just happy to have one another for now. Though with their fast rise to fame, Chambers and Teasdale’s relationship has admittedly changed. It had to. But it’s made them closer than ever. “I spin out a lot,” Chambers admits. “I think Rhian has probably seen me cry more in the last couple of years than in the whole time we've known each other.” She feels lucky that Teasdale is the one by her side throughout this journey, and that she hasn’t been “disowned” for being such a crier.
Teasdale agrees that because of the intimacy of their relationship now, their emotions are open wounds. “When I’m having a bad day, normally I won't want to put my pal through it. So I'll just kind of check out and I can take myself away—but there's no hiding away,” she laughs. Quickly, she realizes she’s essentially expressed the exact same sentiment as Chambers. “You really know me now,” Teasdale sweetly tells her. Wet Leg is forever. FL
