Isle of Wight band Wet Leg burst through in 2022 with a song called “Chaise Longue,” one they’ve said they almost didn’t include because it was so silly. WNXP was obsessed with this song, and we invited the band to play our second birthday show at the Brooklyn Bowl that December. Of course, it sold out, because in the meantime, they were nominated for a handful of Grammys. They won two and have been booked worldwide.
After all the buzz around their self-titled full-length, we now have a follow-up coming out in the summer, a 12-track LP called moisturizer. I got the primary vocalist and songwriter, Rhian Teasdale, on the record with WNXP a couple months ahead of the release of the new album. All we have so far is this awesome, banging new single “Catch These Fists,” but high hopes for more great tunes and an American tour that will bring them back this way.
Here’s my chat with Teasdale, 1/5 of Wet Leg (which she co-founded with school friend Hester Chambers), exclusively for 91.ONE WNXP.
Celia Gregory: What can you tell me about recording moisturizer? And then maybe in that, I can glean some of the writing and collaborating that made these songs come to pass.
Rhian Teasdale: We made the record with Dan Carey, who we made the first record with. That just felt like the right thing to do, the best thing to do, kind of like going back into the cocoon and shutting the rest of the world out. So it was really good that we already had that relationship with them. And we all wrote on this record, we were lucky enough to get to hire a house in the — what do you call it, hire a house, rent a house? — in the countryside. And we shut ourselves away for like two weeks and kind of just jammed a lot of the ideas out in the room.
CG: So did you have like stems of songs or just like basic framework? I mean, to accomplish all that in two weeks, some might think that’s like a luxurious timeframe. Others are like, oh my gosh, that’s aggressive, right? So did already have a lot of what you wanted and then you just finessed it a little bit?
RT: No, no, so we did two weeks initially and we were able to set it up so that we could like make a multi-track recording of all the jams and then after the first two weeks we kind of had two weeks away from it back home, where we kind of took stock of the ideas and then we spent another couple of weeks developing those ideas that we started in the first block. So that was where the bulk of it came from. But then there was also, you know, like Ellis [Durand, bass guitarist] would send an instrumental and then I would take that and pop it in garage bands and sing over the top.
CG: But this came after a pretty aggressive touring schedule and a whirlwind time after your first full-length, right? I don’t want to make any assumptions here about what emotionally lends to the songs on moisturizer, what we’re going to hear after this rapid ascent. I would love for you to tell me some of the source material and maybe the inspiration of what we can anticipate.
RT: Yeah, of course, there are some more pointed songs on the record, like “Catch These Fists,” which is the only thing that we have released right now — that’s probably one of them. But ultimately it’s a record of love songs, you know, desperate, mushy, all sorts.
CG: I mean, love songs of all sorts, but also like the requisite sass. You’re not demurring here. You’re not suddenly a new attitudinally-presenting band. “Catch These Fists” is like, “I’m here.” :: dukes up ::
RT: Yeah I think like another reason why they can be love songs but they’re not demure love songs is because it’s from a queer perspective. I’ve never wanted to write a love song where I’m like lusting over a man. Writing love songs to my partner who is not a man just felt really interesting.
CG: So to have the comfort of recording with the person you did before, and also you all getting to sort of camp down, right, and come from your different points…I was thinking about the long arc of you and Hester being friends in school, and then finally starting this band and calling it like, “OK, we’re gonna do this.” I’ve heard you say it took a little bit of courage…and now this rapid rise and so much time together, absorbing all of this. How has the band gelled and maybe how has that affected what we’re hearing on moisturizer coming out? Because it’s not just sophomore release, it’s like so much has happened for you so fast.
RT: Yeah, yeah, no, you’re definitely getting the sound of a band that has toured extensively for two years. I feel like to be in a band there’s this unspoken kind of balance. It’s quite hard to come by and quite accidental most of the time, I think. We all like writing the records and playing the songs now. I feel very held by everyone, like sonically, and I think there’s some kind of weird telepathy that we’ve like developed over the past two years.
CG: Well, that’s a goal. And it sounds like you can’t force it. It just happened from repetition and from spending time. I read that you were doing work during the day, but watching movies at night and like chilling and eating and like being a sort of a family not on the road to create this album. So it sounds that togetherness maybe was key.
I remember — I think it was around Grammy’s time when you were sweeping all these awards for your first record — that Hester was saying maybe the touring family was best thing to come out of all of this and learning how to rely on each other. What are you hoping for in this next batch of shows, which includes some huge festivals, by the way, and then future touring for this record? What are you hoping to carry over from that early learning as a band?
RT: I think one of the reasons that me and Hester started the band was because we love going to festivals. We couldn’t really have comprehended that as a band you get booked to play two or three festivals a weekend when it’s festival season. And so this time, as we’re going into festival season, we’ve kind of asked our management and booking agent, we leveled with them and been like, “Listen, we would love to play all of the festivals, but there’s like a couple, can we just stay at and can we clear the rest of the weekend so that we can stay and enjoy?” For me personally, my focus is to enjoy touring more and live life more whilst touring, like cram it all in, but also choose some moments to stay at a festival and hang out as friends.