Meet Wet Leg, the UK Breakout Act Wielding Biting Wordplay and Deadpan Delivery
Photo: Hollie Fernando
On a hazy night in their native Isle of Wight, an unassuming island just off the south coast of England, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers found themselves at the summit of a Ferris wheel. The duo, who had met at Isle of Wight College and became friends ten years prior, were at that very moment drafting the blueprint of what would come to be known as Wet Leg.
"It wasn’t until a few years after we met that we started playing together. I played the guitar on some of Rhian’s solo work, and she’d play the piano on some of my stuff," explains Chambers to Under The Radar. "It was great fun, but ultimately we decided we wanted to take a different track, do something that was a little bit more fun, and we also wanted to ‘rock out’ a bit more." So, arming themselves with guitars, vibrant imaginations, and a shared love of The Ronettes, Jane Birkin, Ty Segall, and Bjà¶rk, they set out on a journey to create and record their own music.
The duo released their debut single "Chaise Lounge" in June 2021, and it made a striking first impression with its clever, innuendo-packed lines and detached deadpan delivery. Its driving riffs and percussion propel the track forward, punching a catchy chorus into listeners’ faces every now and then. The quirky yet assured song is light and subtly sarcastic and is accompanied by an equally innovative music video that highlights their effortlessly cool, left-field bravado.
Their follow-up effort, "Wet Dream," is a punk-leaning number that is as cheeky and creative as its predecessor. According to Teasdale in a Variety interview, the breakup song was inspired by one of her exes. "…it came about when one of my exes went through a stage of texting me after we’d broken up telling me that 'he had a dream about me.'" The track unfurls with a quiet, underlying ferocity brewing just under the surface.
The video, directed by Teasdale, tells an absurd story involving the duo and their band realizing that they have lobster claws instead of hands as they’re about to feast on lobster. It zeroes in on the gross hunger of the men, not only sharing their desperation lyrically but in their salivation over their literal and metaphorical meal.
Wet Leg continued to showcase their sonic range with the split release, "Too Late Now" and "Oh No." The former is louder and dreamier than anything the band has released to date and explores, as Teasdale told to Brooklyn Vegan, "sleepwalking into adulthood." "Oh No" on the other hand is a rowdy, iridescent track that encapsulates the kind of anxious energy only experienced during a 3 a.m. doom scroll.
All this serves as the lead-in for the band's highly-anticipated debut album, Wet Leg, set to release April 8, 2022.
