Interview: Wet Leg on their Unexpected Fame, Debut Album

Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers don’t take themselves too severely — even the identify of their band, Moist Leg, was born out of mixing random emojis collectively on a keyboard. “It’s a very good strategy to discover band names,” confirms Chambers, 27.

Teasdale and Chambers are sitting within the Ace Lodge in Brooklyn in early December, contemporary from a goofy session contained in the foyer’s photograph sales space. It’s the British duo’s first time in New York, and thus far the expertise has exceeded their expectations of a spot they’ve solely seen on Intercourse within the Metropolis. “We simply wish to do a giant stomp round,” says Teasdale, 28. “Fake like we’re within the films.”

They’re shocked by many points of town, from the astronomical breakfast parts at a diner (Teasdale: “It was so intense”) to SantaCon, the annual yuletide mayhem conference dreaded by metropolis dwellers (Chambers: “I wish to see that in motion!”). However greater than something, they’re nonetheless attempting to course of their sudden success. After we meet, they’re speaking via their current American TV debut on Late Night time With Seth Meyers. “It feels prefer it’s not me,” Teasdale says. “Particularly since my hair seems to be so good.”

That is the sardonic, English appeal of Moist Leg — a band who’s captured the eye of everybody from Iggy Pop to Dave Grohl to Michael Gandolfini. With singles like “Chaise Longue” and “Moist Dream” that drip in post-punk riffs and witty, sexual innuendos, they’ve gone from unknowns to extremely anticipated debut artists in a matter of weeks. They usually’re simply as stunned as you might be.

On the mere point out of the band getting signed to Domino in November 2020, they carry out what might simply be a bit, however is admittedly simply the best way they convey with one another. “As a result of there have been no gigs, we couldn’t showcase ourselves, which could be very unusual,” Chambers says. “I used to be all the time fearful — like, oh my god, once they see that I can’t really play guitar, they’re going to be like, ‘Excuse me. We have to …’”

“…’Take again the contracts,’” Teasdale chimes in, pretending to tear up a chunk of paper. They escape in laughter, with Chambers’ fingers — most of them embellished with rings — fiddling along with her braids.

At a current present at Child’s All Proper in Brooklyn, followers screamed alongside to each phrase of “Chaise Longue,” which the duo wrote again house over Christmas break in 2019. Chambers was cooking dinner and Teasdale was consuming cookies whereas they free-styled, packing in Imply Ladies references (“Would you want us to assign somebody to butter your muffin?”) and a call-and-response of “Excuse me” and “What?”

The video for “Chaise Longue” — which options Teasdale and Chambers in lengthy, white peasant clothes and straw hats — has greater than three million views on YouTube. “We weren’t making a aware effort to jot down something,” Teasdale says. “It got here out of that 13-year-old woman sleepover head area.”

That’s the pinnacle area that’s introduced Moist Leg this far — in addition to their cool, nonchalant perspective about all of it. “It takes a number of effort to look this carefree and chill,” Teasdale says with a smile, a line as sarcastic as one in all their songs.

Rising up on the Isle of Wight, Teasdale and Chambers spent their youths attending festivals and hanging out with mates on the seashore. “We’re packed into this actually small island,” Teasdale says. “Numerous barbecues, a number of tenting with your pals, a number of teenage consuming.”

Chambers grew up in a musical family, studying to play the piano at a younger age whereas her mom handed on her style in music: the Moody Blues, the Velvet Underground, Nick Drake, Aretha Franklin, and loads of David Bowie.

Teasdale and Chambers have three siblings every, and Teasdale credit hers along with her musical information. “I used to be capable of entry their iTunes when iTunes was a factor,” she says. “Via stealing my sister’s music, I found Björk, Radiohead, Joanna Newsom, and Devendra Banhart.”

Teasdale and Chambers met on the Isle of Wight Faculty, the place each had been learning the music trade in preparation for his or her BTEC, an prolonged diploma within the performing arts. “We didn’t actually hang around tons once we first met,” Chambers says, turning to face Teasdale. “You had been fairly intimidating since you had been very cool, and I used to be big-time in my shell.”

“I used to be within the B group, you had been within the A gaggle,” replies Teasdale. “You had been within the cool group.”

It’s secure to say that each members of Moist Leg are fairly cool, which they didn’t got down to be once they shaped. “After we began Moist Leg, there was a particular, stable resolution that it wasn’t going to be a critical band,” Teasdale says, noting she didn’t even know learn how to play guitar once they started. “The purpose of the sport was simply to have enjoyable. It doesn’t matter if persons are judging us. We’re simply going to do it, as a result of why the hell not? It took us so lengthy to get to that time.”

“It was scary for positive,” provides Chambers. “Being in [our] mid-twenties and getting older, you’re like, ‘Will individuals snigger at me? Is that this allowed?’ However really, it’s, and also you simply should do it.”

The band’s self-titled debut, out April 8, additionally options the only “Moist Dream,” a cheeky pop stunner the place the dreamer in query will get referred to as out with provocative directness: “What makes you suppose you’re ok/To consider me if you’re touching your self?”

Teasdale says “Moist Dream” got here collectively simply as spontaneously as “Chaise Longue,” together with the road a couple of film she noticed when she was 14: “You stated, ‘Child, do you wish to come house with me?/I’ve acquired Buffalo ’66 on DVD.’” “I believe I simply needed to get ‘DVD’ right into a track, as a result of it’s so humorous that nobody watches them anymore,” she says.

There are many unreleased gems on Moist Leg, too, from the triumphant opener, “Being in Love,” to “Grocery store,” impressed by a good friend’s drug seller throughout the pandemic (the refrain: “We acquired too highhhhhhh“).

“It was clearly a dry spell, as a result of nobody’s going to events or something,” Teasdale says. “They’d ship actually charming texts round with all of the particular gives: ‘Fabulous Fridays! Purchase one, get one free!’”

A number of songs didn’t make it onto the 12-track album, like, “I Wish to Be Kidnapped (By a UFO).” “We’re eager about bringing it again, resurrecting it,” Chambers says. (The punctuation within the title is a degree of rivalry: “Possibly brackets, as a result of in any other case it might have fairly darkish connotations,” Teasdale provides.)

At South by Southwest this month, Moist Leg had been by far the buzziest band to catch — the topic of lengthy strains outdoors venues and frantic posts on social media all through the week. The duo themselves had a comparatively chill time in Texas. “Fave individuals I noticed had been Sasami and Self Esteem,” Teasdale writes in an e mail afterward. “I believe all of us stored forgetting to eat a bit, however we made a great few visits to Torchy’s Tacos.”

Moist Leg’s ever-growing fanbase required them to improve their venues on their first full North American tour. As an alternative of taking part in New York’s 650-capacity Music Corridor of Williamsburg, they just lately carried out a sold-out present to a crowd almost triple that dimension at Brooklyn Metal, and this week they’ll hit the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles.

Teasdale takes all of it in the identical free, lighthearted stride that acquired us listening to Moist Leg within the first place. “The upgrades have been like placing on sneakers which are too large for you and studying learn how to hobble about in them,” she says, “and hope that nobody notices you’re strolling humorous.”