Exclusive interview with Isle of Wight band Wet Leg

The enthrallingly offbeat Wet Leg ­— fronted by effortlessly cool duo Hester Chambers and Rhian Teasdale ­— granted Dom Kureen an exclusive interview during the IW Festival, shortly after their rousing Sunday afternoon Big Top set.

Dom: You’ve exploded onto the music scene this year, but how were the early days of Wet Leg?

Rhian: Our first gig was actually at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2019 on a much smaller stage. About 15 of our friends happened to be there. It’s funny to come back two years later on a bigger stage with so many people watching.

Dom: Debut single, Chaise Longue, has had more than a million views on YouTube, and was recently released on vinyl, how did sales of the limited edition run go?

Rhian: It was available on pre-order and sold out on the first morning of being available. I don’t know how many copies they produced though…

Hester: Maybe it was only 20 copies! They’re going to release some more, originally it was going to be limited but we were surprised by how well they sold.

Dom: Were you both born on the Isle of Wight?

Rhian: Neither of us were born on the Island, but I moved here when I was eight and I always say I’m from the Isle of Wight as I don’t feel like I’m from Liverpool.

Hester: I was a baby when I moved here, so I feel like a fully-fledged Islander!

Dom: I’ve seen you both performing in various bands in recent years, how did you come to form Wet Leg?

Rhian: I was doing solo stuff and at one of the first hurdles I cried two songs into my set, I wasn’t enjoying it. I asked Hester if she’d like to finish the run of shows I’d been booked for and we started playing together.

We decided to have fun making music that was a bit silly and I think we’ve achieved that.

Dom: Are you getting recognised randomly by people at this point?

Rhian: I went to a gig at the 100 Club in London the other day to see a band called Honeyglaze and the lady signing me in asked ‘are you in Wet Leg?’, which was the first time it’s ever happened!

Dom: Do you get anxious before you go on stage?

Rhian: It varies depending on how we’re feeling that day, when we played at the Green Man Festival we thought there would be nobody there, and (the tent) was full.

Hester: When we saw how many people had come to see us I had a bit of a breakdown. It does feel weird having gone from doing shows with small crowds to these unexpected stages now.

Rhian: We didn’t expect any of this when we started Wet Leg, we just thought it would be small, sweaty shows and hopefully a few people would listen. It was really fun playing Big Top at the festival.

Hester: It was surreal. I’ve only ever been on the audience side of that tent before today.

Dom: Do you focus on the faces in the audience when you’re on the big stages?

Hester: I can’t look at anyone, just in case they look angry!

Dom: Can you reveal how you came up with the name ‘Wet Leg’ or is it a guarded secret?

Hester: We made a really long list of names, some sounded cool. We then got a bit busy with the emoji keyboard, which it turns out is a really good way to find band names — you can close your eyes and do it with two or more and see what comes along.

Rhian (pulls out phone to show some examples): Cry Donut, Factory Book, Angel Love, Alien Pumpkin… So there are endless possibilities and when you’re on social media you can use the emojis with your posts.

Dom: I’m stealing Alien Pumpkin.

Wet Leg are currently touring Europe and the US throughout the remaining months of 2021.

To find out more, visit: www.wetlegband.com/# and follow them on Instagram and Youtube.

The pair recently featured on our Isle of Wight Festival live blog.

• Isle of Wight Festival Live Blog