VIRAL MAVENS OF COTTAGE-CORE WET LEG ON THE CHAISE LONGUE.
GOING BY just her first name, Rhian Teasdale spent nearly five years performing as a quirky folk singer à la Joanna Newsom, just her and a piano she didn’t really know how to play. “Fake it ’til you make it!” she says in her smoky, sing-song speaking voice. But she wasn’t making anything, having to take a string of waitressing jobs to sustain herself. Demoralised and lonely on the road, she asked Hester Chambers, an old acquaintance from college on the Isle Of Wight, to accompany her on some dates she was obliged to play before she could call it quits. Though of opposing temperaments – “We’re yin and yang” – they enjoyed each other’s company and the trip sparked an idea.
“We said, Let’s just do a band for fun, so we can go to festivals and get free wristbands. Let’s write dumb songs that are really trashy.” Their first effort went: “I wanna be a doctor, buy a UFO.” Meanwhile, Rhian found work as a stylist for ads and music videos, which she enjoyed. Two Christmases ago, just before Covid struck, that work suddenly dried up and a proposed two-day visit to Hester’s place turned into several weeks sleeping on her chaise longue.
“We went into teenage sleepover mode, watched loads of X Files and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and had late-night jams, and that’s where Chaise Longue came from, that big sleepover sesh.” They stored the demo in the ‘not for public consumption’ folder labelled “High Jams”.
But in February 2020, they tried cutting the song with East London producer Jon McMullen. It turned out remarkably well.
Unemployed during the first lockdown, they decided to shoot their own video. In stylist mode, Rhian sourced “cottage core” clothing – Little House On The Prairie outfits and straw hats offset with modern shades – and the pair swapped emotional roles, the habitually shy Hester bouncing around and the usually effervescent Rhian adopting a severe, deadpan look in her smock dress, like a young Judi Dench playing an Amish spy, asking if you’d like someone assigned to butter your muffin. The result was funny, sexy, instant and addictive.
Last summer, Wet Leg (named after random emojis) released Chaise Longue as their first single. Their video went viral. Within weeks, they were being feted by Iggy Pop, Rolling Stone, and other unexpected champions. Suddenly, Rhian and Hester’s fun band is serious: “a team of people is plotting our next move.”
Where does Rhian see it heading? “I honestly have no idea. But I’m really excited. Hester and I swing from being, ‘This is great’ to being total rabbits in headlights. If we can inspire girls to pick up a guitar that’d be amazing. It’s so much fun.”
“We said, let’s just do a band for fun.” RHIAN TEASDALE