Lining up for her brew in a Silverlake coffee shop, Wet Leg singer Rhian Teasdale is telling a friend about some valuable celebrity advice she once got. It’s not surprising that she took it seriously, coming from someone who fronted a band that could very much be considered at least one of the prototypes for her own: Blondie’s Debbie Harry.
“She was like, ‘Stand up straight, girl!’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Ever since that day,” Teasdale confirms, “I have stood up a little bit more straight.”
She’s no slouch on stage now, literally or otherwise: Fans have noticed a new boldness in Teasdale’s stage persona. The chutzpah was already there, on record, and their followers probably won’t notice any radical rejiggering in Wet Leg’s just-released “Moisturizer,” a sophomore album that is already bringing deep pleasure to a rabid fan base that heralded the band as one of the saviors of rock ‘n’ roll when their debut came out four years ago.
But the stage dynamics are just a little different now. Hester Chambers, one of the guitarists in the group, used to be presented as more of a co-frontwoman to Teasdale, when it made sense to see them as a duo. Now, the seemingly shyer Chambers is stepping back from interviews, as she has always stepped back a bit on stage, leaving Teasdale as sole spokeswoman, and also someone who is a little bit more up-front with a sense of empowered physicality. When she sings a number like “Catch These Fists” and flexes her muscles, you believe she really could give the won’t-take-no-for-an-answer fellow in the lyrics a knuckle sandwich.
But Teasdale’s “Moisturizer” songs aren’t so much about guys, anyway. She has come out, to the world and to herself, as queer, in a loving relationship with a partner whom she doesn’t identify too closely, other than to say they’re non-binary. It’s been a revelation to Teasdale to write love songs for the first time in her career, something she never felt motivated to do when she was considering herself straight.
Teasdale sat down with Variety over coffee to discuss “Moisturizer,” once we determined how to get the pale-skinned Isle of Wight native quickly into the patio’s shade. “I love to see the sun and be around it,” said the singer, who was enjoying the L.A. weather in a “Holiday” tank top. “I just like to be a safe distance from it.”
Looking at fan comments from a year ago or more, people were very impatient for Wet Leg’s sophomore album. One reason was that you had said in the press that it was all done for a while, so naturally fans were like: Well, where is it? And then you admitted that you had just made up the thing about there being a finished album in the can.
Yeah, we threw people for a loop that way. This was recorded around Halloween last year. We decorated the studio we recorded at, Salvation Studios in Brighton, and went in there with loads of cobwebs and fake spiders and stuff, so we love Halloween now.
Speaking of Halloween, the album cover looks a little scarier than the album actually is. It’s been compared to an Aphex Twin cover, with the big, evil grin. You look menacing. But it’s not a very menacing album overall. So were you just having a bit of fun with the cover?
Yeah, and not just the album cover, but I think like the whole energy of the creative is kind of subversive — like, if there’s any moments on there that are a bit sexy, it’s also a bit disgusting. Juxtaposition is something that we’ve always done, from our first video of “Chaise Longue,” with the the way the music was kind of juxtaposed with the visual. That’s something that is always fun to play with.
There are love songs on the album, but you weren’t about to come out with some flowery imagery to match that.
Yeah, exactly.
The first single from the album, “Catch These Fists,” was very aggressive and defiant, compared to some of the other songs. You’ve said that that song was in reaction to a night out on the town that didn’t go so well, where you felt harassed. In that particular circumstance, did you feel antagonized because you were out as a celebrity, or was it just a typical man-going-after-a-woman thing?
Yeah, I was just out with my friends, as is so often the case. And it’s not that the night was a write-off. These situations happen all the time, where you’re very clearly out in a very insular circle, dancing with your friends, being silly, and for that to be obnoxiously interrupted by some person trying to pick you up, it’s a very common occurrence, and very, very obnoxious. I think I’m conditioned to be so polite about things, but that particular night, I was not very polite.
Do you think in terms of the balance of material you want to have on an album? As on the first album, for lack of a smarter term, there are those really propulsive songs, and then some songs that are quite pretty and melodic too. Anyone who wants a really energetic albumis gonna get what they’re looking for, and then you’ve got the songs to let settle in that maybe fans latch onto more later as album tracks.
Yeah. When we went into recording we had 16 songs, and we did drop a few of the punchier ones, because I think it is really important to have that kind of dynamic balance and ebb and flow to make an album sound balanced. It’s good to have little palette cleansers. After touring for so long, it was really important to us that the second album would feel good to play live. But then I think we also wanted to pepper in some softer moments that I don’t know how much we’ll end up playing live. For the album as a snapshot, it felt really important to have those little peaks and… I don’t want to say “peaks and troughs.” But, you know, peaks and troughs in a waveform kind of way, not a life way, if that makes sense.
The members of Wet Leg backstage at The Tonight Show
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
There are some references in the album that not all of us in America will get. For instance, seeing the song title “Davina McCall,” I was like, “Oh, that’s probably a made-up name,” not realizing she is a big celebrity over there.
Yeah, she’s a national treasure! (McCall was a TV host in the 2000s for the British version of “Big Brother.”)
That song is not about Davina McCall, of course. In the Guardian, you described it as “a soppy love song.” So you’re okay with calling some of these songs, or at least one of them, soppy love songs?
Yeah. They’re so soppy. Oh my God. I think it’s funny and it’s been good that Hester has also put a soppy love song on the album, “Don’t Speak.” “Davina McCall” and “Don’t Speak” are kind of sister songs on the album, for me. And I think you’re always like your own worst critic. So if at any point I was like, “Oh God, is this too soppy? Is this too cheesy? Is this too much of myself and the love that I have for my partner? Am I giving like too much away?” — then I would just listen to Hester’s song “Don’t Speak,” and I’d be like: “Oh, I love that song, and it’s so soppy.” And Hester at the same time would be saying, “Is this too soppy?” It always feels kind of scary.
You’ve said you hadn’t written many love songs before this album, but you’re doing it now. Was it just this relationship that you’re in now in particular that prompted that? Or was it an outgrowth of exploring your sexuality more generally? You’ve said you self-identifying as queer now. Do you feel like that changed the energy of the album?
Sort of. Well, yeah, definitely. Because I’ve never wanted to write a love song about a man. And I don’t even really enjoy listening to love songs from a woman to a man. I feel like, historically, they’re not so empowering, you know? Like, I really love “Jolene” by Dolly Parton. But it’s like Dolly is kind of going up against another woman over some guy who I’m sure is not actually very special. This is just how I see it. This is my outlook on things.
And also, I feel like when you’re writing an album, it is like a diary entry or a snapshot in time of where you are. And on a very personal level, it felt important for me to write love songs to my partner, who is not a man — they’re non-binary. It feels so different. I don’t know what your personal sexual identity is. But I think writing the songs is me just exploring and figuring out how I felt about love. And yeah, I just think queer love in particular is just so interesting to me, because there’s no blueprint for it. In the heteronormative sphere, there’s so many movies and so many books and, in the media, it’s all very straight-leaning. I feel like there are no rules in a queer relationship. There are no rules, no kind of preconceived things that you’ve subconsciously absorbed along the way — it all gets rewritten when you are in a queer relationship, I think.
With the hits from the first album, people became accustomed to hearing Wet Leg in a mode that felt tongue-in-cheek. So when they hear you like expressing love in a really upbeat, energetic song, it may be like, “Wait a minute, I have to process this side of them.”
Yeah, but I feel like even in the most soppy love songs, there’s still some kind of stupid joke in there.
A song title that everyone in America can get is “Jennifer’s Body.” As with “Davina,” that seems to have been inspired by just watching something. But were you actually looking to take something out of the film of that name for that?
When we were writing the album at this house in the countryside, we spent the evenings watching a lot of horror films, and “Jennifer’s Body” was one of them. I think I’d watched it when I was a teenager, as someone who thought they were straight. Then seeing it again now, I appreciated it a lot more, obviously. There is this lesbian storyline that’s just one of the stories running through it; it’s not the story. I think it’s a bit more common now to have films with queer romance where that is kind of secondary to the lead storyline, and I think it just really obviously resonated with me a lot more now than I did when I was a teenager.
Hester seems to have stepped back from doing interviews, whereas on the first album, you were doing everything together, right? Did she just realize she has anxiety about it or doesn’t enjoy it?
Yeah, I think for now she’s just taking it easy on the interviews. We did a lot of interviews (before); we’ve done some promo. And it’s just cool, with this album, having a bit more leverage, and also knowing ourselves better as well, and being like, “OK, this is what I really enjoy doing and this is what I don’t enjoy doing so much.” So we’ve both been able to ask for things and be like, “Can I do more of this? Can I do less of this?” So, it’s a very cool position to be in.
How do you feel, yourself, about getting back into the promotional cycle and all the stuff that comes with promoting an album like this?
I don’t know. It’s exciting because I think it is like quite a positive album. You know? For the most part, it’s about love, and… I’m happy. And it’s an exciting and curious time…. It’s nice to have some… What am I trying to say? [Long pause.] Hmmm.
If you’ve got a project you’re happy about that has a positive spirit to it, and the public is out there excited about it, there are a lot of wins there...
Yeah, exactly what you said. And also, with the last album, when we were doing promo for it and I would pause like I just did, then I would probably get really freaked out about it, and maybe I would go away and worry about: “Oh, I talk so slowly.” So I’m a lot more comfortable with it now and I know what to expect a bit more. Sometimes I’ve just gotta peter off and not apologize for it!
