Meet Wet Leg, the British rock band to know now

The story of Wet Leg begins with Teasdale and Chambers meeting on the first day of college in 2012. They had both grown up on the Isle of Wight although both their families were from the mainland. They spent their youth on the beach and dabbling in music. ‘There’s not heaps to do so people come together and make music,’ says Chambers. Teasdale and Chambers started music degrees before dropping out. They played in various bands and as solo musicians but it was not until End of the Road that they decided to form a band together.

In previous interviews they have claimed they named their band Wet Leg after randomly stabbing the keys of the emoji keyboard on a phone. ‘There’s another reason why the band is called Wet Leg,’ reveals Teasdale. ‘It’s Isle of Wight terminology for someone from across the water on the mainland. The band remained a side project while Teasdale and Chambers were kept busy with their jobs — Teasdale was working as a wardrobe assistant and Chambers worked for her family jewellery-making business. ‘I was in London and Hester was in the Isle of Wight,’ says Teasdale, ‘we’d come together when we could but with my job the hours were crazy — I would leave my house at 5am and not get back till 10pm.’ Teasdale returned to the Isle of Wight for Christmas and it was during this time that she and Chambers wrote the song that would launch the band. ‘I guess it was just like a stream of our consciousness,’ says Teasdale about the song’s lyrics. ‘We were staying up late a lot watching films and I was sleeping at Hester’s house on her chaise longue. The band recorded the song, which they called ‘Chaise Longue’, and the following day they listened back. ‘We just laughed, almost cringe laughing,’ recalls Chambers, ‘because it was so silly but it brought us joy.’ And then came the pandemic. ‘I went back to the Isle of Wight,’ says Teasdale, ‘we were able to use our band as a way of distracting ourselves from everything that was going on.’

It was not until they played Latitude Festival in summer 2021 that Wet Leg had any inkling how popular they were becoming. ‘We didn’t think that anyone would be there,’ says Teasdale. ‘We were so used to playing to crowds of about six. When we went to Latitude and there were actually people in the tent to play to. That was like, “Oh, this is interesting.”’ Things have continued to be interesting ever since: appearances on Jools Holland’s show, being signed to Domino and making the BBC’s Sound of 2022 list. The apparent speed with which it has all happened must be dizzying — did they sometimes suffer from imposter syndrome? ‘It’s not a syndrome,’ says Chambers, ‘it’s real.’ What struck me, I tell them, is the contrast between how some bands struggle and crave success but never achieve it while Wet Leg have achieved it while never absolutely clamouring for it. ‘I think whatever you’re doing, [imposter syndrome] is inbuilt,’ says Teasdale. ‘You’re never going to feel like you’ve earned it or like you deserve it.’

The album is only weeks away and they are unsurprisingly nervous and excited by how it will fare. Will they fade as fast as they emerge or will it establish them as around for the long haul? Only time will tell but for now Teasdale and Chambers are enjoying the beautiful strangeness of it all. The important thing, they say, is to recall the promise they made on that Ferris wheel back in 2018. ‘We didn’t have any of that as a goal or an agenda,’ says Chambers. ‘[This is all] 100 per cent unexpected and unintentional. We are very, very lucky. We just really wanted to have fun.’

Wet Leg’s eponymous album is out 8 April