ONE of the most exciting bands to emanate from Island shores in recent memory has exploded onto the global music scene with the release of singles Chaise Longue and Wet Dream ­— the pair receiving a combined 1.4m views on YouTube to date.

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.

Isle of Wight County Press:

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?

Isle of Wight County Press:

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!

Isle of Wight County Press:

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!

Isle of Wight County Press: Wet Leg's Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers.

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.