For a band who were completely blindsided by overnight success in 2021, Wet Leg have always conducted themselves with playful poise. Their insanely catchy debut single ‘Chaise Longue’ became the jam of that year, with its headlong rush of a hookline, drop-dead cool vocals and eminently quotable lyrics (the best of which was surely the Mean Girls lift: ‘Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?’).

Formed in 2019 by music college buddies Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, here was a band in it for the fun and freedom, with little expectation that their music might make it beyond their Isle Of Wight base. Instead, they breached The Solent, conquered 6Music, slayed the States, opened for Harry Styles on tour and had to build some cabinets (probably) to house their burgeoning haul of awards, including a Best British Group Brit and Grammys for Best Alternative Music Performance and Album.

‘Fake it ’til you make it,’ is how Teasdale thinks about their wild trajectory now. ‘When me and Hester started the band, it was because we just wanted to go to festivals and write songs that were fun for us to play live.’ When everything took off so buoyantly, there was a fair bit of running to catch up with themselves. Even so, Wet Leg had the wherewithal to buck the received industry wisdom that producing the follow-up to a successful debut album needs to happen lickety-split while you’re still touring to promote the first one. ‘Oh yeah, that was hinted at while we were on the Harry tour,’ says Teasdale, ‘and we said “we don’t think we have the capacity”. I don’t know how people do that.’

Instead, Wet Leg discovered that with success comes a degree of leverage when their idea to take some quality time together to write new songs was greenlit by their label Domino. By this point, the band’s impish myth that their second album was written and ready to go had been well and truly busted. When they convened at an Airbnb in Southwold on the Sussex coast, it was with a completely blank sheet of paper. ‘There was nothing,’ says Teasdale. ‘It was a very strange feeling being all together in one place, looking around at each other, blinking and thinking “our job is to write songs”. Like writing an essay, the hardest part is starting it and we just had to decide to start.’

And so began phase two of the Wet Leg adventure, as the band spent close to a month writing what would become second album Moisturizer by day and watching horror films by night in a hermetic realm they dubbed ‘Moisturizer Valley’. By this point, the friendship group had expanded. Wet Leg were initially promoted as a tight double act with Teasdale and Chambers as co-frontwomen. In reality, as soon as they signed their deal they were asked who they would like to recruit for their touring band. They chose college pals Joshua Mobaraki on guitar, Ellis Durand on bass and Henry Holmes on drums. By the time they got to Southwold, they were no longer touring musicians but an intrinsic part of the line-up. ‘It was the most natural thing,’ says Teasdale.

And thus, five went mad (in a good way) by the seaside. For proof, simply check out the celebratory music, the confident attitude, distinctive aesthetic and slightly disturbing self-directed videos which were birthed on that retreat. On the day Teasdale beams in from El Paso for our chat, the video for their new single ‘Mangetout’ is released, featuring Teasdale in a massive face-obscuring wig, grinding in fields and forecourts before unmasking for a blood-smeared conclusion: think Ring meets Children Of The Corn with tongue in cheek and all very in keeping with Teasdale’s transition from playfully demure ingenue to more freakily sexy frontwoman.

The integration of Mobaraki, Durand and Holmes is not the only change in band dynamics. This time round, on account of her social anxiety, Chambers has consciously stepped back from promo and from her prominent position onstage as Teasdale’s wing woman. One look at Moisturizer’s sleeve tells its own story. Teasdale has teeth bared and talons out; Chambers has her back to the camera, clutching herself in a grim embrace. Chambers is as involved in the creativity as ever (even fronting two tracks on the album) but ask Teasdale how she feels about becoming the sole focal point of the group and she responds with a long ‘hmmmmmmmmm. I always get a bit uncomfortable when people ask me that question so I don’t know if that answers the question...’ she demurs.

She is happier talking about her newfound liberation onstage, setting the guitar aside for a number of songs to deliver a more charismatic, even confrontational performance style. ‘I wanted it to link in with the creepiness of the album,’ she says. ‘For the first album I was literally anchored to the microphone stand the whole time. My hands were so busy playing guitar, I couldn’t move around at all. So when we were writing the second album, I purposefully took a step back from playing guitar on a lot of the songs. I thought it was a really good idea and then when it came to it, it was really scary. It was a stretch, but the more you stretch yourself the more you grow as a performer.’

For Teasdale, this goes far deeper than simply making a bold artistic choice. The smart snark of debut Wet Leg was largely inspired by a break-up. In contrast, Moisturizer is an album with a high proportion of leftfield love songs inspired by a new long-term relationship. Singles ‘Catch These Fists’ and ‘Mangetout’ might be witty diss tracks but Teasdale makes it orgasmically clear on ‘CPR’ that ‘I, I, I, I, I, I’m in love’.

‘I definitely know 100% that I feel a lot more confident in myself through feeling loved and being in love and feeling a lot more supported in whatever mad decisions or mad paths I decide to take,’ she says. ‘I’ve always got someone cheering me on. It’s changed me immensely. This is my first queer relationship and I just feel like a veil has been lifted. And I think it’s cute to have a record of that in the form of an album.’

Teasdale has made a new life for herself in London while her bandmates remain on the Isle Of Wight. But she’s ready to return next summer, the homecoming conqueror, to play at the Isle Of Wight Festival. She recalls attending the festival and its boutique counterpart Bestival (‘RIP’, she notes) while still at school and, in particular, catching a set by cult local heroes The Bees. ‘I didn’t make music at that age; I didn’t know it was an option. Now when I think back it was really important for me to see a band from the Isle Of Wight playing shows. If I could tell younger us that one day we’d be playing the slot that we’re playing... it’s really strange and really cool.’

Before then, Wet Leg have another pinch-me rite of passage to enjoy when they headline Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations in Princes Street Gardens, with Hamish Hawk and Lucia & The Best Boys in support. Beyond a general declaration of excitement at the prospect, there’s a sense that Teasdale doesn’t quite know what she’s let herself in for. But that feeling cuts both ways, as the Concert In The Gardens audience better hunker down for some feral indie action. One thing Teasdale is sure of is that she will party the night away in the company of the person who largely inspired Wet Leg’s second chapter. ‘I just always try and be with my partner… for the New Year’s kiss, you know?’

Wet Leg will tour the UK until July 2026; Moisturizer is out now on Domino.