Rhian Teasdale is in love.
The frontwoman for the Isle of Wight’s surprising indie rock darlings Moist Leg is sitting at a sunny cafe patio in L.A.’s Atwater Village, a heat grin displaying off a set of silver charms glued to her enamel — some formed like stars, one with three 9s, a reference to one among their music lyrics — as she talks about her relationship and discovering “love at first sight.”
“There are such a lot of love songs on this planet already, it’s simply not one thing I needed to write down about till I met my accomplice,” she says between sips of iced espresso. “It wasn’t an attention-grabbing topic to me.”
It’s a quiet April Monday, per week since Moist Leg formally got here out of hibernation, releasing a brand new single, “Catch These Fists,” and saying sophomore album Moisturizer, their first new launch since taking up the indie music world three years in the past. Based by Teasdale and guitarist-vocalist Hester Chambers in 2019, Moist Leg was one of many largest surprises within the music enterprise in 2022 — maybe even to themselves — because the post-punk rockers rose seemingly in a single day from relative obscurity into bona fide indie superstars because of songs like “Moist Dream” and the equally sardonic “Chaise Longue.” Their first album debuted at No. 1 within the U.Okay.
That hype changed into a world tour and area dates opening for Harry Types and Foo Fighters, and later a sweep within the various classes on the 2023 Grammy Awards, the place Moist Leg beat out a stacked listing of nominees together with Björk, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Arcade Fireplace for various album. (They have been additionally nominated for finest new artist that yr however misplaced to Samara Pleasure.)
Now Moist Leg’s again for extra, however this time with an surprising thematic flip. Much less slicing sarcasm, extra love songs. No one was extra shocked on the tone shift than Teasdale herself. However shortly after recording the primary album, she met her accomplice, a musician who’s nonbinary, and that helped her understand her personal queer id after presenting as straight. That’s when the love songs began writing themselves.
“Once you write a music, it’s a snapshot on the way you’re feeling,” Teasdale explains. “I’m not consciously making an attempt to write down a few particular subject. However we began making the album and clearly my unconscious was like, ‘This one’s about love, oh this one too, and this one’s additionally about love.’ “
The music video for “davina mccall” from Moist Leg’s upcoming Moisturizer album depicts the bandmembers in claymation.
Courtesy
Whereas 2022’s Moist Leg was primarily a Teasdale/Chambers composition, Moisturizer was made collaboratively with the remainder of the band, which additionally consists of drummer Henry Holmes, multi-instrumentalist Josh Mobaraki and bass participant Ellis Durand. The group rented out a house within the English countryside, the place they holed up collectively in March 2024 to write down and document in between “a good bit of fucking round,” as Teasdale places it.
“It felt good for everybody to have possession over this factor we’re going to be touring for some time,” Teasdale says. “I don’t assume there are any massive egos within the room, so it’s by no means like relinquishing management. It’s identical to, ‘What are we vibing with?’ ”
Because the group will get prepared for Moisturizer‘s launch, Teasdale admits she’s feeling stress, hoping the sophomore album lives as much as expectations. “We’ve cocooned ourselves into such a deep burrow once we have been making the album — we weren’t getting opinions from buddies or folks within the business. That was a comfortable place. However now we’re crawling out of this cozy gap. I’ll get little whispers of individuals’s opinions, and whether or not they’re good or whether or not they’re dangerous, I believe that’s simply making it a bit actual.”
As Moist Leg’s grown extra outstanding, Teasdale acknowledges it’s been good to have the ability to “ask for a number of extra issues.” Nonetheless, whilst a path towards larger stardom lies earlier than them, Teasdale doesn’t need for a lot, aside from “to maintain doing what we’ve been doing” — evolving their sound, happening the street (previously a number of years they’ve roamed in all places from Europe to the U.S. to Oceania) — though perhaps with a pair extra rock star entitlements this time.
“If we return to New Zealand, I demand we go to Hobbiton,” she says. “And perhaps a number of extra days off once we’re on tour.”
This story appeared within the July 9 subject of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click here to subscribe.