British indie rock band Wet Leg have had a hugely successful past 12 months, and much of their success hinges on the “demystifying” discovery that guitarist/vocalist Rhian Teasdale made early in her career.
Following the release of their second album, Moisturizer, last July, the band embarked on a sell-out UK tour that included a show at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall, while standout shows at Glastonbury and Coachella have been the icing on the cake for a band that continues to grow.
But when it comes to the fundamentals of their songwriting, Teasdale says she’s in love with simplicity, despite the “many loser gatekeepers who want you to believe that you need 20-plus chords in a song for it to be worthy.”
Indeed, she’s making the case that guitar players only need two chords to write a “banging” song.
The guitarist, who is often seen wielding a green perspex B.C. Rich Mockingbird has been talking to The Cut about the band’s rapid rise and newfound status as Britain’s premier indie rock darlings.
Her less-is-more revelation came early in her playing days, and it’s a mindset that she’s in no rush to abandon.
“The first song I ever tried to play on guitar was ‘Molly’s Chambers’ by Kings of Leon — back when the band was super-trashy and fun,” she recalls. “It was a real epiphany to learn that you don’t have to be a virtuoso guitarist to enjoy playing music with your friends.
“It’s been a bit of a journey demystifying music-making for myself,” she adds. “I’m not from a musical household, and I even got kicked out of my GCSE music course because I was too far behind the rest of the class. There are so many loser gatekeepers who want you to believe that you need 20-plus chords in a song for it to be worthy. In reality, there are so many banging songs that literally are just two chords.”
Despite the band’s streamlined musicality, Teasdale has said she wants the world to see Wet Leg’s riff-slingers as guitar heroes, but the Isle of Wight outfit is doing so on their own terms. Don’t expect blazing guitar solos and tapping galore.
For further proof that the two-chord song formula is successful, we can look to Eddie Van Halen, a player many consider one of history’s best. As Michael Anthony once said, “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘bout Love” shows what you can do with just two chords – in this case, A minor and G major.
The song, he says, hinges on a singular lick, and was written as a nod to punk and the Ramones’ no-nonsense hitmaking. Released as part of the band’s certified diamond 1978 debut album, and a song that has racked up 276 million Spotify streams, it has proven to be a cross-generational hit, even if it flies in the face of the flair and flamboyance Van Halen was notorious for.
“It was a stupid thing to us, just two chords,” Eddie Van Halen once told Guitar World of the song’s genesis. “It didn’t end up sounding punk, but that was the intention.”
Producer Ted Templeman, meanwhile, pinned the track’s success on EVH’s “incredible” guitar playing, which perhaps suggests that a high-quality musician working within more limited confines can often produce magic moments.
That’s why Wet Leg are keeping things simple. And the buzz about them – on both sides of the Atlantic – underscores their argument with aplomb. Just don’t tell Yngwie Malmsteen.
