Rhian Teasdale

Rhian Louise Teasdale (born 1992 or 1993) is an English musician. Born in Formby, she moved to the Isle of Wight aged eight and then to Bristol for her music career. Between 2016 and 2018, she released several singles as Rhain including "Solid Gold", which was developed with Plastic Mermaids. In 2018, she formed Wet Leg with Hester Chambers, who released the UK singles chart entries " Chaise Longue" and "Wet Dream" in 2022 and the UK Albums Chart topper ''Wet Leg'' in 2023. The year after that, she featured on Orlando Weeks's "Dig". Her voice has been compared with Kate Bush, Björk, and Joanna Newsom. In July 2023, Plastic Mermaids' frontman Douglas Richards made several scurrilous allegations about Teasdale and Wet Leg.

Life and career

Rhian Louise Teasdale was born in 1992 or 1993 in Formby but moved to the Isle of Wight when she was eight. Her parents were both in the merchant navy. Rhys Buchanan of '' NME'' incorrectly asserted in September 2016 that Teasdale was from Iceland, prompting her to use a December 2016 interview with 365Bristol.com to joke that this was due to the presence of "a secret tunnel that runs right through from Reykjavík to Sandown, ith theentrance where Woolworths used to be". Teasdale dropped out of her A-levels to undertake a music Btec at Platform One music college on the Isle of Wight. While there, she met future-bandmate Hester Chambers and bonded with her over a shared love of Laura Marling, Patrick Watson, and Nordic music. The pair later dropped out, with Teasdale taking posts as a waitress and then as a stylist, where she dressed characters for adverts. She also spent a summer working at Robin Hill Country Park.

Around age 16, Teasdale met Aled Chivers, the future founder of Chiverin, who later drew her to Bristol and signed her as Rhain. In 2016, she released a single, "Humdrum Drivel", which Buchanan described as "every inch charming", followed by another single, "Pavlova", which '' The Independent'' described as "stripped-back" and "featur ng ...unmistakable vocals fit with haunting piano accompaniment". She released the single "Solid Gold" in 2018, which she had developed with Plastic Mermaids, a band fronted by Douglas Richards and containing his brother Jamie Richards. She then released "Time Traveller", a song about her grandfather, which she had previously performed for Burberry Acoustic in February 2017.

On 2 September 2018, Teasdale and Chambers, having contributed guitar and piano to each other's works, were sitting on a Ferris wheel at that year's End of the Road Festival, when they decided to form Wet Leg together. The band signed to Domino Recording Company in June 2021 and released "Chaise Longue", followed by "Wet Dream" in September 2021. By the time of the latter's release, "Chaise Longue" had been streamed three million times and its video viewed over a million times. The pair then released the double-A side single "Too Late Now"/"Oh No" in November 2021, followed by "Angelica" in February 2023. In April 2023, they released " Ur Mum" and then the album ''Wet Leg'', which charted at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart the same day "Chaise Longue", "Wet Dream", "Angelica", and "Ur Mum" entered the UK Independent Singles Chart, peaking at No. 13, No. 7, No. 38, and No. 46 respectively. "Chaise Longue" and "Wet Dream" would both additionally peak at No. 74 on the UK singles chart. In June 2022, the band asserted that they had completed their second album.

In April 2024, Teasdale featured on "Dig" by Orlando Weeks, the former frontman of The Maccabees. The track featured on his album ''Loja'', which was released the following June. In an interview with ''Clash'' later that month, Weeks asserted that he had met the band when he performed before them at the Park Stage of Glastonbury Festival, and that he had previously declined an offer for him to appear in a video. He also asserted that Teasdale recorded the track in person, as there was a weekend where Weeks was in the UK and Teasdale was visiting friends in the Isle of Wight.

Artistry and personal life

Teasdale's voice has been compared to Kate Bush, Björk, and Joanna Newsom. In a December 2016 interview, Teasdale noted that she had an eclectic taste in music as a teenager, listening to various artists, including A Tribe Called Quest, Arcade Fire, The Bees, Devendra Banhart, Björk, Joni Mitchell, and Scout Niblett. She also noted she was inspired by "the attitude ..of people that have just picked up an instrument, used their ears and made something that sounds good to them". In July 2022, Teasdale announced that she had "a pretty good-looking girlfriend", and labelled herself as "queer…querying?".

In July 2023, Douglas Richards used an article in '' The Sunday Times'' to claim that he and Teasdale had dated off and on between 2013 and 2019, and that during the first United Kingdom COVID-19 lockdown, Teasdale returned to his house and would get "really furious with" him and would use "anything that she could to throw at imand make imfeel shit". He also made a number of assertions about the origin of Wet Leg and suggested that several of their songs were about him, including "Piece of Shit". For this, ''Consequence'''s Abby Jones concurred with Teasdale's assessment, while ''Far Out'' magazine's Tom Taylor' and ''Glamour'' magazine's Chloe Laws responded by accusing Richards of misogyny and ''The i'''s Rebecca Reid suggested his time would be better spent working harder and rebuilding better instead of wasting time "firing shots" at Teasdale's career. In addition, ''The Forty-Fives Jenessa Williams criticised '' The Times'' for "gleefully leaning into the narrative that any successful female artist must have been hiding her secret male songwriter all along".

Discography

EPs

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teasdale, Rhian
Musicians from the Isle of Wight
People from Formby
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
20th-century English women
21st-century British singers