Lessons in “finding your voice” taken from the rise of Wet Leg
In an interview, when the author David Keenan was asked about his opinion on books about the creative process, he was blunt in his response. “I think it’s like voodoo. I mean, I don’t allow myself to even listen to this shit anymore. I feel like it’s a curse on your brain if you start to listen to this kind of stuff.”
He went on to talk about the problem many creatives have: they remove fun from the creative process. People don’t engage with an art form for any reason other than they enjoy it, so the process of creating said art should be similar. “I think there’s only one rule for writing and that is never ever pay attention to rules about writing. That’s the one rule. The one fucking rule. Never ever do it, man.”
So, what was Keenan’s solution? “Write and write again and write again and write again and write hopelessly, write absolutely hopelessly, with no hope of having a future whatsoever,” he said, “if you write hopelessly and continue to do it, I do believe you will get to your own voice and become a writer.”
Finding your voice as a creative is one of the most challenging things artistic people can do. It’s not as easy as people think, as it is tough to engage with your creative art form and still view it through the fun lens with which you consume said art. It is taken to a different level when you make it yourself, one where you second-guess yourself, worry about the opinion of others and begin taking your engagement with the art far too seriously.
Two people who could attest to the toxic nature of creativity are the members of Wet Leg. Throughout their solo careers, they struggled to find any kind of momentum as their respective work fell on deaf ears. It turns out that the best way around this issue was to engage with the fun side of music. As Keenan said, they needed a hopeless element to the creative process, one that said, “So long as we’re having fun, the success of the music doesn’t matter.”
Rhian Teasdale spoke about this breakthrough moment, which all started when they decided on the band’s name. She explained that calling the musical outfit ‘Wet Leg’ was “A reminder not to take ourselves too seriously because we’re in a band called Wet Leg.”
She continued, “I was like, ‘Hester, I really want to start a band where we play guitars’.” Before that, the two had been playing music separately for around ten years, not getting anywhere with what they were making. “Hester was like, ‘OK then, let’s start a band where we both play guitars’. And I was like, ‘But Hester, I don’t play guitar’.” She was limited to playing the keyboard while making music as a solo artist. “And Hester was like, ‘That doesn’t matter – you soon will!’”
Making music became less about being successful and more about learning guitar and having fun with a friend, which resonated in their sound. People go to their gigs dressed up with the intention of having fun because that’s the feeling embedded within their music. The moment the band started enjoying making music, finding their tone of voice came quickly. Absolutely, hopelessly.
