{"id":52548,"date":"2015-06-24T12:49:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T12:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=52548"},"modified":"2016-09-22T14:27:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T14:27:26","slug":"profile-wet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2015\/06\/24\/profile-wet\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile: Wet"},"content":{"rendered":"

We hung out with US trio Wet and found out about their onstage anxieties and the creation of their debut album\u00a0Don’t You<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Wet\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The sun is beating down on a corner of Dalston and the three members of Wet sat before me are hiding behind sunglasses. That might be because of the surprising weather, or more likely, because they’re horrendously hungover after spending all night with a group of their fans post-gig. It seems like Kelly Zutrau, Joe Valle and Marty Sulkow may still be tipsy as we stumble through conversation while they nibble at avocado on toast but we have some laughs as a result and as is widely accepted when the sun is shining in Britain, anything goes.<\/p>\n

Having met nine years ago at college in NYC, the three of them began making music as Wet in 2012. After being requested by their label to pull their tracks from Soundcloud, the platform that originally won them so much recognition, they became something of an enigma. Their melancholia hued electronica fed with RnB beat tracks reaches out to desolate but warm place, enhanced with synth swells and percussive decoration on tracks like “Dreams”, Wet have added attraction.<\/p>\n

And so, with just five tracks readily available for listening on the internet, I come to meet the band armed with little other than a press release and the knowledge that they’re doing something different and the final product Don’t You<\/em>\u00a0is nearly here, due for release this autumn. While catching a tan, I find out about their BFF fans, how they’ve learnt to be comfortable on stage and of course, the new record.<\/p>\n

\"Wet\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I read that you were in a lot of discussion with a lot of different labels, what was that like with everyone wanting you, was it a good feeling?<\/b><\/p>\n

Kelly: I think it was a really exciting but stressful time, we went to a lot of dinners and we liked everyone we were talking to. We had no idea how we were going to make the decision.<\/p>\n

Was it easy to get signed, did you have that new band struggling phase or was it just quite smooth sailing?<\/b><\/p>\n

Kelly: No we definitely had that!<\/p>\n

Joe: Yeah, but nobody was watching that part so it just seemed easy, like we came out of nowhere.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Marty: We had that official narrative of a band where we had like a year or two of playing before we got signed, but like anyone who’s from this industry and has been playing those shitty gigs since they were 17.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I think that makes you as a band though. You all met when you were students, how did you know you all wanted to work together?<\/b><\/p>\n

Kelly: It wasn\u2019t like an intentional decision; it was really casual at first. We were all really good friends at college and then after college we were all working on music. I remember sending a demo to Marty and we started to send things back and forth through email. We didn\u2019t move back to New York to work on music at all, we just happened to move back to New York and live together and happened to have been working on these demos and just thought let\u2019s keep working on these. It wasn\u2019t like we needed to work together; it was more because we were friends and we didn\u2019t really have that much else going on at the time. It was really fun at the time.<\/p>\n

How do you think you\u2019ve all changed since you\u2019ve started? As people and as musicians?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Kelly: As musicians, I feel like we\u2019ve gone from treating it as a really casual fun, social thing to really taking it seriously and trying to make it our jobs and putting in a certain number of hours a day.<\/p>\n

Joe: I think one of the biggest changes for me has been how I think about playing live, because I used to not care about it at all and used to try and avoid it and now I realise that it\u2019s such an important part of this and being successful as a band. I\u2019ve kind of learnt to like it and get more excited about playing shows now. It\u2019s a fun part of it now rather than a dreaded thing.<\/p>\n

What is your live show like now?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Kelly: That\u2019s the part where you just can\u2019t do overnight. It takes years to get good live. Especially for people who don\u2019t consider themselves musicians. I mean, I certainty didn\u2019t think I would ever be doing music in this serious of a way and don\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve had real practice. I think we\u2019ve come so far since we\u2019ve played our first show but we\u2019re half way there, we\u2019re still really trying to improve and want to get it to a place where we all think we\u2019re really good at it.<\/p>\n

Marty: And also you\u2019re always really working out how you want to present your music to your audience.<\/p>\n

Kelly: It feels like it\u2019s a really separate thing to me to recorded music. Like there\u2019s the recording part of this and then the live part is a totally different set of skills. It\u2019s so different to try and cut a vocal in a studio and then sing well live or sing with a guitar.<\/p>\n