Since releasing its debut album, Don’t You, back in January, Wet has been on the road: at Williamsburg venue Baby’s All Right (where the band performed for the Bernie Sanders fundraiser Brooklyn is Berning), across coasts with opening support from cellist Kelsey Lu, and, more recently, overseas in Europe. Somewhere along the way, the buzzy Brooklyn trio stopped off at VSCO’s New York City studio to film a Venue Project session — an intimate live performance of Don’t You cuts. Today, i-D shares a rich new take on “Body,” as well as the band’s thoughts on modern pop music’s dynamic landscape.
“Who was it that thought of the label aspirational pop?” multi instrumentalist and producer Joe Valle asks his bandmates, guitarist Marty Sulkow and vocalist Kelly Zutrau, who responds, “That’s beautiful!” “It seems very contemporary,” Valle continues, “that pop has come into the same conversation as indie music.” And he’s right; we’re living in an exciting moment of the formerly bubble gum genre’s development. Chairlift siren Caroline Polachek has written with Beyonce; Dev Hynes has been on the boards for Carly Rae Jepsen. In 2016, pop is mutating its one dimensional instant gratification reputation into something more meaty; its most alluring architects are drawing from diverse, unexpected elements to craft no-less infectious tracks. Wet’s own sound is a blend of electro pop, R&B, country, and a little hip-hop.
The VSCO session demonstrates how textured Wet’s tracks truly become when performed live. Sulkow’s lightly harmonic guitar riffs dance between Valle’s deep basslines. Though “Body’s” lyrics are immensely vulnerable, Zutrau’s vocals are strong and clear. And the addition of live drummer Gabe Smith brings the song to a far fuller place. “A really important thing to us is making music that is accessible and is open to as many people as possible,” Zutrau says.
Credits
Text Emily Manning
Photography courtesy Clement Pascal