BIG WETT Is The Melbourne Punk Taking Slut-Pop To New Extremes

BIG WETT isn't just another hot rising star for tastemakers to salivate over. The mysterious Melbourne electro-punk has generated heat with her humorously hedonistic songs about sex, money, drugs, partying and freaky escapades as well as high-energy shows, courting international media. Now BIG WETT is dropping a lascivious debut EP, PU$$Y. But don't expect autobiographical disclosures – BIG WETT doesn't do anything predictable. "The whole point of the project is to shock and offend but also intrigue people," she flexes.

Interviewing a pop prodigy can be like improvisational theatre, the journalist playing a game of cat and mouse. Yet BIG WETT has her own rules. After all, she masterminded those "erotic bangers" EAT MY ASS, NUMBER 1 PUSSY and BAGS (Bitches Ain't Got Shit).

Traditionally many electronic acts have cultivated mystique by concealing their identities and assuming personas, even circulating alternative narratives – the music the focus. But, potential marketing novelty aside, anonymity can be necessarily about avoiding exposure or maintaining boundaries. Indeed, as a female creative who extols sex positivity, her motto "I make songs for sluts," BIG WETT considers privacy paramount.

On Zoom, BIG WETT is playful but assured and direct, greeting with a booming "Hello!" and proclaiming the spring day in her hometown "fucking freezing." The usually secretive blonde, referring to herself as "Wetty", has dispensed with her signature shades and Barbie-pink costumes. "I was gonna wear sunglasses for this interview, but I thought, No, that's rude." Later, she reveals a tattoo of a Rottweiler paw-print.

BIG WETT has no etiological myth – her alter ego existing in the present as she embodies experience, expression and NSFW advisories. But the Millennial admits to having been an only child with a flair for performance. "I always wanted to be the centre of attention – and never had anyone to compete with," she laughs. "So that's how I ended up the way I am, I think." Probe whether BIG WETT has a musical background and she demurs. However, she openly identifies as a queer artist. "I'm pansexual – so, yeah, queer as they come."

BIG WETT as a project originated in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the bored Melburnian initially uploading demos on SoundCloud. "I got really drunk and wrote a bunch of really dumb songs in lockdown 'cause I had nothing else to do," she says. In fact, she was influenced by Kim Petras. "I just fucking love her – she's just so iconic… I've said a few times that my genre is 'slut pop', which actually she inspired by her song Slut Pop – which is one of the best songs of all time."

Ever the provocateur, BIG WETT decided to submit the raw af booty bass anthem EAT MY ASS to triple j Unearthed as it was her "most ridiculous" track. She anticipated that its explicit lyrics would be rejected, only to be surprised two weeks on. "I thought, If they don't get that, then they're just never gonna get it – and they got it! So there you go. Fucking oath!" When EAT MY ASS went "semi-viral," BIG WETT found it "hilarious," she continues. "It's all just been very unexpected – and I'm just having so much fun with it." Earlier this year, the entertainer signed to the UK-based Play It Again Sam.

Beyond that, BIG WETT isn't about exposition, her philosophy instinctive rather than intentional. "I don't wanna over-explain and I don't wanna give too many details," she stresses. "I think that the mystery is what makes BIG WETT fun."

Live, BIG WETT delivered on the hype at 2022's BIGSOUND with her X-rated cabaret – TheMusic hailing her the event's "undisputed queen" as she wielded a diamanté mic. "I basically come out and just yell at you for 40 minutes, but in a hot way," she boasts.

Soon after, BIG WETT supported Compton houser Channel Tres locally. "He's so hot," she teases. "I have such a crush on him." Witnessing the American's set prompted BIG WETT to expand hers, hiring dancers. "We do a lot less serious dancing than they do, but our dancing is legit and I just hump on stage, so it's slightly different."

In May BIG WETT visited the UK to showcase at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton – rivalling South by Southwest – and she penetrated that British reserve. "It was so good – I fucking loved it. English people are great. I love them. They're drunk all the time, like me. They like to have a good time, like me. They like to yell, like me. They're crass, like me… They just got it straight away, which was awesome – 'cause you just never know how people are gonna react!

"Some people fucking love it and some people are just so horrified. But that's kinda half the fun, right? I play a show and I'm like, Am I gonna turn this crowd around? Most of the time I do. To be fair, there's not really been any show in which at least half of the people are laughing, dancing, cheering, singing along… So I'm getting there." She brought the same energy to Splendour In The Grass.

And BIG WETT's live spectacle has been a hit with LGBTQIA+ communities. "I especially love the queers," she enthuses. "They're honestly just my favourite group of people in the whole world. No one loves [you] like the queers and no one parties like the queers – and that's a good fucking combo.

"They're just campy… I take a lot of inspiration from drag. I find queer people are just so open about being themselves, they're so unapologetic, and I really find that so inspiring."

BIG WETT likewise counts "the gals" among her fave 'wetties'. "We wanna uplift our girlies," she says. "Also we want girlies to be sexually-empowered. I want my girls to be like, 'I'm soaked – you did not make me cum…' – really reclaiming that."

BIG WETT's debut EP PU$$Y, including previously released romps like the early KING DICK, cult NUMBER 1 PUSSY and recent DONT U WANT IT ALL, is raunchy rave leaning into bass music – her sound closer to the electroclash of Peaches and Uffie than contemporary trap, let alone hyperpop. She describes it as a collection of "silly songs," largely cut in an hour or two and co-produced by Confidence Man's equally enigmatic Reggie Goodchild. "I'm not really trying to do anything," she insists. "This first EP is very ravey; it's dancey. There's also quite a lot of lyrics in there – it's a bit rappy in some songs."

A long line of transgressive female artists have defied patriarchal ideologies by promoting sexual empowerment and pleasure – several facing moral outrage while second-wave feminists disputed their agency. Rattle off names such as Betty Davis, Millie Jackson, Madonna, Adina Howard, Lil' Kim, Peaches, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Pussy Riot and Miss Blanks – and BIG WETT declares them "all absolute queens."

Though BIG WETT grew up bopping to Lil' Kim, the New Yorker countering hip-hop's prevailing hyper-masculinity with her dirty rap, and calls Cardi B's WAP (featuring Megan Thee Stallion) "gamechanging," she doesn't imagine herself as an MC. "I don't wanna put myself anywhere. I'm just existing. If people wanna compare me to [them], that's such a compliment. But I'm not setting out to do that.

"I don't wanna say which space I'm gonna fall in because, at the moment, I'm kind of straddling two genres – and I think that's really cool. I don't wanna go too pop, too rap or too dance. I wanna stay in the middle.

"The vibe and the attitude and the punkness of these women saying how they feel and how they want it – I can see the similarities. I grew up listening to that. So I've obviously taken that on board.

"I also grew up listening to a lot of male rap – [with] really derogatory language towards women. I used to sing along to that and love to sing along to that – like 'Suck my dick.' And that's so similar to what I do now. But it's just funny 'cause it's a girl saying it. It's kind of like taking the empowerment back."

Even in 2023 sex is a contentious topic – toxic masculinity and the issue of consent central to the #MeToo movement. Alas, technology has heightened collective social anxiety, and exacerbated anti-social behaviour, with much debate about the loss of third spaces for young people to connect, the gamification of dating apps, and the impact of porn. What is BIG WETT's take? "I think the key is just talking about sex more – and not in a sexualised way, you know what I mean? We shouldn't be sexualising people in general. The human body is not only a sexual being. We have different functions."

Nonetheless, BIG WETT isn't ready to tackle heavy matters. "I think, for now, my tactic is to just say 'Eat my ass, lick my pussy.' I'm trying to have fun with it. I'm not trying to overthink it." Not that she intends to be flippant. BIG WETT alludes to enduring "fucking terrible situations" in the past – and rues some "straight white guys" attending her gigs and acting "really fucking creepy." She's resolved to provide safe and inclusive spaces for abandonment. "Honestly, as a woman, it gets kinda fucking exhausting to always be the one that's championing and angry all the time about the injustices of the world. How about we just say 'Fuck it!' I just wanna think about it less – and just have a good time."

BIG WETT intuits, too, that, particularly amid global volatility, people are craving communal joy – and she offers temporary liberation. "There is a time and a place to be serious – and absolutely I can be serious," she says. "But I think, when it comes to my music, BIG WETT is about embracing being silly. It's about that escapism.

"I don't want to deal with reality when I'm dancing; when I'm at the club – I go to the club to not think about it. I wanna sing silly lyrics, I wanna dance with my friends, I wanna make out with some random dudes in the crowd, I wanna talk to someone that I have never met before and have something in common with them… I wanna just focus on the good things. I think, the more positively we speak out in the world, the energy will shift."

The pleasure-seeker is planning a WETT girl summer. Next month, she'll perform at Wollongong's Yours & Owls Festival prior to returning to the UK. Then BIG WETT is billed at Lost Paradise and Beyond The Valley, her first New Year's Eve events in Oz, notably alongside Channel Tres.

BIG WETT has further developed her carnal show, adding "more stage tricks," but is again coy on what. "I just love being on stage and looking around," she laughs. "You can always tell the people that are seeing it for the first time 'cause their jaw is on the floor. They're looking around at everyone like, 'Is this for real?' I really love seeing that. I just find it so comical. Actually, sometimes I'm so busy looking in the crowd at everyone's reactions, I'll miss my cue or fuck up!"

BIG WETT AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Friday, November 10 - The Zoo, Meanjin/Brisbane

Saturday, November 11 - Factory Theatre, Eora/Sydney

Saturday, November 25 - Jack Rabbit Slims, Boorloo/Perth

Friday, December 1 - Max Watts, Naarm/Melbourne

Tickets are on sale now.