BIG WETT and I are debating about fuckboys.
It’s about two hours after the official part of our interview is over and we’re sat around her dining room table having just cracked open a 10-pack of Cruisers. Voice recording is off and her border collie sits at our feet, a chew toy hanging from its mouth.
“Wait,” she says, “I want you to record this.” She leans forward, opens up my voice memo app and says, “Uh hi, it’s BIG WETT. We’re just talking off the record right now. But I just want to say – fuckboys should be able to fuck. It’s literally in your job description. I don’t care what you do outside of work, but your work with me, as my employee, should be to fuck me really good, make me cum and then the rest is negotiable in the contract. Okay, bye.”
This is just the way of BIG WETT – an obscenity-filled personality often seen onstage swinging 12-inch dildos from her mouth, doing the splits in mini pink tutus while singing, “Number one pussy in the club.” Her shows – which have involved sets at most of Australia’s largest festivals including Splendour in the Grass, Pitch Music & Arts, and Meredith – are slutty, horny, and tailor-made for the femmes and queers. And if you think that makes her one dimensional, you probably don’t get it.
Throughout the afternoon, I learn that there’s a sweet dichotomy of BIG WETT: she’s as deliciously vulgar as she is deeply intelligent. At one point we gush over Jennifer Coolidge who follows the mantra of, “It takes a smart person to act dumb.” (Which she’s proven in myriad hilarious acting roles.) Conversations follow about Gross National Happiness Indexes, the rise in prescribed opioid addictions, thirsty reply guys in DMs (more on that later), universal basic income, and, yes, guys eating ass.
What we’re really here to talk about, though, is BIG WETT and her debut EP, PU$$Y.
Our original plan was to meet at Monty’s, a bar that attracts Melbourne’s op-shop attired Northsiders, but it’s closed. We settle for the pokie-lined sports bar, known fondly to most as the Parky. BIG WETT comes strutting across the road in a large fur coat, mini skirt, and an oversized Biggie t-shirt. Her tooth gems glisten as she flashes a smile and her signature blonde ponytails bob with each step.
“How serious do you want this interview to be?” is wisely the first thing I ask. “I’m more funny than I am serious,” she replies.
Despite that, the first thing we talk about is the hyper-religious Christian high school we both, incidentally, attended. It provides a moment of instant connection.
“That’s the only serious thing I like talking about – the controversy of being Christian,” she tells me, “Do you remember in year 10 when they took us to the auditorium and had that sex ed chat? (I nod) The whole time it was like, ‘abstinence, abstinence, abstinence,’ and then they gave everyone a form that says ‘I won’t have sex before marriage.’ I refused to sign it and then I got detention.”
In high school, BIG WETT was an overachiever. She had a strict step-dad, a supportive mum who did a PhD in the effects of porn, was an only child (which she says was sometimes lonely), and was also, maybe not surprisingly, incredibly naughty. “My whole life people have been like, ‘woah you’re crazy, you should be careful,’” she laughs. “Basically I just found myself in a bunch of ridiculous situations.”
She’d sneak out to smoke weed with people four years older, was constantly in trouble at school, and her first sexual experience was a threesome. While it might sound like some Skins-esque coming-of-age storyline, it’s an understandable path for those of us whose early explorations of the world were tainted by detentions prompted by centimetre-too-short skirts or failures to sign cult-like contracts that promised virginity to God.
It’s understandable why they’re the moments that shaped BIG WETT, and also pushed her to discover her own pansexuality and preferences. “So I just started being this character,” she says, “and it’s praised now. I just have such confidence in how I present myself physically.” The most humorous manifestation of that can be seen in her video for “G-SPOT” where she dresses as a nun who thrusts to the beat of the track (watch below).
“When we were growing up sex was like, if you were thinking of it, you were a bad person,” she continues. “That’s what makes issues around sex, because you have shame around it; what makes healthy sexual relationships is talking about it openly.”
In 2021, BIG WETT – with the help of her friend and producer Reggie Goodchild from the eclectic duo Confidence Man (who also produced this EP) – released her first few songs on SoundCloud including the abruptly-titled “Eat My Ass”. It generated immediate buzz for its outspoken display of unquestioning female sexuality, and she’s continued in the same vein ever since.
“I just find feelings really lame. Women and queers have had feelings for so long and now we’re in this era where it’s like, ‘Omg, therapy, feelings,’ and you know who’s championing it the most? Straight white guys,” she says with a sigh, “I’ve been pandering to them for too long – it’s my turn.”
What’s resulted are a gaggle of fans known as her “wetties”, people who she’s helped feel more comfortable in their own skin, feel more seen, and who write messages like, ‘We love you,’ ‘Superstar,’ and ‘How good is being a wettie?’ on her Instagram posts.
It’s at this moment her phone pings and BIG WETT’s eyes light up. “My DMs are actually cooked,” she insists. “These guys… they’re so silly.” She pauses, opening Instagram. “Write this down – ‘Interview break to flirt with someone on the internet.'”
While at Splendour in the Grass – where we met for the first time – I had asked for her craziest fan moment. She relayed the story of the first-ever fan, a Russian lad now living in Melbourne, who had asked to eat her ass. By no surprise, he had seen the video and was now asking whether she wanted to have a quiet movie date night.
“Is that what happens when you get one taste of my asshole,” she asks, “you want to marry me?”
But the attention isn’t always as entertaining, she confesses later. When a woman puts her sexuality on the line, the losers of the world decide it’s an easy invitation to sexualise and demean them, both in real life and on the internet.
“I wanted straight white guys banned from my shows,” she tells me. “They were making everyone feel uncomfortable. But if you alienate them, you’re stopping the ability to educate. So, we have to include them, but that’s why I hate fuck them.”
BIG WETT’s debut EP aims to encapsulate the same unrepentant energy. Merging the zeitgeist and sound of 90’s raves with the more modern influence of Kim Petras, PU$$Y speaks to the allure of the uninhibited fun and confidence that comes with being sexually free.
“I just want it to be such an escape from anything serious,” she says of her EP. “If you’re feeling shit, just don’t think about it for 10 minutes. There’s a time and a place to have your feelings and be serious, but sometimes you just don’t fucking want to do it.”
For BIG WETT, the track “NUMBER 1 PUSSY” speaks to this best. “It’s like the same feeling when you go to a five-star restaurant. It might taste like shit, but you’re like, ‘Oh my god. This is such a fancy experience.’ It’s so divine, the vibe is right. Your pussy’s delicious. Say it out loud. Sing it with confidence.”
This attitude sits well with a new generation of femme artists reclaiming their own confidence and power through art and music, a wave that Big Wett is right at the forefront of in Australia.
A our Cruiser-fuelled discussion wraps up, BIG WETT has two important things on her mind: the impending release of her debut EP, and the problem of finding genuinely good sex since her burgeoning fame left mediocre men cowering in her shadow.
“This is a new problem that I‘m encountering now,” she laughs. “Men are really intimidated by a strong female personality – either guys can’t get it up ’cause they’re nervous or they come too quick because they’re excited. I’ve ruined my game because guys are so scared of me now.”
“And I’m really struggling to get a good root. Write that down,” she adds.
BIG WETT’s PU$$Y is out now.
Big Wett 2023 Australian Tour
More information available via untitledgroup.com.au
November 10th
The Zoo, Brisbane, QLD
November 11th
Factory Theatre, Sydney, NSW
December 1st
Max Watts, Melbourne, VIC
