Ernest Greene’s life has changed quite a lot since 2009. Posting a handful of demos online from a bedroom in his parent’s house in Perry, Georgia caused waves of excitement across the indie blogosphere, and he was soon being championed as the posterboy of the then emergent genre ‘chillwave’, propelling him into the limelight. Just months after posting an initial set of tracks online and subsequently producing two EPs in quick succession after unrelenting demand for new music, Ernest was embarking upon his first ever Washed Out show, in New York, which was ‘sold out, slam-full of people – and there was definitely a kind of stage-fright for me’. Being catapulted into the fore wasn’t the easiest of transitions to make for Greene; he explains that ‘there was kind of a dual feeling of being really excited to have people talking about music and coming out to the shows but also feeling some pressure. It’s been a trial by fire, learning on the go.’
Since his initial shows, Greene has gained the support of a band for live performances which comprises Washed Out’s current line-up, ‘I tried playing shows by myself but I wasn’t very happy with it. I’m more familiar with live music. I think it’s much more entertaining for an audience to have five or six people up on stage performing than just me… singing and all that.’ However, Washed Out’s new formation doesn’t distract from Greene’s creative primacy and ambitions, or even alter the lone bedroom producer perspective from which he creates his music. ‘If it takes 50 tracks to do the song, I’ll do 50 tracks, then figure out how to play it live after the fact. It’s in the back of my head when I’m writing, thinking about the different guys in the band. But I feel like my best work is completely outside that way of thinking.’
Attempting to label Washed Out’s music isn’t particularly easy, though self-effacing parody blog Hipster Runoff saved music journalists from arduous long-winded descriptions by terming the simple phrase ‘chillwave’ to describe the genre which Washed Out is now synonymous with. The multi-layered complexity of understated dance music married with elements of revivalism to create the deeply introspective soundscapes of 2011’s masterful Within and Without is surely not so easily defined. ‘I can say that I never aspire to make chillwave music, that’s for sure. I understand vaguely what it is and definitely that the music I was doing a couple years ago fits in with what the genre was about – this kind of lo-fi dance music that has a lot of obvious 80s references, that’s still very pop. Whether or not the music I’m currently doing or not is beyond me and I really try not to even think about it in those terms.’ Although perhaps there are valid comparisons to be made between bands also labelled ‘chillwave’, such as Neon Indian and Toro Y Moi, ‘It’s probably true that we share similar influences. We’re all around the same age and have grown up in similar situations, either listening to similar music or working with the same software, so maybe it’s not entirely unfair. There’s no doubt that that type of music has progressed over the last couple of years and has gone in various different directions – which is only natural.’
Escaping being confined to being defined by chillwave alone shouldn’t be particularly difficult for Greene; as he admits that ‘I come from a sampling background’, citing DJ Shadow’s Entroducing as particularly influential due to ‘the heavy psychedelic weight he has to his music’. Another large influence, clearly informing Washed Out’s hazy and introspective aesthetic, Greene explains is ‘Boards of Canada, who do a little bit of sampling, but the thing that I really loved and took a lot of ideas from is like how their records feel very organic. I hate saying ‘vintage’ sounding but there’s almost the songs decaying like an old cassette tape, which I’ve definitely taken ideas from.’ Influences from 80s synth-pop form a key part of Washed Out’s constructions, but Greene is quick to differentiate this from ‘just pure revivalism’. ‘I definitely don’t want to just rehash ideas. In the best cases, revivalist music is taking ideas from two different generations or two different styles of music and bringing it together, where it’s creating something new. It’s definitely influenced by the past, but not just repeating what bands were doing back then.’
Further metamorphosis is on the horizon for Washed Out, perhaps not in terms of how they line up, but an evolution in their sound. Ernest explains that he creates music and progresses by ‘just kind of challenging myself to do things I’ve never really done before. I think a lot of the time that happens in a very unconscious way and whether it’s a mistake that I stumble upon or via experimenting, something that’s unfamiliar feels to me the best way to go.’ The difficulty in preserving the sound cultivated and grown over the past two years whilst allowing this level of experimentation is one certainly noted by Ernest Greene and the direction he chooses to take Washed Out in is as yet undetermined; ‘I think there is such a thing as a sound I’ve created and I want to continue to honour that but do different things with it. I never want to repeat myself – it sounds easy, but is quite difficult, having that attachment to the past but making bold steps towards the future.’
Rishi Modha 