DIY music nerd isn't washed up . . . he's washed out

You can label Ernest Greene's music 'chillwave' or 'glow-fi', but it's earning plaudits either way. It's a decent result after stumbling through the past few years, he tells TONY CLAYTON-LEA

THE REVENGE of the nerds must be very sweet, indeed, if the success of Washed Out is anything to go by. It is not so much a cottage industry as a basement pastime: Atlanta-based songwriter and producer Ernest Greene first came to notice over two years ago when, at the age of 26 and living with his parents in rural Georgia, he uploaded a batch of songs onto his MySpace page.

Expecting nothing to happen, Greene sat back, relaxed, and went about his job as a university librarian.

To hear him say that he never actively pursued putting his music “out there” is to induce a tut-tut not only at Greene’s essentially slacker mentality, it also makes you wonder how many others of his ilk are hiding away in similar bunkers with similar skillsets and amazing songs.

“I know friends who would send out demos and stuff like that, but me?” ponders Greene, “well, I dunno, I guess I wasn’t that confident enough in the songs. Just never pursued it. So, you know, thanks MySpace!”

Now signed to major indie Sub Pop, Washed Out's debut for the label, Within and Without, has been picking up all manner of plaudits for its mix of faux-orchestral arrangements, idyllic tunes and woozy textures.

Greene is aware that the kind of DIY music he's making in his digital woodshed is loaded down with achingly hip regard. While grounded folk such as you and I might be inclined to go for either "chillwave" or "glow-fi" as a description (both suitably onomatopoeic), you can safely bet that someone else will classify it as "hypnagogic pop" (that'd be the sleepy bloke from The Wiremagazine, then). Greene says he isn't bothered any which way.

“It wasn’t that I was ever setting out deliberately to make that sort of music. I think the album is connected to it, but also slightly removed from it. Ultimately, I want to make a different record each time, and am less about making a certain type that would fit into a certain genre.”

And what about the influence of the music’s blueprint act, My Bloody Valentine – their pioneering traces of push ’n’ pull, dreamy/dissonant melody is all over the chillwave/glow-fi music scene.

“Oh, I’m a big fan.” Greene becomes almost enthusiastic when talking about the Dublin band. “I would admit that my vocal style is influenced by the way they sound, the effects and such like. The most important thing with them is that the melodies and the general feeling – not necessarily the lyrics – should sound right. It’s more abstract, I suppose, and I definitely took some of that sensibility. The whole fidelity issue is also important for me, except I like to rough things up a bit, which is just my reaction to the super-glossy, Pro Tools records. It’s so easy now to make a really clean recording, but for me that’s somehow too smooth, too perfect. My idea with Washed Out was to flip that approach on its head.”

One gets the impression that if, by some strange twist of fate, Greene’s moderate success ended tomorrow, it wouldn’t matter to him. At this stage, we’re not sure if his lack of ambition is more of a puzzle than his abundance of talent. He says that he has already accomplished and experienced enough to be content for a long time and, as if by name as by nature, we believe him.

“My wildest dream was to have a record out in stores; everything after that, I thought, would have been icing on the cake. I certainly feel lucky for all of this to have worked out, because I feel I’ve stumbled through the past five or six years, not having had much of a plan.

“Through this album I’ve been able to travel to places I’d never have had the money for, to do shows, to have met some music idols, and stood on equal ground as them. That’s an amazing feeling.”

Easy Listening: Three to chill to

Three more 2011 chillwave acts you need to listen to:

I Break Horses

Based around the Swedish duo of Fredrick Balck and Maria Lindén, the music here most closely references the distorted, droopy-eyed slo-mo rhythms blueprinted 20 years ago by Irish band My Bloody Valentine.

Recommended listening: Hearts, Bella Union

War On Drugs

This Philadelphia band achieves something one wouldn’t necessarily have expected: the blending of Americana icons (Springsteen, Dylan, Petty) with gauzy synthesizer drones and teardrop-rolling guitar solos.

Recommended listening: Slave Ambient, Secretly Canadian

Seapony

Oklahoma-via-Seattle trio that specialises in simplistic (a crucial element of this genre) but almost unbearably lovely late-summer/early-autumn music.

Recommended listening: Go With Me, Hardly Art Records

It’s so easy now to make a really clean recording, but for me that’s somehow too smooth, too perfect

Washed Out's debut album, Within and Without, is on release through Weird World Records/Domino