Ernest Weatherly Greene Jr, otherwise known as Washed Out, born on October 3, 1982 in Perry, Georgia, is an independent music producer known for creating really catchy and beautiful pieces. His genre of music can be classified as “Chillwave”, tugging on memory and nostalgia.
Washed Out began with two EP’s in 2009, starting off with High Times and Life of Leisure. These extended plays introduced the type of music that Weatherly produces and creates. There’s a lot of echoes and reverb, with usually a lot of synth that makes up Chillwave. Two years after he released his first two EP’s, he created his third in 2011 doubling as a album, Within and Without. He then began to start spending more time creating more music specializing in full fledged albums. Below is a list of his released music as of now.
- Paracosm, 2013.
- Mister Mellow, 2017.
- Purple Noon, 2020.
- Notes from a Quiet Life, 2024.
The rhythm and beats to some of Washed Out’s music sounds very similar to Vaporwave, another similar genre of music like Chillwave. Chillwave was introduced first, however Vaporwave, although being similar in structure, is actually a variation of Chillwave. Vaporwave usually messes with the reverb and bass, making music feel phenomenal and surreal, causing and emulating what feels to be both an out of body and in body experience. Recently in the newest album Notes from a Quiet Life, there’s been recent controversy against Washed Out and Paul Trillo, the editor of the video, regarding the usage of A.I. in the music video for one of the songs “The Hardest Part”. The whole entire visual music video was generated by artificial intelligence, as demonstrated by the strange and trippy transitions, the audience however is in a mixture of uncertainty and frustration. There have been many arguments about A.I. robbing the passion and stealing the creativity from creators throughout the globe. Washed Out responded to the backlash and confirmed that his music wasn’t influenced by any artificial applications. Addressing the music video however, he was not aiming to prosper from his visuals at all, he only saw A.I. as a tool and possible beacon for expressing and expanding on creativity, not to rob said creativity. Aside from the controversy, “The Hardest Part” was one of the first songs on the internet whose visualizer was constructed entirely by A.I. It was confirmed that future Washed Out videos will be human-made instead of artificially made, but Weatherly can continue to create and experiment using A.I. It is his choice. “I’m sticking by it,” he says, “We’ll still explore any new tool. I will still be open minded about it.” (Hiatt.)
Washed Out / Ernest Weatherly Greene Jr, can be described as a one man band that has created pleasant playlists of music for anyone to listen to. Using synthesizers for his music, he makes his audience’s ears experience what feels like a trip.
