Some people just get it right. Like James Murphy or David Simon: smart-arsed fuckers who you can’t help but love for their enviable ability to be on the money just about all the time. Thankfully for the fallible and imperfect among us, they’re a rare breed, but now you can add Ernest Greene (AKA Washed Out) to that heady pantheon of people to be jealous of.
It’s unclear what was imagined first – the band name, the music, or the artwork – but the entire Washed Out aesthetic coheres effortlessly to form a beautiful dream wave of eternal youth and endless Sunday afternoons. Nothing feels like an after thought, but equally, it doesn’t feel overly calculated either, blurred just enough around the edges to comfort like sunshine through a window. It’s fitting, then, that when we asked Ernest to make a mixtape based around his recent marriage, he instead chose to pop out a 20 minute soporific beauty designed to evoke one long continuous dream. Contrary, but yes, you guessed it, perfectly conceived.
There’s not one Washed Out track here, but it couldn’t have been put together by anyone else. Even the sepia tinged artwork (designed by Mark Weaver) looks like it was put in the wash 35 years ago with a copy of The Interpretation of Dreams. If only all of my dreams sounded like this instead of being chased around the forests of Bergen by Mayhem, I wouldn’t ever want to wake up, as opposed to lying in a cold sweat every night fearing sleep like Freddie really exists. Thanks, Ernest.
DOWNLOAD: THE FANTASTIC SYMPHONY (Washed Out_Platform_Mix)
Hi Ernest, I hear you just got married – how was that? Did you go for the full-on traditional white wedding, or was it a shotgun affair with an Elvis priest?
It was pretty traditional, with pretty much everyone from the small town I grew up in.
What’s your abiding memory of family weddings? I always think of punch ups, kids dancing and all night hotel bars…
Our experience was pretty close to that. Actually, right on the money. All my friends stayed at this really small hotel in town. And literally drank the bar dry.
Seems like a lot of the music you make has a hazy teenage nostalgia to it, kind of like the Wonder Years. Would you say you’re nostalgic?
I’ve been making music the same way for so long that there is rarely any concrete thought involved. That’s what I really enjoy about it; getting lost in the work. My favorite music has a sentimental or romantic touch to it, so the nostalgic vibe comes about naturally.
And speaking of which, how did you put the mix together?
I was reading about Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and felt really inspired. I’ve never heard the actual symphony, but the mix I made was how I imagined it to be. Perhaps a more modern version?
The mix is meant to narrate different episodes of one continuous dream. My dreams have a life-like quality to them, but are always skewed in really subtle ways. That is the way I think of most of these songs.
It’s been a good year for Washed Out. What have you got planned for 2010, other than homemaking…?
I plan on spending the rest of the year finishing up some new songs. Then, hopefully, I’ll be able to travel a bit and play shows.
TRACKLISTING:
1. Arch M – “Bedrm Band at Caf NVA (edit)”
2. The Samps – “Magnetic Thys”
3. Samiyam – “Wrap Up”
4. Toro Y Moi – “Brubek”
5. Koushik – “Homage”
6. Osborne – “Afrika (Bullion Remix)”
7. Iasos – “Inter-Dimentional Music”
8. Jack Nitzsche – “Untitled (edit)”
9. The Khalsa String Band – “Song of Bliss”
