Ernest Weatherly Greene Jr. (born October 3, 1982), known professionally as Washed Out, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Commonly associated with the

chillwave Chillwave (originally considered synonymous with glo-fi and hypnagogic pop) is a music microgenre that emerged in the late 2000s. It is characterized by evoking the popular music of the late 1970s and early 1980s while engaging with notions of ...

genre in the 2010s, ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' dubbed him "the godfather of chillwave".

Life and career

Ernest Weatherly Greene Jr. was born on October 3, 1982, in

Perry, Georgia Perry is a city in Houston County, Georgia, Houston and Peach County, Georgia, Peach counties in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat of Houston County. The population was 13,839 at the 2010 census, up from 9,60 ...

, and currently lives in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. After earning an undergraduate degree from the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

, he obtained a Master of Library and Information Science degree but was unable to find a job as a librarian. Greene moved back in with his parents and started producing songs in his bedroom studio, as well as working on recordings of dance music with Bedroom, a local band. During 2008 he recorded lo-fi rock music under the name Lee Weather, but the following summer he found more success with his new project, Washed Out. He was soon discovered by a number of influential music bloggers after they found his music on his

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

page. His first recordings have been described as "drowsy, distorted, dance pop-influenced tracks that brought to mind Neon Indian and Memory Tapes". Greene's first two

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

s were released in August and September 2009. He held his debut New York City performance (his second live show ever) at Santos Party House. He has since performed at the 2010

Pitchfork Music Festival Pitchfork Music Festival was an annual music festival in Union Park (Chicago), Union Park in Chicago, Illinois, organized by the online magazine ''Pitchfork (website), Pitchfork.'' Starting in 2011, the festival announced a branch staged in Paris ...

and his song " Feel It All Around" is used as the opening theme for the television series '' Portlandia''. In April 2011 it was announced that he had been signed to

Sub Pop Sub Pop is an independent record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana (band), Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the gru ...

. His debut, '' Within and Without'', then released on July 12, 2011. The album peaked at #26 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and #89 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. He was chosen by Battles to perform at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival that they co-curated in December 2011 in

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and close to the Exmoor National Park. T ...

, England. Washed Out's second album, ''

Paracosm A paracosm is a detailed imaginary world thought generally to originate in childhood. The creator of a paracosm has a complex and deeply felt relationship with this subjective universe, which may incorporate real-world or imaginary characters a ...

'', was released on August 13, 2013. The first single was "It All Feels Right", followed by "Don't Give Up". The same year, "New Theory" from '' Life of Leisure'' featured in-background on a scene from ''

The Spectacular Now ''The Spectacular Now'' is a 2013 American coming-of-age romantic drama film directed by James Ponsoldt, from a screenplay written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Tim Tharp. It stars Mile ...

''. In May 2014, he was reporting to be working on a third studio album, but he stated, "I'm figuring out the next step." On May 19, Washed Out announced dates for his "Get Lost" tour, taking place in July 2017. Subsequently, he released his third studio album, '' Mister Mellow'', on June 30, 2017. The album was produced at

Stones Throw Records Stones Throw Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. Under the direction of founder Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw has released music ranging from hip hop to experimental psychedelic rock. ''LA Weekly'' ...

with the help of Cole M.G.N. In April 2018, Washed Out released a new single, "Face Up" as part of

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as dult swimand s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

's Singles Series. The single was later included on his fourth album, ''

Purple Noon ''Purple Noon'' (; ; also known as ''Full Sun'', ''Blazing Sun'', ''Lust for Evil'', and ''Talented Mr. Ripley'') is a 1960 crime thriller film starring Alain Delon (in his first major role), alongside Marie Laforêt and Maurice Ronet; Romy Schn ...

'' (2020). In April 2020, Washed Out released a new single, "Too Late". On June 30, 2020, Washed Out announced that a new album called ''Purple Noon'' would be released on August 7, 2020. He also released a new single, "Time to Walk Away". During the Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, Washed Out performed his music video for the song "Waking Up" in one take at Bandera, Texas. The performance was posted to his YouTube channel two months after the eclipse. In May 2024, Washed Out announced his fifth studio album, ''Notes from a Quiet Life'', and released its first single, "The Hardest Part", the video of which was made with

OpenAI OpenAI, Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) organization founded in December 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. It aims to develop "safe and beneficial" artificial general intelligence (AGI), which it defines ...

's Sora.

Musical style

Washed Out's style has been identified with the

movement. He has said

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

influences the way he writes songs.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

Notes

Guest appearances

References

External links

*
Q&A with Washed Out (a.k.a. Ernest Greene)
The Blue Indian, September 1, 2009
Interview with Ernest Greene, August 2010Washed out signs with Sub Pop, April 2011

Washed Out
at

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Washed Out 1982 births Living people 21st-century American singer-songwriters American male singer-songwriters American synth-pop musicians Chillwave musicians Mexican Summer artists People from Perry, Georgia Record producers from Georgia (U.S. state) Sub Pop artists University of Georgia alumni University of South Carolina alumni Dream pop musicians 21st-century American male singers Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)