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A s a small-town, starry-eyed couple from Perry looking toward their collective future, high school sweethearts Blair and Ernest Greene didn't plan for music to be a part of their future. It was always part of their younger lives – piano lessons, guitar-playing, church choir and school chorus – but both Blair and Ernest never dreamed of musical careers. In fact, the pair went off to University of Georgia and studied subjects completely unrelated to music. "I never considered music more than just a hobby," recalled Ernest, who was on a career track to be a librarian. "I would jam with my friends some in high school, but it wasn't until college at UGA that I started writing my own songs." That's when Ernest got his first "real" computer and began using software to make music with a more electronic vibe. "The great thing about software recording is that you can do everything completely on your own. With multi- tracking, I could play each part and start to layer fully realized songs," he said. Though Ernest spent "tons of time" making songs, it was still just a pastime. "It wasn't until I was in graduate school years later that I became friends with another musician who was just starting to get a lot of media attention," he said. "That friend eventually passed my music along to some people in the industry, which led to my first record release." The couple were married around this time, said Blair, and concurrently Ernest's musical moniker – "Washed Out" – was being picked up by notable alternative music websites, blogs, and the newest form of social media: MySpace. The same week in 2009 that they were married, Ernest's first Washed Out show was a sell-out in New York City and subsequently covered by the New York Times. "Things really took off after that show," Blair said. "The rest is history – and we've never looked back." In 2010, Washed Out went on tour, and a career in music was set in stone. At first, Blair recalled, Ernest was a one-man show. "He did everything on the music side by himself, and I handled bookings, scheduling, merchandise sales and more," she said. "We were both so busy, we could barely keep our heads above water." Ernest signed with a booking agent and a small record label, soon realizing the importance of having a manager, business manager and the many other key players in the music industry. Blair remembered the euphoria the couple experienced as big names in the industry started contacting them directly. "Would you believe Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork emailed Ernest directly asking to post one of his songs on his website? And Fred Armisen emailed him to pitch using 'Feel it All Around' as the theme song for Portlandia, a television comedy that aired for eight seasons from 2011 – 2018," she said. "We had a hard time believing these people were actually who they said they were when we received their emails." Quite accidentally, industry giants were hailing Ernest as a pioneer of a new musical genre called "Chillwave." "This definitely wasn't planned," Ernest said about being named a musical innovator. "I wasn't trying to please anyone but myself when I started on this musical journey. In fact, because I was largely self-taught, many idiosyncrasies in my work ultimately made me stand out," he admitted. It was probably the marriage of these circumstances that led to the musical innovations for which he is now known. Critics and the music industry as a whole have raved about Washed Out's signature style, calling Ernest's music "plush" and "an immersion in introspective sonic bliss." Ernest, now frontman for Washed Out, assembled a full band for the first time as he began touring, asking Blair to play keyboards with the group, a role she took on for several years. Those were heady days, she recalled. "We saw the world with tired eyes but full hearts. I wouldn't trade it for anything." 36 maconmagazine.com | JUNE/JULY 2022