Washed Out's paraphernalia-pop album "Mister Mellow" is a pearly-hued trip through the flotsam and tchotchkes of the modern millennial's media mirrors, take the "Hard To Say Goodbye" and don't tell me you haven't heard that before Ubering through a wet Manchester except you haven't. Its a basement bedroom collection of VHS tapes and a box full of clocks tick tocking out a slow dance rhythm, just a reminder that every time you look up from the screen the world has passed you by. This album tony moronies on the head of the pin that sticks right in that gap, that gap between the now and the was, between the here and the missed. Washed Out, (aka Ernst Greene) reached out to his want list to ask for visual contributions. The result is a kaleidoscopic collaboration of styles and designs. The folks involved are listed below the video.
Eric Coleman - "Title Card"
L.A. born artist Eric Coleman began his career as a freelance photo assistant for some of the most acclaimed photographers of our time such as Rankin, Peter Lindhberg, Melodie Mcdaniel, Steve Heitt, and Robert Erdman. He's worked in fine art, photojournalism, fashion, landscape and music photography, and his photography has been published in magazines from The Fader to Teen Vogue, and many more.
Winston Hacking - "Burn Out Blues"
A Canadian filmmaker and collage artist represented by Brainfeeder Films, a division of Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder music label, Winston Hacking uses techniques that masquerade as animation in an attempt to deceive the viewer's eyes. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Vice, Rolling Stone, Adult Swim, and Vimeo Staff Picks.
RuffMercy - "Time Off", "Zonked"
Ruffmercy is a Bristol-based animator and video director whose instantly recognizable animations have been used for videos for smaller indie artists, as well as hip-hop superstars Danny Brown and Pusha T, dance duo Disclosure and electronic musicians such as Lone.
Drew Tyndell - "Floating By"
Drew Tyndell is part of Computer Team, a small creative studio in Portland, Oregon that specialises in 2D hand-drawn and stop motion animation. "When making the video I was mainly responding to the song, and how it's made up of chopped up/cut up sections that all flow together," Drew says, "I wanted to go the same route with the animation, designing a mashup of scenes inspired by the lyrics and the feel of the song. The video starts out very methodical, illustrating the theme of routine and the boringness of everyday life. Eventually it gets weirder and weirder - bright colors take over and the video goes from routine to daydreaming to escaping the everyday grind."
Ernest Greene aka Washed Out - "I've Been Daydreaming My Entire Life"
Speaking about his contribution to the visual album, Greene says, "My parents had recently moved out of my childhood home and they were pulling out tons of boxes of old photos. It's funny how all of that stuff lives on hard drives now - but I really loved how distressed a lot of the photos looked and felt - with lots of dust and folds - and I made sure to keep all of that as I scanned-in each photo. I've always been a bit of a loner and have always felt slightly "apart" from everything thats going on around me. That's sort of what the video and song represent for me - never really fitting in."
Jonathan Hodgson - "Hard to Say Goodbye"
Jonathan Hodgson is an internationally renowned, BAFTA winning animation director based in London. He combines teaching with animated filmmaking through his own production company Hodgson Film. He was animation director of Wonderland: The Trouble with Love and Sex, the first full-length animated documentary broadcast on British TV, and has also created animated documentaries Mostafaei for Amnesty International's End the Death Penalty campaign, Guantanamo Bay: The Hunger Strikes for Guardian Films, and What Comes After Religion, a short film collaboration with Alain de Botton.
Daniel Brereton and Morph Animation - "Down and Out"
Daniel Brereton is a director based in London. He has directed videos for artists including Metronomy, Connan Mockasin, Late of the Pier, Django Django, and Kindness, in addition to commercial work for brands.
Sophia Bennett Holmes - "Instant Calm"
Sophia explains the idea behind her video: "In this animation, I was exploring the feeling of dancing, but for no audience, dancing for yourself. The character goes in and out of the literal world, her clay body moving in animated "slow motion."
Harvey Benschoter - "Get Lost"
Oof Collective member Harvey Benschoter is best known for short-form experimental animation. First introduced to psychedelic culture through the likes of Dead Milkmen, Butthole Surfers and Frank Zappa, his work often explores the unintentional psychedelia of mainstream culture. His visual contribution to "Get Lost" resembles the style of Turkey, his critically-acclaimed short that earned him a Vimeo Staff Pick upon its release in 2014. Past artist collaborations include his video for Lightning Bolt's "Vile House," which won the 2007 Chicago Underground Film Festival in the category Best Music Video.
Parallel Teeth - "Easy Does It"
Parallel Teeth is the alias of Robert Wallace; Director, animator and graphic artist. Originally from New Zealand, he now works and lives in East London. His playful style spans poppy live action, hypnotic 2D animation, puppetry, and colourful illustration, and he has worked across a range of media, including music videos, commercials, festival identities, album artwork, installation projections, 360 videos, wall murals and prints. He was also selected by the the Art Directors Club for the Young Gun award and won the Music Video category in the Motionographer Motion Awards.
Jason Miller - "Million Miles Away"
Jason Miller leads the multiple Emmy-nominated Shrine Production team, working with artists such as Diplo and Riff Raff and brands like Nike and Audi on commercials, documentaries, music videos, and live-concert pieces. Miller has known Greene since 2010, when the Washed Out project was in its infancy. "It's been great as a fan and a friend to witness the project grow and morph into so many different iterations. We wanted the video for "Million Miles Away" to play off of 90s skate videos and to be gritty, tripped out, and lightly feature Ernest as well. We shot in downtown LA -- such a loaded location and one of those places that's hard to wrap your head around all of the good and bad wrapped up into five square miles."