Jon (bass) and Sam (guitar) met at NYU in the fall of their freshman year (2012) and promptly began playing along to the entire Ween discography as a duo, choosing bedroom jams with self-taught instruments over Washington Square busking. After meeting Evan (drums) and Aram (guitar), the now-complete outfit branched out to other oddities like Mac Demarco and Thee Oh Sees as well as classics like Led Zeppelin, unsure of where to take creative root. In the span of just a few weeks, Whitewash began channeling its own sound by experimenting with everything from bossa nova to noise rock; early Whitewash originals were raw, evocative, and simple — remnants of this sound can be heard on appropriately named track “#1.” A year of composition and test recordings evolved into the DIY debut EP “Fraud in Lisbon,” produced entirely on Jon’s laptop over the course of a semester at NYU — budget restraints made the recording minimalist in stylistic approach, but it’s also been described as a lush and developed sound, given its medium. The band made an appearance at several NYC venues following the release, and 3/4th’s of the quartet promptly boarded jet planes to Paris and Prague, leaving the boys scattered across continents and oceans and icebergs and plains and waterparks and whales and rhinos.
Today, Whitewash is reuniting in NYC (LES) with a formidable number of demos to re-record and shows to play — now lacking an ocean of separation, the boys can feel free to make the music that their souls demand so fiercely.