WASHA

WASHA is the moniker of 21 year old artist Dwight Pendleton. Currently living in Brooklyn, Pendleton spent the past several years in Fort Lauderdale, Florida writing and recording his first collective full-length LP The Bright. With the first half releasing in August 2014 this second installment delves deeper into the writing and transparency of Pendleton’s work. Part II is heavily influenced by the intricacies of vivid experiences, color, visual art, and film from director Terrence Malick. Having experienced years in the past struggling with depression, The Bright Part II draws from that time as a child to near adulthood as the source of lyrical content throughout the LP.


Read more at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/the-drop/bright-part-ii#e2imSZ7kWGyJ1BAm.99 - RELEVANT

Dwight Pendleton, aka Washa just released the second portion of album The Bright that rises from the clutches of depression and into an electronic array of inspiration and the infinite quests for understanding. Having spent recent years in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and currently residing in Brooklyn; The Bright Part II is Pendleton’s culmination of fascinations from director Terrence Malick, the cognitive coming-of-age passages, various affections for mixed visual art media, and other experiential items of great impressions and impact.

The Bright, Part II begins with heavy weights like “Veins” that breaks against the rut found in the mortal coil of existence with an arsenal of electronic instrumental devices that thrash via synthesized systems of transcendence. The growing pains come full circle on the sobering realities of life’s passing fads and phases on “I Am Growing”, where the tears pour through therapeutic pastoral plugged-in/switched on poetry. The world continues to turn between the polarities of “Night / Day” where intimate sentiments are cast by both the glow from the sun and the moon. Dwight arranges every aspect of synth, rhythm, vocal, and uttered item of noise to move like an expressive symphony to convey multitudes of meaning and narrative heard on the romantic discontinuity of “Bury Our Love”. The Washa way of conveyed feeling deals in an honesty that doesn’t hold back like on the paternal streams of thought and reflection of past/future on “Father Figure”, right before finally laying down all burdens on the keyboard closing pop hymn “I Have Nothing Left To Carry”. Washa lays all the personal detail out on the line, sharing the boulders of burden in the name of continuing onward to the next narrative. Dwight and I had some time to explore the making of his album in two parts The Bright in an insightful interview featured after the following listen. - IMPOSE

If you were to base the sound of WASHA off of just this one song, you could paint yourself the picture of what it must feel like to live life as a 21-year-old man, if you were not one yourself already, in which case you’d already know. Rubbery skin, stretching aching muscle, the burden and the numbness of rampant opportunity. The difficulty of truly being present in your own life. You can hear it all here. It’s salty, like a light pole after a rain storm, or a lick of the lips after a car ride past the sea with your windows down.

Since Dwight mentioned that The Bright, Part II was influenced by the intricacies of vivid colors, I decided to ask him something about color.

Question: I do this thing sometimes when I have a terrible headache where I’ll envision a blue ball of light encircling the headache pain, and then mentally kick it away like a bouncing ball. It actually works and somehow makes my headache go away. Can you describe something similar that you might do?

Here’s what he said:

“When I was little I had this dream where I was standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking a grey void of nothingness. It was like the sky, but it had no end, upwards, or down. In the dream I took a deep breath and leaned forward; a sense of release came flooding in as I too, became nothingness. The sadness went away. I don’t feel that way anymore, though. That’s why I wrote this album. And that is what “I Am Growing” is about.”

You can catch WASHA perform live at Cameo Gallery tonight, or at Palisades on November 9th. Keep track of the songs via Bandcamp. - Brokelyn

Every so often, an offer to premiere something from an emerging artist lands in my inbox. Frequently, it’ll be the first I’ve heard of the artist and rarely will it be something that fits this site’s focus. So the moments when those offers actually hit their target, they hit especially hard. Enter: WASHA and the music video for “Night/Day”. Coming in advance of the artist’s upcoming full-length, The Bright.

The project of Dwight Pendleton, WASHA operates most frequently in a morose-leaning bedroom pop mode but continuously finds moments that allow for hope. WASHA also feels, even more than its contemporaries, like a deeply personal journey of self-discovery. “Night/Day” presents all of this and more in a 4:3 ratio that suggest an underlying self-awareness of historical context. Finding subtle ways to showcase the execution, process, and circumstance of an intimate performance, “Night/Day” far exceeds something that seems ostensibly simplistic at first glance to become far more nuanced and meaningful. Strung all together through a muted color palette that complements the song’s downtrodden atmosphere to thrilling effect, “Night/Day” effectively becomes a very tantalizing first look at a project worth anticipating. - Heartbreaking Bravery

When you listen to WASHA’s enthralling “Eyes”, it’s easy to feel like you’ve stumbled onto something truly special. There’s a stirring momentum to this track, akin to the type of music you hear at the conclusion of movie trailers — the kind that leave a little flutter in your chest. “Eyes” is a delectable example of experimental indie rock, or “baroque pop” as the artist describes it. With a groaning accordion dancing around the edges and a pulsating drum line keeping it all in sync, Washa’s intelligent meshing of styles makes it impossible to just listen through the track once - The Wild Honey Pie

Independent artist out of the Fort Lauderdale area, WASHA is the moniker of Dwight Pendleton. WASHA released his debut EP 'Roots' in the spring of 2013, and is currently working on his first full-length album, which will be released in two parts. "The Bright, Part I" is set to release August 2014. - Brooklyn Vegan

On Sunday, February 15, Fern Mayo, Hypoluxo, King Clone, and WASHA performed at Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. - Impose Magazine

WASHA aka Dwight Pendleton is a musician from Fort Lauderdale, Florida making cinematic, sometimes glitchy experimental pop music.

WASHA released his debut EP Roots in the spring of 2013, and is currently working on his first full-length album, which will be released in two parts.

The Bright, Part I was released August 2014. Part II s due to be released later this year.

Have a listen to WASHA‘s latest track “Bury Our Love”, a glitchy, dark number that will appeal to glitchy outfits like James Blake and FKA Twigs - Fecking Deadly

Fort Lauderdale musician Dwight Pendelton goes by the mysterious moniker Washa. He's a singer and songwriter that crafts complex tunes he calls "baroque pop."

Pendleton, 20, is creating the sound of a three-piece group on his own. His recently released four-song EP The Bright, Part 1 shimmers with dreamy and ethereal soundscapes, layered with the artist's choirboy voice and spare guitar riffs all drenched in reverb and atmospherics. The sublimely beautiful collection of songs is a surreal, intense, gripping, and emotional journey.

Originally from northern Virginia, Pendleton grew up listening to classic rock and playing the guitar, but never saw himself as a musician. It was a dream, but never something he thought could actually happen. In 2010, Pendleton began writing and composing his own music, experimenting with different instruments to compose the original pieces heard.

"People who know me know that I am primarily a singer and guitarist," says Pendleton. "But when I'm in the process of composing, I'll pick up the instrument I want to hear, and teach myself the part to record. Whether that's percussion, bass, keys, or some type of flute just depends on what I envision for the piece."
Washa has an experimental edge with a folklorish touch. The artist's debut EP is a raw and exposing story of the cycle of loss, despair, and hope. Everyone can relate to these songs. They're about finding the person you're aspiring to become, and the fear of failing. They are also the stories of hopes and dreams, and how hard it can be to get moving in the right direction to make them a reality.

"I wanted it to touch on the idea that the lives we live weren't meant to go unfulfilled," says Pendleton. "The concept is that everyone has something they're facing. The future, a decision, a choice. It's the unforeseen that we must all face, whether we're ready or not."

As for his name "Washa," the word translates to "rekindle" in an African language. His sounds are sure to spark emotion, even the ones you thought were buried long ago.

"The music I make," he continues, "is what I believe needs to be portrayed in art. The beauty of life can be equally surreal and unappreciated. I try to write songs that delve deeper than the surface level that's so common to our culture."

These days, Washa is busy recording The Bright Part 2, the culmination of the complete story. He says it will bring more clarity to the uncertainty of his journey. And he points out that he's not on this creative journey alone.

"Musical talent in South Florida is huge," says Pendleton. "When people think South Florida, they think Miami and the club scene, but there is so much creativity going on in this area. Not just me, but so many other artists. I'm excited to see how it develops."

Washa will be performing at Lake Worth exhibition space UNIT 1 during the opening of "It's Going To Be Okay," the solo show of rising talent Woody Othello. - Broward New Times

Music can make you feel old.

Standing in the aisles of a record shop waiting for an in-store performance, you come upon used records from your youth. You scratch your head wondering if that can be right, that it has been 26 years since De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising came out.

Then the opener Washa takes the floor equipped with a guitar and a laptop computer, and you feel positively ancient. You own a flannel shirt older than this talented kid, and he's pouring out optimistic bedroom confessionals and confidently baring his soul about the origins of the songs to the 30 people listening among the stacks of records to his five-song set. Excited as hell about going on his first tour and hopeful he can sell enough T-shirts on the road to eat, Washa makes you feel every one of the years you have on him.

But the great thing about music is, like nothing else, it can also make you feel young again. - Broward Palm Beach New Times

We did this music video of Washa in an untraditional C&I Studios way. Usually, we shoot with a white backdrop, but we decided to take a different route with this one to add to the feeling behind the song. Washa, an independent artist out of Fort Lauderdale, came to us because our idea of inspiration is to evoke emotion from the depths of the heart and bring to light what may be hidden deep below the surface. It’s important to make people feel because we go through every day life monotonously driving through each moment. We think that people need a little bit more guidance to the heart, and working with artists like Washa helps us do just that. - C-I Studios

Fort Lauderdale experimental pop artist Dwight Pendleton (aka Washa) continues to share new material today in the form of “Bury Our Love."

The new track effortlessly blends lush production with delicate vocals, marking the third single off Pendleton's two-part debut album, The Bright, the first half of which arrived back in August.

For those unfamiliar with Washa’s music, fans of Sufjan Stevens and Bon Iver may discover some similarities. The complete second part of The Bright is expected later this year.

In the meantime, listen to “Bury Our Love” below. - Variance Magazine