Exclusive: An interview with Whethan

In a hurried frenzy, I am ushered down the stairs within the depths of the Boulder Theater. In front of me, a tall man wearing a black bomber jacket is gliding down the same staircase. This man enters his green room before me and is welcomed by more than a handful of people I have never seen before – besides his tour manager who, at the moment, is currently opening three large boxes of Cosmos pizza. 

“You killed it, man,” a person says to Whethan; he flashes a warm smile and displays his gratitude for the compliment. 

It becomes rapidly apparent that in this moment, and in this green room, we are not witnessing Whethan, but rather Ethan Snoreck. 

Snoreck, a 23-year-old music producer, DJ and all-around kind human, has just gotten off stage and without taking a beat to breathe following his incredible set in Boulder, Colorado, is now situated in the hallway outside of the green room. The musician grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and began tinkering with music in Garageband at the age of 12 after discovering Skrillex and Daft Punk. 

The energy in this hallway is a bit chaotic; those people I have never met before are now crowding around Whethan to snag a quick photo. Though, Whethan not once displays an ounce of disdain or frustration with it. 

About ten minutes later, his tour manager begins to usher people who aren’t a part of Whethan’s team out, only after everyone who wanted a photo gets one, I am led down a back hallway of the Boulder Theater by his tour manager. 

Within seconds I can tell that who I’m about to speak to is the real deal. Whethan and his tour manager are cracking jokes as they try to find a spot for the interview. Though after some backtracking, we landed on a hallway near the green room.

I asked Snoreck if he needed a second to breathe as he was just on stage 10 minutes prior. His response?

“It’s okay! Sometimes it’s good to keep that energy going,” Snoreck states with a smile. Even though we are standing in a dimly lit hallway built entirely out of concrete and gray-painted brick, it quickly feels as if I’m sitting with the musician in his studio. 

After tinkering with Garageband, Snoreck began releasing tracks in 2016 at the age of 17. Though, one relationship during that time would surpass the boundaries of friendship and overlap into kinship. Louis the Child, a fellow Illinois based electronic act composed of Robby Hauldren and Frederic J. Kennett would play a critical role in the evolution of Whethan and vice versa. 

“It was pretty natural, right? We grew up on different sides of Chicago, we didn’t go to the same school or anything, but they were putting out music together on SoundCloud and I was very familiar with it. I loved it. I was like, ‘these guys are sick,’ and I kind of started to put my music out as well and we got linked through the industry. I was working with their manager at the time, I was talking to him a lot and that helped the connection happen that much quicker,” Snoreck states.

“I remember, I sent them a message on SoundCloud back in the day like, ‘Yo,’ you know, ‘check out my song, this is some new stuff I’m working on,’ and then I remember they responded back being like, ‘Oh this is cool! Keep representing Chicago,’” Snoreck adds. 

The musician goes on to say that from there, he and Louis the Child would end up sharing a studio in Chicago for a year or two as they were both finishing school and before they all would move out to Los Angeles. He adds that they were always working on music together and bouncing ideas off of each other. 

“It was very inspiring and it was a very fun time. It was the practice years,” Snoreck states. He says that he never really had any friends who made music until Louis the Child. 

“I knew people who played an instrument, but not really anyone who was pursuing electronic music like I was, but they (Louis the Child) were at a pretty big scale already. Now, they’re like family,” Snoreck states. 

From there, he would go on to play his first show ever with Louis the Child at The Canopy Club near the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Snoreck is set to return to the same venue on his current tour run. 

Following his first show in Illinois, he would miss school to tour with The Chainsmokers and made it back just in time to graduate. 

When asked about his favorite memory from that time, Snoreck states that he has so many from that era. 

“One for sure that definitely stands out is going to Europe. Getting to travel with them, we hit a lot of the spots like Germany, and even going to South America with them too, like Brazil and Argentina, you know I got to experience it with those guys. That’s one of those eye-opening moments that you never forget,” Snoreck adds. He mentions that he hasn’t been able to return to those places since, but says that those places are special. 

Though, Snoreck was able to fulfill a childhood dream of meeting his idol, Skrillex. 

“That’s my guy. That’s my guy,” Snoreck says with childlike enthusiasm, “When I think back to when I was 12, he was the reason. Him, and Daft Punk, were the reason I wanted to do it and start making music. I saw his videos on YouTube and I was like, ‘I wanna do that!’ So I got Ableton, started messing around and a couple years later he put one of my songs in his SoundCloud playlist and I was like, ‘Oh s—,’ maybe he knows who I am,” Snoreck states. 

He says that a few weeks after that on one of his first trips to Los Angeles, he “out of luck,” as he puts it, got into the studio with him. 

“I ended up at a party that he was throwing. I went up to him with my manager and told him about how he put my song into his playlist and he was like, ‘Oh no way! Nice to meet you.’ We kinda connected and built a little friendship,” the musician adds. 

Snoreck says that everyone in the industry respects and loves Skrillex so much. 

Around this time, Whethan would release his one of many star-studded tracks, such as “love gang (feat. Charli XCX).” This would be followed by several collaborations with longtime friend Oliver Tree, a track with Portugal. The Man and ultimately his 2018 debut EP, “Life of a Wallflower, Vol. 1” which features hits such as “Good Nights (feat. Mascolo)” and “Superlove (feat. Oh Wonder).” 

These works would propel Whethan onto some of the largest stages electronic music can offer, such as Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas and Ultra Music Festival in Miami. 

Louis the Child and Whethan would then collaborate in 2019 with their track “Hurts” which included Wafia, an Australian singer-songwriter, who previously collaborated with Louis the Child in 2018 for their joint track “Better Not.” 

Then, in 2020, the world would get a taste of a full length record from Whethan, titled “Fantasy.” Tracks on the record include collaborations with STRFKR, grandson, Grouplove, RL Grime, Oliver Tree and K. Flay. The record would explore several different genres and receive critical acclaim from several music news outlets such as Dancing Astronaut and MILKY. 

“That album was a long time coming for me. It was a project I had spent a super long time working on and had made a lot of tracks for it, like ‘I’m making an album,’” Snoreck states.

Though, in 2021, Whethan would continue to keep the ball rolling by releasing more singles, but would delve further into genre exploration by collaborating with hyper pop artists such as ericdoa and glaive for his second and most recent record “MIDNIGHTS.” 

“This time around, that wasn’t the goal. It was more of just a collection of a lot of songs that I had been working on that were more inspired by the modern internet music that I was working on like hyper pop and rap. Getting some of the music with artists like midwxst, glaive and ericdoa, some of those guys who I was just a fan of. I was like, ‘these kids are sick,’” Snoreck adds. 

When asked about the genre exploration on “MIDNIGHTS,” Snoreck says that it was natural. 

“It was the first time that I felt understood, in a weird way. Even though I’m understanding them (ericdoa and glaive), I’d be getting into the room with a bunch of pop writers and people who write songs in all different kinds of genres, but there is always this kind of cliché around electronic music where some people are like ‘oh this is too taboo, I don’t want to do that’ – I’ve never really liked that,” Snoreck said. 

“They were like ‘No, we want your favorite s—, we wanna work on what you like the most.’ Then we made music and we all loved it. We didn’t try to close any doors before we could even open them,” he adds. 

We then talk about the openness of creativity that hyper-pop duo 100 gecs emphasize with their production process and Snoreck mentions that they were a huge inspiration for the record because of that. He then goes on to say that he’s worked with Dylan Brady, one-half of 100 gecs, in the studio. 

“He is a wizard. It’s insane. He doesn’t even say any words, he just whips it up,” Snoreck states. As we wrap up the interview, his tour manager is now in the hallway with us. I try to find the key to unlocking Whethan to understand why he does it in the first place.

“Music is my lifestyle. I surround myself with it at all times,” Snoreck says after pausing to contemplate what music means to him. 

“It’s everything to him,” Snoreck’s tour manager adds. 

“I don’t know what I’d be without it. I only think of a world with it. I have the urge to do it, it’s a creative thing. It would drive me crazy if I couldn’t do it,” Snoreck states. 

“I caught the music bug,” Snoreck says with a chuckle.