F L A U N T
The colorful and prismatic artist, Ethan Snoreck, popularly known as Whethan, prepares for the world to experience the dreamscape of his newest project, Fantasy. Stepping out of his life as a wallflower, Ethan indulges himself into a fantasy—experimenting with a multitude of different sounds and genres that he has always dreamed of working with.
Never failing to keep his audience on their toes, he shares that his favorite song thus far is on this new album. Ethan has always had a deep-rooted passion for alternative music and this album showcases a side of him that has never been seen. He describes Fantasy as “explosive,” both compositionally and emotionally. Creating music that is “free of form,” he hopes that his listeners can come together to explore and celebrate their personal fantasy—”something larger than life.”
Flaunt had the pleasure of learning about Ethan as an artist and as a human. We got to discuss his work ethics, inspiration sources and excitement regarding his new project. Check out the rest of our conversation below.
What is something inspiring or exciting that has happened recently?
Lately, I feel like a lot of my inspiration has been visual and movie based. I’m into a lot of anime right now and I just watched Akira a couple weeks ago and it was really inspiring.
Would you consider yourself a “perfectionist” or a “let’s see how this evolves” type of person? Where you know exactly what you want or you try something and build from there?
A little bit of both. I definitely call myself a perfectionist but I don’t always know what it is. I feel like I always experiment in every direction and test every option just to see which one feels like it should be, but once I know that, I will stop at nothing until it’s perfect.
Who has been your favorite person to collaborate with?
I have a couple core collaborators that are always in the mix. I always love going outside of the box though, and collaborating with all types of artists and different genres. I mean Oliver Tree keeps popping in my head because he’s so fun to work with. We have such good chemistry, we make so much music together and he’s just so funny, working on the most ridiculous videos, so that’s always such a good time.
What song are you most proud of? What song was the most challenging to create?
The project that I have coming out, Fantasy, most of the songs on there are my favorite songs of all time. One of them is actually with Oliver Tree, which will probably come out a little later, but I think it might be my favorite song ever. It just never fails to put me in a good mood. There’s always a bit of a challenge with every track, whether it’s on the creative front or on the business side. Working with so many artists, it’s hard getting everyone to make sure that it’s cool and what not. Weirdly enough, they all flow kind of smoothly but I definitely have some creative trouble from time to time. I know with the song I put out with Jeremih, “Let Me Take You,” I ended up sitting with that song for so long and so many different versions—I never felt satisfied until it just finally happened.
How do you overcome creative blocks?
I’m getting better at handling a creative block. When I used to get creative blocks, I would keep going and basically would be torturing myself, going down weird places that I didn’t want to go. But now it’s super nice, I just take a walk or go outside and get my mind off it. I might play some animal crossing or hit up one of my friends.
A lot of electronic artists end up getting comfortable and creating music that sounds similar to each other, whereas you’re innovative? How do you keep yourself from going into autopilot and producing music that becomes repetitive?
I feel like a lot of people stick with what they’re good at. If they find out that they’re really good at a style then they keep making that style. I just found myself getting so bored working on the same sound all the time. I’m just wanting to challenge myself, but really it comes down to the music I listen to. I feel like I find myself listening to so many different styles of music, mostly not even electronic based. So, I’m always trying to bring in different elements. I just spend a lot of time experimenting and making sure that the genres that I’m mixing feel right. And I spend a lot of time failing too, making alternative songs sound like an electronic song. I struggle all the time and then every once in a while it’ll all just make sense. I just keep experimenting. I just get so bored. If I feel like I’ve made a song or a drop that sounds like another one, I can’t do it—I just have to change it.
Can you tell me more about the direction you’ve headed with your music right now? You’ve been releasing music that is more alternative rock oriented, which I love btw.
Alternative music has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s always what I was really listening to, aside from hip-hop and electronic. I was kind of envisioning mixes of alternative music with crazy energy that I could play at my shows or to even play at a club. It was kind of my goal to mix club music with alternative vocals, but basically it’s every genre that I’ve ever loved too. It’s hard to explain, but this one (album) just feels like it’s own thing. This whole project just feels explosive. I keep saying the word explosive, but it’s just very loud. I put a lot of time into it, making the sounds hit really heavy.
What inspired your cover art for Fantasy?
I was always really inspired by Daft Punk, of course. They were some of the first people that got me into music and they always had this crazy robot vibe. I didn’t want to steal their thing but I connected with having a character that wasn’t really me. It’s me, but it’s not my face. It weirdly feels retro, but still feels like the future. It mainly stemmed off of the music video that we came up with for the first music video of the album with STRFKR, “Stay Forever,” and it just stuck from there. With all the shows coming up, I planned on being in this crazy suit.
What excites you the most? When do you feel the most inspired or happy with your life?
Most of my days are centered around making music and working on songs all the time. I’m always working with artists and meeting deadlines and struggling with creating, and I feel like at the end of the day, I feel the best when I have one thing, just one thing, that I can listen to that I made that day that’s just cool to me.It’s all it really takes. And sometimes it doesn’t happen, but most of the time it does and it feels really amazing. I spend that whole ay trying to make that one little thing that’ll just make me happy and then I’m good.
What have you learned through the process of creating your new album, Fantasy?
I learned a lot about putting a whole body of work together. And working with more people than I have before. I brought in some people to help me finish and we were traveling all around California, setting up studios at houses and that was a process and journey within itself. I learned a lot about putting together a project, making sure that everything is right and being presented correctly and connecting all of the stuff that’s been inside you that’s been wanting to come out.
What are you doing when you’re not working?
That’s such a hard question because I really am always going, but if I’m not, I’m usually just hanging out with friends or watching a movie. I’m such a movie guy.
If you could pick one moment in your career that you could relive again, because it had such an impact on you, which one would it be?
I’d probably have to say playing Lollapalooza for the first time in Chicago or bringing Nathan Ramsey out at Coachella. That would’ve been the funniest thing to relive.
What does the word “fantasy” mean to you?
Fantasy is kind of the idea that in my head that there’s something more out there, something larger than life. It’s weirder than something that’s happening right now, but it’s also just a weird composition of music too—free in form. Everyone has their own version of fantasy. I always have a hard time describing it because fantasy applies in so many different situations. You can have a fantasy like a vision or your life is a fantasy.
Photographer: Tak Kamihagi
