“It was a very exciting feeling. I think we noticed more than what impact our voices had on other people during the time of the pandemic. Just to see that our level of music was growing and our capabilities. We could feel what people felt,” Arrianna told Blavity in an exclusive interview.

“And reading the comments was one thing that helped. They always say don’t read the comments but reading the comments and seeing what people were saying was very motivational,” Reginald Jr. added. “It makes us appreciate what we’re doing.”

@fourwashington “Never Gonna Let You Go” by #faithevans 🎶 #fördig #music #rnb #singing #siblings #tiktok ♬ original sound – fourwashington

The group got their start in music by their mom teaching them and singing in their church choir. As word spread locally about their beautiful voices and harmonies, they started getting requests from family friends, and people in their hometown, to sing at different engagements.

“We grew up in church singing and then we would take those songs home that we learned in the youth choir and we would just sing it at home. One thing led to another and we started getting requests to sing at family [events] and churches across our area,” Arrianna shared. “We got requests to sing at banquets or just different events in general so we started calling ourselves The Washington Family and about six years ago we rebranded ourselves as a Pop/R&B group, Four Washington. That’s where the root of everything is for us, family roots and just being really connected with each other and our voices show that, our group harmony. We just love to sing. It’s a passion and we just made it something we just do now.”

Although they didn’t mind singing because it was their passion, when they got older, the quad and their parents hired a manager so they could get paid for the hard work they were putting in behind the scenes for performances, so they started using their viral content for monetization.

“Starting off really young, we honestly didn’t know what we were doing. We were just doing it because we loved it. Our mom would get a call like, ‘Can they sing here?’ and she would just take us. We didn’t mind it at the time because we were so young,” said the oldest. “It’s something that became second nature to us and we thought this is how people do things, but after a while our parents, and when we hired a manager, we realized we could also get paid for all of the hard work we put in.”

“I think an important thing to say here is your gift will make room for you. There have been a lot of times when we did things without asking for payment and we knew our gift was going to make room. God will provide for us no matter what,” Arrianna said.

@fourwashington #FebrezePartner We’re feeling this Febreze Refresh & Energize scent from their new Mood Collection! #Febreze #Mood #NewMusic ♬ Febreze Refresh & Energize – Four Washington

When choosing companies to partner with, they make sure to pick companies that align with their positive, upbeat brand, and it’s even better when it’s a product they use, which is why partnering with Febreze for a second time for their new “Mood Collection,” which celebrates their Black consumers’ wants from research done by the company, to create a jingle for the “Refreshing and Energize” scent.

“We definitely believe in doing things that align with what we want to show. We of course love any brand deal that may reach out to us and we full-heartedly take it on and decide whether it’s going to be an opportunity for us,” Reginald Jr. said. “We absolutely love the scent. We went to Walmart and we saw some on the shelf and was like, ‘Ooo…this is the scent we made a song for.’ Our mother sprays that scent so much and runs through bottles.”

When making the perfect jingle for Febreze, they discussed the process and how crafting the material can be nerve-racking since they want to deliver the best work possible, which brings returning and new collaborations their way.

“It is some pressure too though because of course you’re putting yourself out there and you want to make sure you’re not only showing yourself great but for that brand as well. We have to just make sure that we stay confident in who we are and what we do,” Carmen shared. “You have to make sure you give a product, give a product with the best quality, and that it shows the best of you and you can’t just sit on anything too long.

“We sing a lot of styles of music and when we got Refreshed and Energized as our scent we tried to figure out what musical style would be best for this particular song we’re creating,” Reginald Jr. said. “We kind of went towards the funky, pop style that makes people feel energized and want to dance.”

The group posts content on Facebook (164K followers; 86K likes), YouTube (25.5K subscribers), Instagram (357K followers) and TikTok (1.3M followers; 11M likes) with the latter being the most favorable to them. Posting the right content for the right audience at the right time played an important role in the group’s success. and vital to the group’s success as they noticed some differences on each platform.

“For the most part, we noticed that Facebook has an older crowd, which is okay because they’re more likely to buy into your business and share what they post,” Cameron disclosed. “On Instagram, it’s a younger crowd and on TikTok, it’s an even younger crowd. Each platform has a different age range and we notice that gets a lot more attention on TikTok.”

They notice what TikTok users use and base the songs they select to cover and remix on that because it’ll be utilized more by people using the app.

“We also notice that on TikTok, a lot of people, if it is a song cover, they like something they can use for their videos and we started recognizing that as well. We find songs that people will actually want to use for audio because that’s another thing that really skyrocketed more than we ever thought,” Carmen explained. “We did a cover of Faith Evans’ ‘Never Gonna Let You Go’ and Sia’s ‘Unstoppable,’ which are two of our most famous covers. From Sia’s song, people felt unstoppable, they felt confident and they felt like they could do anything. They used that sound for so many videos.”

“It was one point where we were posting a lot, I think three or four times a week. And we were like, let us slow down a tad bit. We don’t want people to get tired of us or anything. We are workaholics and we just do a lot,” Carmen said.

“Sometimes when we take a step back from social media, we’re able to figure out what we want to showcase and nix. We’re always thinking about elevation and seeing the same thing. We always have to up our game,” Reginald Jr. added.

What’s next for the group? Performing is going to be their main focus in the next era of Four Washington since the pandemic allowed them to hone their sound and what they like. They’re now ready to put it on stage and have people come out to enjoy the Four Washington experience.