Small Black

Fusing longing, noise, and melody into lushly wistful pop, Small Black helped put chillwave on the map in the late 2000s and became a sophisticated electro-pop outfit in the 2010s and beyond. On their 2009 self-titled EP and 2010 debut album New Chain, their lo-fi hybrid of shoegaze and synth pop fit into the chillwave trend as well as a larger indie tradition of artists couching their heartbreak in homespun sounds. Later, they polished their style and emphasized their ’80s sophisti-pop influences on 2013’s Limits of Desire, but as poised as their music grew, albums such as 2021′s Cheap Dreams kept the emotional pull of their songwriting at the forefront.
Small Black started with a name and worked backwards: a housemate of singer/multi-instrumentalist Josh Kolenik came up with the moniker on a cold Portland, Oregon night. The name stuck when he returned to Long Island, New York and began collaborating with Ryan Heyner, an area musician and former member of the hardcore band Silent Majority who shared friends with Kolenik. The pair holed up in the attic of the beach house and surfboard shop Kolenik’s uncle owned to record songs with vintage keyboards and samplers, spending late 2008 and early 2009 recording as Uncle Matt made surfboards underneath them.
Though Kolenik had played in several bands before Small Black, the mix of shoegaze and synth pop he and Heyner hit upon felt special, and the group’s lineup was complete once bassist/guitarist Juan Pieczanski and Jeff Curtin from Kolenik’s previous band, Slowlands, joined to bolster production and fill out their live act. Small Black released their self-titled five-song EP on their own CassClub label in October 2009, and released the U.K. single “Despicable Dogs,” as well as a video for that song featuring Uncle Matt, soon after. Following their performances at that year’s CMJ Music Marathon, Small Black signed to Jagjaguwar Records, which reissued the band’s debut EP with two bonus tracks in 2010. That year, they also released a split-single with the like-minded Washed Out, with whom they also toured. New Chain, the band’s first full-length, boasted a slightly more polished sound that reflected their consistent touring as well as their interest in hip-hop and arrived in October 2010. In late 2011, the band offered the Moon Killer mixtape as a free download from their website. The collection of new material was built on samples ranging from Pere Ubu to Nicki Minaj, and featured multiple drop-ins from Das Racist MC Heems, as well as remixes from Star Slinger and Phonetag.
After spending much of 2012 on the road, Small Black returned with May 2013′s Limits of Desire, a more sophisticated-sounding set influenced by Talk Talk and the Blue Nile. They covered the latter band’s classic “Downtown Lights” on the following year’s Real People EP, which had a more dancefloor-oriented style and featured vocals from Frankie Rose. Small Black’s passion for sophisti-pop grew on October 2015′s Best Blues. Recorded by the band in their Brooklyn home studio and mixed by Nicholas Vernhes at the Rare Book Room Studio, the album included contributions from trumpeter Darby Cicci of the Antlers and vocalist Kaede Ford. Soon after Best Blues’ release, Kolenik’s Uncle Matt passed away, and the memory of him inspired many of the songs on Small Black’s fourth album. Arriving on 100% Electronica in April 2021, the reflective Cheap Dreams found the band returning from their hiatus with an extra dose of goth to their synth pop reveries. ~ Heather Phares