Author | Michelle King
Featured photo courtesty of milkyteakid.com
Small Black are a Brooklyn-based band some might consider as being part of the chill-wave movement, but according to Josh Hayden Kolenik , the group’s vocalist and primary songwriter, they aren’t shy about making pop music. I had a chance to sit down with Josh before their headlining performance at Savannah Stopover Music Festival to discuss their new EP, his influences, and the right music for jogging.
So you guys just got started on your tour?
Yeah, this is our third show.
How were DC and Chapel Hill?
They were great. We’re out with this band Oberhofer so it’s really nice to have a friend from Brooklyn out with us.
Were you guys friends before you went on tour together?
Yeah, Brad [Oberhofer] lives in Greenpoint also. That’s where I live.
He’s actually related to one of the members in a band from Savannah that played earlier this week called Fare the Gap. Their drummer is Brad’s cousin, strangely enough.
Oh cool. We showed up at the artist center tonight and immediately my roommate was there and our friends we were on tour with in New York. It gets to be a really small world.
Have you been to Savannah before?
I was here once for a couple hours in college. We were driving to Florida for spring break. I think we went to Daytona for an hour before we were thinking “Get me out of here.” We just knew some kids and went to stay at their house. We sort of did the tourist thing, spun through really quick, got a couple of beers.
Did the River Street thing?
Yeah. I might take a walk through there after we soundcheck.
A walk is a good idea, but I wouldn’t say the bars on River Street are your best best.
Right, doesn’t sound like it.
So you guys are the headliner of the festival!
I know, it’s crazy!
How does that feel?
It’s fun. We really like playing the late night set occasionally. It’s a good way to switch it up. Playing a 9 o’clock club show can be not exactly the right moment for us to play. Our set is pretty dance-y, so if people have had a few more drinks they usually have a little bit more fun. So we’re really excited about the time.
Are you going to check out any other bands before you play?
Yeah, I’m going to go see Sean Nicholas Savage, who is a good friend of ours. Heavenly Beat; John is my roommate. I wanted to see Future Islands; they’re a fun live band. Wye Oak is great, too.
Who’s your favorite artist that Small Black has performed with?
Well, I don’t know if festivals count when you play with a zillion bands… “oh I played with Snoop Dogg.” Not really. We played at 2pm and Snoop played at 12 on the big stage. A lot of our our peers are fun to play with like Washed Out and Toro y Moi, who we’ve done a ton of shows with. But I feel like we haven’t had a really epic opening slot. We tried to open for OMD; we love OMD.
You put out your first EP in 2009. How did you guys come together as a group and start making music?
Ryan [Heyner] and I are friends from Long Island and we did that EP at his house cause we didn’t have a studio or anything so we would just work in his attic on the weekends. We’ve played music with Juan [Pieczanski] and Jeff [Curtin] for a long time as well so when it came time to put a band together to play it live, it was always going to be the four of us. As it’s gone forward, we’ve incorporated everybody more into the writing process and the recording process.
And how did you end up landed on Jagjaguwar?
They reached out to us via email because they heard “Despicable Dogs.” We went to visit a La Monte Young installation piece that’s this really intense white room where you just sit around and listen to these drones. That was our first experience hanging out with them and we thought the guys were really cool. They’re great people and we’ve been very lucky to work with them.
I was introduced to you guys by a friend who sent me Limits of Desire and said he’d been listening to it on repeat jogging by the East River. Did you have a certain experience in mind when you were writing it; how you hoped people would listen to the record or where they would experience it?
I definitely did listen to it on the treadmill to see what songs worked and what songs didn’t. But I do feel like music I listen to when I work out really is the music I listen to most because it’s the one moment when there’s nothing else to do and I’m just forced to listen to the music and not be doing a million other things. And not that I considered that in the writing, but I was excited when I realized “oh this song works, this one’s fast enough that I’m not going to slow down my run.” But as far as a environment to listen to it, the record is kind of a loose journey. It definitely starts with “Free at Dawn,” it’s kind of an intro piece. And then “Outskirts” is definitely an outro and a way out of the music. A lot of the songs are very NYC driven, but I didn’t want to root it too hard in the city. I feel like it could be in any city.
Can you tell me more about the album art?
I just discovered the artist online, Scarlett Hooft Graafland, and I reached out to her because I love her work. I saw the image, and I had the title in my head but I didn’t really know if we were going to use it or if it was good, and when I saw the image I just thought “Oh man, this is just it, this works,” and it all made sense to me. I just thought the image was very mysterious and loaded with emotion. We wanted to use it on sight. We were very excited that she was willing to let us use it.
It was definitely one of my favorite records of last year. What were some of yours?
The Frankie Rose record was really good.
And you got to use her on your new single.
Yeah, Frankie’s our homie so it was really fun to have her come down and do some songs. She’s really funny, and such a great singer. I also listened to the new Wild Beasts record in the car today and it’s really good; amazing singer. Yeezus was amazing. I think the two records that people liked universally were Yeezus and the new Vampire Weekend record and there’s a reason why everyone’s listening to them; because they’re very smart.
I was actually having a conversation about that earlier. There’s a reason why pop music is pop-ular music.
Totally. If you can do well on a large scale, that’s harder than anything. I have massive respect for people that can pull it off and still have real artistic credibility. I mean, we’re not shy, we make pop music, but that’s the goal. I feel like writing a catchy song and doing it in a way that people can really emotionally connect with in many ways is a much harder than doing super experimental music. That’s fun too, but maybe not where my interest or head is at.
So you want to strike a chord with more people?
Or maybe just with myself. I feel like I need to have that connection with a song to make me want to sing it every night.
Are there any artists you would say have influenced your music?
Oh sure, a million. Brian Eno. David Bowie. I’m in love with this band from the 80s called The Blue Nile. They’re a Scottish band, kind of largely forgotten. We did a cover on our new EP of one of their songs. For me that was a huge influence on my vocals the past couple years. Their singer is very courageous and not scared to let loose and bare it all and I love that.
How does the new EP compare to the stuff you’ve released in the past?
I think it’s a continuation of the aesthetic we had going on with Limits of Desire. We added two songs with Frankie Rose, The Blue Nile cover, and two other songs. I think some of it is a little bit more dance, and then we’ve got a ballad, and one we had kicking around that we loved that maybe didn’t really fit on the record that we re-recorded.
That’s what an EP can be great for… stuff that didn’t really fit in with the album.
Yeah and it’s great to just play around a little bit and try a couple things and not have the pressure of making this grand statement that an LP can be or is supposed to be. So we did it quickly and it’s exciting.
You have a big spring ahead of you with the tour and the EP release, but what’s next for you guys?
We’ll do a bunch more shows this summer. We’re already working on the next record. With bands, you’re always ahead of what the listener or what the press gets. Limits of Desire came out in May and we turned it in October of the previous year. So that’s seven months you’re just sort of sitting on it and you’re already onto the next thing. We’re pretty deep into the next batch of material. It’s mostly the music, but the songs are coming together. It’s a little different, but we think in a good way.
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Michelle King is a music fiend currently residing in Athens, GA. While her business card will tell you she is executive manager and director of publicity at Noisy Ghost PR, you can also find her blogging at She Turns the Tables, racing for Reality Bikes, and going on adventures with her awesome dog.
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