Small Black<\/a> are a Brooklyn-based band some might consider as being part of the chill-wave movement, but according to Josh Hayden Kolenik\u00a0, the group\u2019s vocalist and primary songwriter, they aren\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n So you guys just got started on your tour?<\/strong> How were DC and Chapel Hill?<\/strong> Were you guys friends before you went on tour together?<\/strong> He\u2019s 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\u2019s cousin, strangely enough.<\/strong> Have you been to Savannah before?<\/strong> Did the River Street thing?<\/strong> A walk is a good idea, but I wouldn\u2019t say the bars on River Street are your best best.<\/strong> So you guys are the headliner of the festival!<\/strong> How does that feel?<\/strong> Are you going to check out any other bands before you play?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yeah, I\u2019m 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\u2019re a fun live band. Wye Oak is great, too.<\/p>\n Who\u2019s your favorite artist that Small Black has performed with?<\/strong> You put out your first EP in 2009. How did you guys come together as a group and start making music?<\/strong> And how did you end up landed on Jagjaguwar?<\/strong> I was introduced to you guys by a friend who sent me Limits of Desire and said he\u2019d 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?<\/strong> Can you tell me more about the album art?<\/strong> It was definitely one of my favorite records of last year. What were some of yours?<\/strong> And you got to use her on your new single.<\/strong> I was actually having a conversation about that earlier. There\u2019s a reason why pop music is pop-ular music.<\/strong> So you want to strike a chord with more people?<\/strong> Are there any artists you would say have influenced your music?<\/strong> How does the new EP compare to the stuff you\u2019ve released in the past?<\/strong> That\u2019s what an EP can be great for\u2026 stuff that didn\u2019t really fit in with the album.<\/strong> You have a big spring ahead of you with the tour and the EP release, but what\u2019s next for you guys?<\/strong> <\/p>\n _________<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Small-Black1.jpg?resize=200%2C300\")
<\/a>
\nYeah, this is our third show.<\/p>\n
\nThey were great. We\u2019re out with this band Oberhofer so it\u2019s really nice to have a friend from Brooklyn out with us.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, Brad [Oberhofer] lives in Greenpoint also. That\u2019s where I live.<\/p>\n
\nOh 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.<\/p>\n
\nI 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 \u201cGet me out of here.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\nYeah. I might take a walk through there after we soundcheck.<\/p>\n
\nRight, doesn\u2019t sound like it.<\/p>\n
\nI know, it\u2019s crazy!<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s fun. We really like playing the late night set occasionally. It\u2019s a good way to switch it up. Playing a 9 o\u2019clock 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\u2019re really excited about the time.<\/p>\n
\nWell, I don\u2019t know if festivals count when you play with a zillion bands\u2026 \u201coh I played with Snoop Dogg.\u201d 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\u2019ve done a ton of shows with. But I feel like we haven\u2019t had a really epic opening slot. We tried to open for OMD; we love OMD.<\/p>\n
\nRyan [Heyner] and I are friends from Long Island and we did that EP at his house cause we didn\u2019t have a studio or anything so we would just work in his attic on the weekends. We\u2019ve 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\u2019s gone forward, we\u2019ve incorporated everybody more into the writing process and the recording process.<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/SmallBlack-3.jpg?resize=576%2C385\")
<\/a>
\nThey reached out to us via email because they heard \u201cDespicable Dogs.\u201d We went to visit a La Monte Young installation piece that\u2019s 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\u2019re great people and we\u2019ve been very lucky to work with them.<\/p>\n
\nI definitely did listen to it on the treadmill to see what songs worked and what songs didn\u2019t. But I do feel like music I listen to when I work out really is the music I listen to most because it\u2019s the one moment when there\u2019s nothing else to do and I\u2019m 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 \u201coh this song works, this one\u2019s fast enough that I\u2019m not going to slow down my run.\u201d But as far as a environment to listen to it, the record is kind of a loose journey. It definitely starts with \u201cFree at Dawn,\u201d it\u2019s kind of an intro piece. And then \u201cOutskirts\u201d is definitely an outro and a way out of the music. A lot of the songs are very NYC driven, but I didn\u2019t want to root it too hard in the city. I feel like it could be in any city.<\/p>\n
\nI 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\u2019t really know if we were going to use it or if it was good, and when I saw the image I just thought \u201cOh man, this is just it, this works,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/05-08-Discs-Small-Black-Limits-of-Desire.jpg?resize=574%2C576\")
<\/a>
\nThe Frankie Rose record was really good.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, Frankie\u2019s our homie so it was really fun to have her come down and do some songs. She\u2019s really funny, and such a great singer. I also listened to the new Wild Beasts record in the car today and it\u2019s 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\u2019s a reason why everyone\u2019s listening to them; because they\u2019re very smart.<\/p>\n
\nTotally. If you can do well on a large scale, that\u2019s harder than anything. I have massive respect for people that can pull it off and still have real artistic credibility. I mean, we\u2019re not shy, we make pop music, but that\u2019s 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\u2019s fun too, but maybe not where my interest or head is at.<\/p>\n
\nOr 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.<\/p>\n
\nOh sure, a million. Brian Eno. David Bowie. I\u2019m in love with this band from the 80s called The Blue Nile. They\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n
\nI think it\u2019s 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\u2019ve got a ballad, and one we had kicking around that we loved that maybe didn\u2019t really fit on the record that we re-recorded.<\/p>\n
\nYeah and it\u2019s 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\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n
\nWe\u2019ll do a bunch more shows this summer. We\u2019re already working on the next record. With bands, you\u2019re 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\u2019s seven months you\u2019re just sort of sitting on it and you\u2019re already onto the next thing. We\u2019re pretty deep into the next batch of material. It\u2019s mostly the music, but the songs are coming together. It\u2019s a little different, but we think in a good way.<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Small-Black2.jpg?resize=467%2C700\")
<\/a>![\"michelle](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/michelle.jpg?resize=150%2C150\")
<\/a>
\nMichelle 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<\/a>, you can also find her blogging at She Turns the Tables<\/a>, racing for Reality Bikes<\/a>, and going on adventures with her awesome dog.<\/p>\n