Ranging from chillwave to sophisticated electro-pop, Small Black fuses long… Read Full Bio ↴Ranging from chillwave to sophisticated electro-pop, Small Black fuses longing, noise, and melody into lushly wistful songs. On their 2009 self-titled EP and 2010 debut album, New Chain, their lo-fi hybrid of shoegaze and synth pop helped put chillwave on the map and fit into the larger indie tradition of artists couching their heartbreak in homespun sounds. In the 2010s and beyond, 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. In 2023, Small Black looked back with a pair of archival releases. They commemorated the tenth anniversary of Limits of Desire with a deluxe edition of the album, and also issued a deluxe version of their debut EP that included previously unreleased songs from their early beach house sessions.

Biography by Heather Phares for ALLMUSIC

Kings of Animals
Small Black Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

When the beast
lets you know
Man, its gotta go
The way it sneers
The way it stares
Lazy & cold
And you have tried
to remake its mind

But it laughs like a ghost
It is not
Of your kind

God bless the kings of animals
God bless the kings of animals

And when it has gone
Out through the trees
And you watch it legs
Run away free
And in its bark
In its riot eyes
It's sure what it is
A good thing
Gone awry

God bless the Kings of Animals
God bless the Kings of Animals

Even the Kings of Animals know to run
Even the Kings of Animals know to run

Even the Kings of Animals know to run
Even the Kings of Animals know

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Small Black's song "Kings of Animals" convey a sense of fear and awe towards an uncontrollable force represented by the beast. The beast is depicted as cold, sneering, and indifferent to human attempts to control or understand it. It is described as something separate from humanity with a mocking laughter that suggests it is not of the same kind. The chorus calls for God's blessing upon the kings of animals, implying that these beasts hold a certain power and reign over their domain.

The second verse continues with the imagery of the beast running away, symbolized by its legs disappearing into the trees. It is described as having a bark and riotous eyes, suggesting a wild and untamed nature. The lyrics indicate that the beast is aware of its true essence, although it has gone astray or become corrupted in some way.

Overall, the song explores the theme of recognizing and respecting the power and autonomy of nature, symbolized by the kings of animals. It conveys a sense of humility and understanding that even these powerful beings know when to run and cannot always be controlled or understood by humans.

Line by Line Meaning

When the beast
In times when our desires and instincts overpower us

lets you know
makes its presence and influence felt

Man, its gotta go
It's necessary for us to let go of our primal urges and instincts

The way it sneers
The manner in which it mocks and taunts us

The way it stares
Its intense gaze that captures our attention

Lazy & cold
Apathetic and detached

And you have tried
Despite your efforts

to remake its mind
to change its perspective and mindset

But it laughs like a ghost
It scoffs at our attempts, like a haunting presence

It is not
The beast is not

Of your kind
Similar to you in nature