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
New Chain
Small Black Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The wild summer fate
Once it changed
The tribe lost their shape
The wilderness you range for
Spell it out spell it out
Why should I
There is a way
To break the chain that I lug around
There is a way
That I've known
I heard the tape
It wasn't me
The wilderness you range for
Spell it out spell it out
Why should I
Why should I wait
There is a way
To break the chain that I lug around
There is a way
That I've known
The lyrics to Small Black's song "New Chain" seem to be about the struggle to escape the past and its hold on us. The first two lines express a feeling of being trapped by the "wild summer fate," which suggests a time when everything changed and the singer's life went in a different direction. This change caused the group as a whole to "lose their shape," which could refer to a loss of unity or identity.
The repetition of the line "The wilderness you range for, spell it out spell it out" could refer to the search for something more, something wild and uncharted. The singer seems to be frustrated with waiting for answers and wants to explore this new frontier for themselves.
The lines "There is a way to break the chain that I lug around" and "There is a way that I've known" suggest that despite the struggle, there is a way to move on and let go of the burdens of the past. However, the line "I heard the tape, it wasn't me" introduces a note of ambiguity - is the singer really ready to let go of the past, or is he struggling with something that he can't fully confront?
Line by Line Meaning
I can't escape
I am unable to avoid or evade something
The wild summer fate
I am destined to experience an uncontrollable, chaotic summer
Once it changed
Something altered or transformed
The tribe lost their shape
The community or group became disorganized or disunited
The wilderness you range for
Referring to the unknown territory you explore or the experiences you seek
Spell it out spell it out
Clearly communicate or explain something
Why should I
Questioning the value or importance of an action
Why should I wait
Asking why waiting is necessary or beneficial
There is a way
An option or possibility exists
To break the chain that I lug around
To end a cycle of self-destructive behavior or negative patterns that I consistently carry
That I've known
Acknowledging previous awareness or knowledge of this possibility
I heard the tape
I listened to a recording or message
Contributed by Elliot F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.