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

Pleasant Experience
Small Black Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Under ugly moons
Pleasant as it was
I don't assume
I was there at all
The nights so full of flaws
You could be making it up
The seconds that I lost
Gone are all faces

Threaded into the dark
You could be right about
You could be right about
Walking east of the world
I heard laughing
Imagined that it was all
Hideous but true
The wild things we do
It could be nothing of mine
Just someone that I knew
Gone are all places
Threaded into the dark

You could be right about
You could be right about

Overall Meaning

In Small Black's song "Pleasant Experience," the lyrics contemplate the nature of memories and perceptions. The opening lines, "Under ugly moons, / Pleasant as it was, / I don't assume, / I was there at all," suggest a sense of detachment from a past experience. The singer questions the authenticity of their own recollections and wonders if they were truly present in that moment. It speaks to the fleeting and subjective nature of memory, how it can be influenced by one's own biases or even fabricated altogether.

The next lines, "The nights so full of flaws, / You could be making it up," further emphasize this uncertainty. The singer acknowledges that the memories they have may not be entirely accurate or reliable. The mention of the "seconds that I lost" suggests a sense of time slipping away and the inability to recall certain details or faces associated with the past. The phrase "threaded into the dark" adds a mysterious and elusive quality to the memories, as if they have been woven into the depths of the singer's mind.

The second half of the song delves into the theme of perception. The line, "Walking east of the world, / I heard laughing," suggests a departure from conventional reality and entering into a realm of imagination. The laughter mentioned may represent a contrast between the ordinary and the fantastical. The lyrics continue with "Imagined that it was all / Hideous but true," hinting at a simultaneous fascination and repulsion with the unconventional or unexpected aspects of life.

Overall, "Pleasant Experience" explores the unreliability of memory and the subjective nature of perception. It acknowledges the possibility of distorted recollections and questions the authenticity of one's own experiences.

Line by Line Meaning

Under ugly moons
Beneath unattractive celestial orbs

Pleasant as it was
Despite its enjoyability

I don't assume
I do not believe

I was there at all
That I existed in that location

The nights so full of flaws
The evenings abundant with imperfections

You could be making it up
It is a possibility that you are fabricating it

The seconds that I lost
The brief increments of time that slipped away

Gone are all faces
All countenances have vanished

Threaded into the dark
Interwoven into the obscurity

You could be right about
It is plausible that you are correct regarding

Walking east of the world
Journeying towards the sunrise