Our Brooklyn buds in Small Black are heading West with a new LP that drops today via JagJaguwar. We're psyched to be hosting them again, this time at The Casbah on Wednesday, November 3rd alongside Class Actress, Young Prisms, and Lesands. You can grab your tickets here (presale $8, door $10) and check out the first two singles of New Chain below.

Small Black - "Photojournalist"

Small Black - "Search Party"

Grab your copy of New Chain at Insound, iTunes or M Theory today!

Adam, last summer's intern, recently interviewed Josh from Small Black for his new college radio gig at Emory in Atlanta. Here's an excerpt from his Q & A.

Adam: How did the writing/recording process change on the new record, transitioning from a two piece to a four piece?
Josh: Well, we had more hands/minds to shape the finalized versions of the songs and new skills & tricks to play with. We learned a lot recording the EP as far as how to produce records on our own and I think there was a lot of growth on that front with New Chain.

The new record sounds like an even mix of old and new - what have you guys been listening to lately?
Thanks! Listening to the Emeralds’ record right now. Oneohtrix Point Never, Tanlines, Best Coast, Ducktails.

Did you draw any direct reference or inspiration for New Chain?
A lot of the titles for our songs I'd generate through word games, putting two words together and seeing how they related. New Chain came from that, and I felt like it was evocative and suggested a few different emotions/images. Whether it’s starting anew or being caught within another set of actions, pulling from hip hop stuff like Gucci Mane/Waka Flocka. I love ATL rap jams.

Did you feel any pressure on this new record? I'd imagine recording the EP (before many knew who you were) would feel a bit different than recording a much anticipated debut full length.
It’s definitely a different feeling than doing the EP, because we had no idea if anyone would ever hear it. But there was no pressure, other than for us to be happy with it and live up to our personal standards. Jagjaguwar is a wonderful label and gives us total free reign to make whatever is exciting us. With New Chain, we just wanted to top ourselves sonically and use more of the production tricks we've picked up.

I bet the budget was helpful with that.
Yeah! We were able to mix with Nicolas Vernhes at Rare Book Room, which was a great help at the end of the process. He's worked with bands like Deerhunter, Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors in the past.

Alright, so to wrap this up, any shout outs? New Brooklyn bands we should keep an ear out for?
Lots! Psychobuildings is Juan's darkwave side project with our friend Peter. Prince Rama is super cool. BABIES! It’ s Cassie from Vivian Girls & Kevin from Woods’ new band. Starslinger did a real cool remix of Photojournalist. All his jams are pretty sick.