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Mar 24, 2021 By Mark Redfern Photography by Caroline Mathis

New York City chillwave four-piece Small Black are releasing a new album, Cheap Dreams, on April 9 via 100% Electronica. Now they have shared another song from it, “Driftwood Fire.” The song is inspired by frontman Josh Kolenik’s uncle, a passionate surfer who died of a stroke on the beach in 2015 and was the inspiration for much of the new album. The band’s debut album was utilized his attic in Long Island for its creation. Listen to “Driftwood Fire” below.

Frontman Josh Kolenik talked about the new song in a press release: “‘Driftwood Fire’ is a song told from two perspectives. One surfer looking out at the water and another looking back at the shore. The verse offers a conversation between a master and his apprentice in the water, while the chorus marks the cold realization by the novice that they’ll have to put these lessons into practice all by themselves going forward. We wanted to contrast the classic dance elements of the track with the natural world of the lyrics—letting the synthetic interlocking arpeggios & vocoder harmonies interact with the image of a fire on the beach at night. The song lives in the same Rockaway world as ‘The Bridge’, navigating the swell with the big city looming in the distance.”

Last year, the band shared the album’s lead single, “Tampa.” When the album was announced, they shared a stop-motion video for its next single, “Duplex.” Then they shared the album’s third single, “The Bridge,” which was one of our Songs of the Week.

Their most recent album, Best Blues, was released back in 2015 via Jagjaguwar.

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