Collection: Small Million

You have overshared to a stranger in a bar bathroom; your back is killing you because of everything you haven’t said; you’ve overwatered your houseplants again. Small Million is here for you.

Passenger (Sept 1 2023), the new album from the Portland-based indie-pop outfit on Tender Loving Empire Records, welds deeply affecting sonic production to smart lyrics about intuition and inhibition; losing control and ending up in unexpected places; being willing to fuck up; bodies hurt and bodies joyful. In the time since the band's last release, years of chronic pain have led lead vocalist and lyricist Malachi Graham to deep explorations of embodiment that have changed everything from her singing voice to her dance moves to her observation of human frailty. “There’s one side of chronic pain that leads you towards intuition, self-discovery, and listening closely to yourself. But it also means you end up sitting on the side of the room a lot, watching people and paying attention,” notes Graham. "Also, you’re pissed." Producer and instrumentalist Ryan Linder centers these intense emotions in his rich textured cinematic production. The effect is both intimate and epic, delicate and fierce. Listen to it to ache, dance to it to heal.

Linder and Graham have been writing as a duo for a decade, but for their newest chapter they've expanded the band, enlisting Ben Tyler (Small Skies) on drums and Kale Chesney (Lo Pony) on bass and harmonies. Small Million's evolution into a four-piece has expanded the band’s sound from their synth pop origins to encompass more organic, raw indie rock energy.

Small Million has played with artists like Fakear, IDER, Hatchie, HÆLOS, Lo Moon, and Loch Lomond. They released their debut EP Before the Fall in June 2016, their follow-up, Young Fools, in Fall 2018. Passenger is out Sept 1 on Tender Loving Empire Records.