You have overshared with 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.On tour supporting their new album Passenger, out 9/1 on Tender Loving Empire Records, Portland-based indie pop band Small Million flows from the collaboration of longtime creative partners Ryan Linder and Malachi Graham. The band welds deeply affecting sonic production to sharp lyrics about intuition and inhibition, losing control and ending up in unexpected places, bodies hurt and bodies joyful. 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 richer textures, raw indie rock energy, folk inspired harmonies, propulsive drums, and shoegaze fuzz.
Payette
Payette is the alias of Boise-based Producer, Songwriter, and Multi-instrumentalist Ryan Elliott, who began honing his craft through DIY recordings in 2018. Featuring a warm voice and a unique blend of pop, rock, psychedelia, and soul, his songs push the fluidity of genre into exciting new territories. With introspective lyrics surrounding the nature of life and love in the confusing modern age, the music invites you to hold on to the good in your world. Common sounds include layered synthesisers, crunchy guitars, and slick bass grooves. What started as a solo project has begun to expand into a more collaborative process with friends, although just as homebrewed as ever. Now featuring a full band for live performances, their sonic concoctions are taking on a life all their own on stage.
Makayla King
There is something innately human about making art. It soothes us, heals us, moves us. Like a jaw relaxing after a tense conversation, our souls relax into a sound, a color, a textile. I hope you dance and sway and find more of yourself as you listen. Because I believe that is the point of sharing: It creates a moment for us to remember ourselves again.
