Small Million Picks Up Two More for the Ride

Evolution is a strange thing. Ordinarily happy to work quietly in the background, sometimes it lights you with a spark. Portland-based duo Small Million has always reveled in the awkwardness of growth, but it wasn’t until they expanded into a four-piece band that they truly embraced evolution. 

Ryan Linder and Malachi Graham have spent the last decade combining honest, detailed lyrics with cinema-like production, creating the bittersweet sound of emotionally relatable experiences. Before recording their first full-length album, Passenger, the duo unexpectedly decided to expand their lineup. Drummer Ben Tyler and bassist Kale Chesney have transformed Small Million from subtle alt-synth to rose-cheeked indie-pop. The additional harmonies bolster Graham’s voice to a lusher range, further emphasizing her raw, transparent lyrics. The added layers of Tyler’s drums and Chesney’s bass create flourishes that slide easily into Linder’s rich production style. Singles like “The Overkill” embrace the band’s dual nature, with lyrics simultaneously seeking confrontation and forgiveness. While Passenger’s newest single, “Lightswitch,” is a humbling account of coming to terms with the limitations of our bodies. Small Million is still telling impactful, clear-voiced stories, but now they are working in full technicolor.

We sat down with Ryan Linder and Malachi Graham at Treefort Music Festival earlier this year to discuss the band's evolution and enduring musical partnership. Passenger is set to be released on September 1st through Tender Loving Empire. 

Ryan Linder, Malachi Graham, Kale Chesney, and Ben Tyler. Photo by April Massey

AM: You recently expanded your lineup with two new members. What was behind that decision?

Ryan Linder: As musicians, we constantly evolve, so that seemed like a natural progression. Live drums were the first thing we talked about. We’d already been collaborating with Kale, so we roped them into the project.

Malachi Graham: New textures can send you to new places. Our first two EPs, Before the Fall and Young Fools, are synthpop and electronic. Now that we’re a four-piece with harmonies, drums, and guitars, it’s been nice to integrate indie-pop with more rock sounds. 

RL: Both Ben and Kale bring something different to the table. The harmonies Kale writes are not the harmonies Malachi writes. I write beats, but I’m not a drummer. They elevate our sound.

MG: And they’re fun people—75% of making music is just having a good hang. 

AM: It’s been just the two of you for the past ten years. How has adding new members changed your dynamic and how you create together?

RL: There’s the band dynamic in practice, the band dynamic performing live, and the writing process. All three of those have changed. We’ve always loved playing together live, but now with the additional instruments, it feels fuller. 

Ryan Linder and Malachi Graham performing with Small Million at Treefort Music Festival. Photo by April Massey.

MG: It’s looser. There are more people to bounce off of, and it spreads the attention around. Writing still starts with Ryan and me. I work more on lyrics, and Ryan is more on production, instrumentation, and cord building. We collaborate on melodies. After that, we loop in Ben and Kale. We’re so grateful for their wisdom and inspiration; it levels up everything. 

AM: Was it starting to feel like you’d reached the end of the road or had done as much as you could as a two-piece?

MG: We could’ve kept going as a two-piece; we were just more excited about being a four-piece. Quarantine and that intense lockdown period made us hungry to play with more people. Our collaboration is still central to what we do, although convincing Ryan to play a show without live drums is hard to imagine now. 

RL: We didn’t go into this thinking, “We’re stuck with just the two of us,” but now that we have more people in the band, we need them; we can’t go backward.

AM: So, Small Million is officially a four-piece band now?

MG: We will play as a three-piece sometimes, but in our minds, the band is a four-piece now.

RL: Yeah, it’s a four-piece.

MG: We haven’t said it definitively. We’re being kind of weird.

RL: Kale and Ben are excellent musicians and have their own projects. We want them in the band forever, but they need to do their own things.

MG: Birds gotta fly.

RL: For Malachi and me, the band is a four-piece.

AM: Your list of influences ranges from electronic to Appalachian folk. How do those boil down to the music Small Million makes?

MG: When Ryan and I first met, almost all of my experience was as an Americana and folk songwriter. The clear melodies and storytelling of old-time folk and bluegrass were what I immersed myself in as a young artist.

RL: The center of the Venn diagram of our musical tastes is emotional, borderline sad.

MG: That is the connective thread, music with an intense emotional hook. 

RL: Melodic, emotional music.

MG: Ryan also has a background in film that gives him a cinematic ear. That’s what I like about his production; our music feels like a movie. 

AM: You’d think folk and synth-pop wouldn’t have anything in common, but they do have that throughline of communicating pure emotion.

MG: We want to write music that grabs at your gut. 

Ryan Linder, Ben Tyler, Malachi Graham, and Kale Chesney performing at Treefort Music Festival. Photo by April Massey

RL: Sometimes a song has a great melody, but the lyrics are pop-candy. Great lyrical content is important for longevity—that’s what Malachi is good at.

AM: With the new band members, are you also getting new influences on your sound?

MG: Kale is an incredible guitarist and folk musician. Their project Lo Pony is out of this world. Having that more acoustic side to jam and explore with has been fun. Ryan and I have a shared language, but Kale and I share a folk language that has enhanced our music. Ben can play anything. He’s a fantastic jazz drummer. He’s played in so many projects; there’s just no stopping him. 

RL: The stuff we were influenced by in the past is still there. Incorporating Ben and Kale have touched on it in a new way. Adding live drums brought up bands like Beach House and Arcade Fire, music that influenced me before I started writing with Malachi. 

AM: Has it been hard to maintain the sound of Small Million?

MG: The collaboration between Ryan and I is very strong and fluid, but Ben and Kale are lovely people that fold into our mix nicely. 

RL: As long as Malachi and I are playing together, it will still have a throughline even if we’ve added more people. 

MG: We still keep our collaborative time for the two of us to lay the groundwork in the studio. 

AM: Your partnership is still the core?

RL: If we were to write differently in the future, starting with drums or something, it would still have to resonate with both of us. If it’s doing that, then it’s a Small Million song. 

MG: Sometimes, a song will only resonate with one of us. So we keep working until it hits us both. We’ll never put out something that doesn’t resonate with both of us.

AM: Besides adding new members, what’s the biggest difference between the making of your first EP and your latest album?

MG: Ryan is very dedicated to making our music sound like he hears it in his head. So we’ve made a lot of improvements in recording technique and technology. I can hear the seed of what we’re making now in our earlier work, but I’m a lot prouder of what we’re doing now. That is partly sound quality, but I’ve also become more comfortable articulating intensely personal truths as I've gotten older. 

RL: In another ten years, we’ll look back at what we’re making now and probably think the same things.

‘MG: Awww, look at those babies. What did they know about making music? 

RL: Hopefully, people will still be listening. I don’t know.

MG: They’ll still listen, Ryan.

Kale Chesney, Ryan Linder, Malachi Graham, and Ben Tyler. Photo by April Massey

AM: You have a new album cycle coming up; beyond that, what does the future look like?

MG: We’re putting out new music this year and touring in the fall. Beyond that, we’re just going to keep writing stuff we like. 

RL: Keep writing, keep releasing, keep performing. 

MG: That’s what’s interesting about collaborating for so long. You’re like, “Oh, I really enjoy this. I like having this collaborative language. Getting to work out my feelings and write music that is fun to perform.” I don’t know what our far-reaching goals are. I’m just having a great time.

This article has been edited and condensed.