Small Black Vow to Break the Bank to Work With Brian Eno

Small Black isn't completely against the idea of recording with outsiders, but since late 2008, it's been making endearingly warped electro-pop records without anyone's help. Should any producers hear the Brooklyn band's debut album, 'New Chain,' and decide they want to work with the group, they'll have to be persistent.

"It would have to be the right person, and we'd probably want them maybe to approach us and be aggressive," co-founder and singer Josh Kolenik tells Spinner. "We're always interested in someone who has real experience, and learning from them, [but] so much of what we do is so specific, with tones we get. It's really hard for us to convey what we want to someone else. We're all about first takes and sticking with our original sounds and impulses. Recreating stuff always seems to be highly problematic and not good."

Asked if there's any producer he'd like to invite into Small Black's world of vintage Casio keyboards and laptops, Kolenik gives a pie-in-the-sky response.

"Definitely Brian Eno," he says. "He's pretty cool. I don't know -- that's the only guy that comes to mind."

Until that team-up occurs, Small Black will likely continue self-producing its records -- something its label, Jagjaguwar, is fine with.

"They're really about the artist and they want us to be happy with what we do, first and foremost," Kolenik says. "They just gave us an advance for the record, and they were like, 'Spend it however you see fit.' We bought gear and spent the rest on mixing. That's just how we write. We're not going to go into a studio with a guy for more than a couple of days. It just costs too much money. We spent hundreds of hours working on this. I think the pure economics of it -- we couldn't really work with a producer."