The only thing more punk rock than punk rock, when it comes down to it, is comedy. The amount of sheer audacity it takes to stand up alone in front of a crowd and think you can make them laugh is either top-tier level confidence or evidence of an incomprehensible ability to handle rejection. Either way, good comedy is a reflection of the world and its chaos. And isn’t that what good punk rock does as well? It holds a mirror up to our own ‘civilized’ existence and calls out the hypocrisy laid out on a daily basis. Atlanta punk band SMALL does just that. Their old-school, garage-driven punk rock is a gloriously sloppy mess of open high hats, sneered vocals, and straight-for-the-throat guitars. It’s one punch line after the other, right to the gut.
Inspired by a never-ending diet of pop stars and super models, lead singer and guitarist Samantha Severin left behind the stand-up microphone in shitty Georgia comedy clubs for the relative glitz and glamour of the rock and roll stage: ‘I started SMALL when I lost interest in doing stand-up comedy. Stand-up is a big part of me but one day I woke up so heartbroken I just stopped laughing and I never started again!‘ It’s this kind of sardonic reflection that spearheads the punk rock that SMALL rips through. Because while SMALL takes their punk rock seriously, their songs are always delivered with a smirk and a wink.
SMALL‘s punk rock is American through and through, with a healthy dose of Southern wackiness infused into it’s red, white, and blue DNA. There’s the rugged primordial energy of the Stooges and the confident swagger of Keith Morris-era Black Flag. Their February single “Surveillance!” is a great example of this linear transition from the early ’80s to 2025, a four-chord in-your-face slab of socially charged punk. ‘I keep saying ‘yes’ and turning on the video,’ sneers Severin. ‘I’m getting in the shower, you can keep me on the phone.‘ Where the American punk rock of the early age lived on 45s and mail-order tapes, SMALL’s journey is documented by a swipe on a phone.
But SMALL isn’t just calling it in. There’s an organic honesty to the music that is inextricably tied to our modern day experiences. Arguably, there isn’t a city in the States that doesn’t hold a mirror of self-loathing up as effectively and brutally as the ATL. It’s this eager Southern spirit, like the juice dripping from a summer peach, that seems to leave a sticky residue all over the rugged chords the band spews.
‘Atlanta is the site of one of the nation’s first Cop Cities. Everyone here is very aware of the fact that all of our texts and Instagram posts are in a database waiting to be used against us and I think you can hear that paranoia and urgency in a lot of our musical exports. I love the scene here. People are eager to help each other and create together. And people make weird stuff; there’s bands in our DIY scene that other cities have no analog for. The overwhelming vibe is that people are excited to create things and share them with each other. Between the pollen and the police, it’s hard to live here, but the people I’m surrounded by makes it easy to create here.‘
And somewhere between the pollen and police, you’ll find songs like “No One Annoys Me (Like You)” from their 2024 EP Fight Your Way Inside Me. A garage-driven anthem of paranoia, betrayal, mistrust and attitude, the band flails through three-and-a-half minutes of resolute noise. Samantha Severin’s vocal delivery is dripping in contempt, and it’s hard to tell if lines like ‘perfume and wine, I’m back online, I swear I’ll call you all the time‘ is done with sincerity or just to get you off her fucking back. The low-end, punk rock bass of Bratt and Trevor Flanders’s drums are foundational and earthy, devoid of pretense. There’s a simplicity to the song-writing and production that makes you know you are in company of people who aren’t full of shit, and it makes the listening experience that much more delightful.
‘The production process is relatively simple,’ says Flanders, who also engineers and produces the band’s work. ‘We record at the drummers one room home studio. All the guitar amps are close-miked and room-miked including the bass amp- so you get a lot of the sound of the room in the recordings which adds to the organic quality.‘
As for the song-writing, Severin’s transition from stand-up to collaboration was a gradual one, having initially written most of the band’s pieces by herself. Eventually, Bratt and Flanders began adding their own touches to the Atlanta trio’s work, something that’s reflected in the steadily increasing energy of the band’s later releases. ‘They bring a lot of musicianship that isn’t innate to me in how I create things,’ Severin says about her work with the band. ‘It’s very cool to work with artists who get your vision and can help you execute it in ways that you can’t do alone.‘
While there’s always been a healthy amount of females around in the punk rock world, it’s still thrilling to see girls get up there and scream with guitars and combat boots in a genre that’s bursting at the seams with testosterone. With the popularity of bands like Amyl & the Sniffers and Lambrini Girls, SMALL seems poised to take part in what seems to be a ‘moment’ in the world of punk rock. When asked if this was something the band has considered, Severin channels her former stand-up, and responds unironically ‘I guess to me it’s pretty commonplace because I’ve known girls exist my whole life!‘
And that’s the beauty of punk rock, and specifically the punk rock that this rag-tag trio from Georgia is producing. It doesn’t fucking matter what gender you are, or where you’re from – or what’s populating your For You Page, for that matter. What matters is that you get people to listen. SMALL is about getting people to think, to find the space between the pollen and the police state, and to question authority in a way that enables our small parts of the world to make big, everlasting impacts. SMALL‘s contribution might be a modest one at this point, but if they keep making music that makes you want to punch holes through the riot gear, then their impact is going to one that’s felt for a long time.
Join SMALL‘s quest to conquer the world (or at least Cop City) by purchasing their music on their Bandcamp. You can give them shouts and sneers of encouragement by following their Instagram, as well!
SMALL is:
Samantha Severin: guitar, vocals
Bratt: bass
Trevor Flanders: drums
