Small Fools and The Cycle of the Stars
Having grown up during the nineties and noughties under a Great British musical landscape, you understood what pop music was, and what pop music certainly wasn’t. Everyone had the highest opinions on what pop music absolutely was not, even though looking back, it was kind of all pop music.
But this is under a modern interpretation. We now live in a time where pop music can be anything it wants to be. Rarely would you have seen the words ‘medieval’, ‘renaissance’ and almost definitely not ‘classical’ woven into the interpretation of pop music in the 90’s and 00’s. And that’s what is so wonderful about pop in the 2020’s. Let me tell you about Small Fools and their latest single ‘Violet’.
Nathan and Ruthie Prillaman are Small Fools.
The duo of Small Fools are made up of brother and sister Nathan and Ruthie Prillaman. Born in Potomac, Maryland, the siblings reside at opposite ends of the United States, with Nathan in New York and Ruthie in Los Angeles.
Both are composers in their own right, with Nathan writing for film, ballet and theatre. In film, he specialises in writing historically accurate pieces performed on period instruments, while focussing on neo-classical music for ballet and immersive electroacoustic sounds for theatre. In 2021, Nathan composed a new score to choreographer Norbert De La Cruz III’s work ‘Fluency’ at Juilliard School’s Center for Innovation in the Arts where he is currently serving as part of the music technology faculty.
Ruthie has written for television and has been commissioned by choirs and orchestras across the United States, having premiered a new children’s orchestral work called ‘What About The Duck?’ with the Utah Symphony in 2024. The short 15-minute piece is an intended sequel to Prokofiev's ‘Peter and the Wolf’ inspired by composer Andrew Maxfield’s son. Ruthie has also co-written a best-selling novel with Kate McMillan entitled ‘Maple’s Theory of Fun’, aimed at pre-teen readers.
Small Fools single artworks for ‘Horseradish’, ‘A Secret Dialogue on the Side of a Mountain’, ‘Spruce Grouse’ and ‘Haunt This Place’.
As Small Fools, the siblings have been releasing music since early 2023, beginning with the bluegrass single ‘Horseradish’ and continuing with the well-received four-track EP ‘Crying In My Subaru’. The latter combines Nathan’s electronic tendencies with Ruthie’s choir layering and minimised lyricism. The result is like driving through a medieval town in an EV.
‘A Secret Dialogue on the Side of a Mountain’ is a purely instrumental single, fusing folk stringed instruments and further exploring the electronic sound heard on their EP. The dreamy ‘Spruce Grouse’ followed in the summer of 2023 and ‘Haunt This Place’ was released for Halloween.
With the highly layered nature of their work, their studio playthroughs recorded by the band on their YouTube channel explore just how intricate their arrangements are. Nathan plays the mandolin, classical guitar and banjo parts for ‘A Secret Dialogue’, while Ruthie breaks down the five vocal lines for ‘Departures’ (even the pitched down one!). On Instagram and TikTok, the siblings have boosted their following through their wit and storytelling whilst incorporating their songs in fun and exciting ways.
More recently in 2024, Small Fools released their first single of the year, ‘Where Are We Going (Nowhere)’. The track combines a bouncy instrumental and uplifting melody with existential lyricism, showing the diverse range in their sound between folk, electronic and choir. Their latest single, ‘Violet’, will feature on their forthcoming debut album.
‘Violet, sweet enchanted ground, she sings without a sound…’
‘Violet’ opens with the twinkle of plucked strings and is brought together by the voice of Ruthie Prillaman amid subtle thumping percussion. We know by now the strong choir capability of Ruthie’s vocal layering, but it’s the closeness of her lone lead that truly reveals the richness in her tone. This and the first verse featuring words that sound as though they exist in the dictionary purely for her to sing them:
‘Dye the earth, a deep Phoenician hue, carry me to you. Cry your worth, my Elysian view, is sunset blue.’
The mood is set in ‘Violet’ by Nathan’s guitar work, which is greatly elaborated on within their arrangement for the second verse. There is no chorus to speak of, but one would be out of place in this song’s progression. Nathan’s original melody comes alive under Small Fools’ collaborative writing technique. The duo’s musical tapestry flourishes with undulating chords expressed in a myriad of stringed instruments, keyboards, percussion and vocal ensemble.
It’s incredible that so much musical expression can take place in just two and a half minutes, if only there was more of it. However, this trickle of music so far in 2024 is just the beginning for the duo, as they prepare to release their debut album and redefine what pop music means to them. ‘Violet’ is all at once folk, renaissance, classical and the ageless human condition. It could be performed by choirs, folk trios or a teenager with a ukulele, such is the wide appeal of this band.
What is so fascinating about Small Fools is how their writing and production straddles the line between antiquity and futurism. This isn’t to say their sound is wholly “2020’s”, lingering in the present. It’s a sound the past envisioned of the future, whilst also being the nostalgic painting pieced together by our distant descendants.
Continue reading for our Q&A with Nathan and Ruthie Prillaman. We ask about the origins of writing ‘Violet’, the duo’s familial and musical history, plus details around ‘Crying In My Subaru’. We also ask them about potential live performances and their connection with classical music. All this and more below!
1. You've just released your single 'Violet', taken from your forthcoming debut album. Talk us through the writing of this track, is there a typical way you write songs together?
Nathan Prillaman: Since both of us write music and lyrics, it really varies for every song. Sometimes one of us comes in with a whole draft of a song, or just a microscopic melodic pattern, or anything in between. For Violet, it started when I came up with a little draft of a fingerstyle guitar line alongside a vocal melody with placeholder lyrics. Then, Ruthie took that melody and lyrics and iterated on it, and then sent it back to me. After a few rounds of that process, we had a pretty finished framework for a song.
Ruthie Prillaman: This one was fun in particular because the guitar line Nathan sent had such a strong mood to it. Yearning and melancholy. I felt transported by it and that inspired me to get into a place of cosmic heartbreak with the lyrics. At first the whole song was pretty quiet and acoustic, but we felt like the emotions needed to bloom in the second section, so we added the drum and the choir. If there’s one thing that’s typical of our songwriting, it’s that we do love a choir.
2. At the risk of breaking some kind of international music journalistic code, who is Violet? You can answer in two truths and one lie if it helps.
Nathan: We actually have a couple of friends named Violet (or some variation thereof) each of which we are worried are going to think this song is about them, but we swear it’s not! There isn’t a specific “Violet” that this song is about - Violet is sort of an amalgamation of people who have played this role in each of our lives.
Ruthie: If anyone asks me in real life, I’m going to say that “Violet” is merely a color. Or better yet, a patch of flowers where I long to lay my head. Figure THAT out, Violet!
3. As siblings, have you always written music together? When did it start and what was the very first piece you wrote?
Nathan: The earliest music we made together was retroactively titled “Duet for Two Screaming Children” sometime in the distant past. But seriously, we’ve always made music together. It started out occasionally playing piano duets, moving to accompanying each other to playing in bands together in high school. We can’t really accurately identify a first piece, since our collaboration goes back before our memories do.
4. Given your less-than-casual association with the artform, what's your family history with music? Are your parents musical as well?
Nathan: Neither of our parents are professional musicians, though they both love music. A lot of folks in our family play music for fun.
Ruthie: Nathan got really interested in music when we were kids and I, being a little sister, had to completely copy him.
5. I first heard your music when Pacing shared 'Crying In My Subaru', did you think there would be as much algorithmic potential for that single as there has been? Dare I ask what inspired this one?
Ruthie: The phrase “crying in my subaru” came to me in a burst of inspiration (or maybe I was just crying in my subaru). I don’t even have a Subaru anymore but I learned to drive in our dad’s subaru and thus, tears were shed. We thought it would be so funny to have this melodic line that starts out seeming melancholy and feasibly old-fashioned until it suddenly turns into this inside joke from modernity. Subarus are a beloved car in the queer community and sadgirl anthems are such a staple of queer music, so this was my little homage to that. I recorded it as a tiny little four-part harmony, and Nathan thought it would be hilarious if we spun it into something bigger.
Nathan: Crying in My Subaru draws a lot of inspiration from Notre-Dame School polyphony of the 12th and 13th centuries, particularly Pérotin. There’s a concept called a cantus firmus in a lot of European medieval polyphonic music where a pre-existing melody is used as the basis (sometimes even just as the bass line) for a large-scale composition. That melody could be from a pre-existing monophonic chant, or even a piece of secular music. You end up with this scenario where popular songs end up modified, elongated and extrapolated into an element of a large scale composition (“L’homme armé” is the classic example).
We took a similar approach by writing a short song, which takes up the first little chunk of Crying in My Subaru, and then used that as the cantus for a larger choral composition. You could think of it sort of like medieval-style sampling. We didn’t use 100% medieval styling in the song (not many Subarus in the middle ages after all), but that’s what inspired us structurally.
Ruthie: We definitely thought our very niche internet friends would find it funny but had absolutely no idea it would have the kind of reach it’s had. The most gratifying part is that a couple of choirs have performed it!
6. I love the excitement that comes through in your social media posts surrounding your music, do you see social media as more something you have to do, or is it all part of the fun?
Nathan: We love sharing fun and interesting and weird stuff with people in our lives, so we try to treat it like that when we can. There’s always going to be some level of un-fun work involved, since we’ve got to navigate the algorithm, but that’s part of the gig.
Ruthie: We’ve made a ton of friends through social media (like Pacing - we’re now IRL friends! We sang a Diane Cluck song together at a gig!). We’ve managed to find ways to foster genuine connection and collaboration through social media. When I start thinking of how to change myself or my music to better suit social media, everything suffers. But when I think of social media as one of many ways to get me to my people, I have a really good time.
7. 'Crying In My Subaru' was later played on ABC Classic, how did that make you both feel to get airplay on a classical station?
Ruthie: That was a really fun day.
Nathan: We both have a lot of background in classical music, so we’ve always been excited about classical radio, but we never expected that it would be through a medieval-inspired track about crying in a Subaru. We love that folks connected with it, and that the ABC Classic folks were willing to share it. Classical music can sometimes be a very traditionalist, closed-off world so it’s wonderful when folks are open-minded and supportive of stuff that’s weird.
8. I've not seen many independent artists selling sheet music of their songs, what does it mean to you to be able to connect with musicians with a music theory background?
Nathan: Being able to share the sheet music is really fun for us. A lot of the time folks think of songs as not really existing separately from a particular recording or performance, but having sheet music helps makes it explicitly clear that the “song” is a separate entity that is just being interpreted by whoever is performing it. We hope that this gives people permission to engage the music how they want, without necessarily needing us to interpret for them.
Ruthie: We started getting a lot of requests for Crying in My Subaru, in particular, because it’s something that choirs can sing. We love the idea that our music can be a communal experience for people to make music with each other. We also love that we’ve been able to connect with tons of listeners and musicians who don’t necessarily read music or have a classical background.
We have always felt that we want our music to be accessible and nobody needs to have any pre-existing musical knowledge to engage with it.
9. And favourite classical composers for you both and why: Go!
Nathan: This is a dangerous question. If I go too esoteric, people will think I’m lying to be cool, but if I go too approachable, folks will think that I don’t have a developed sense of taste. If I mention anybody who I know personally or am one step removed from, other folks who I know will send me emails saying “why didn’t you mention me?”
I grew up playing a ton of Bartók’s music on the piano, so he’ll always have a special spot for me. Frédéric Chopin, Olivier Messaien, Gustav Mahler and Arvo Pärt have had a big impact on me as well. I’ve got a weird little soft spot for spectral music too. Beyond that, there is a TON of cool stuff happening in the new music space right now and there are a lot of living composers creating really interesting music. I need to make a playlist of my faves.
Ruthie: My thing has always been choral music and gorgeous harmony. Rachmaninoff, Bruckner, Brahms are great. I love a holy minimalist like Tavener and Pärt. Caroline Shaw and Anna Meredith are two musicians who inspire me with their amazing experimentation and genre-hybridity. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Hildegard Von Bingen who is an icon in so many ways. Did you know she made up a whole language?
10. You also released the deceptively upbeat 'Where Are We Going (Nowhere)' in 2024, what do you like about combining a sunnier sound with a deeper lyric?
Nathan: That dissonance between word and text really gets to the root of what we were feeling with that song. So much of the time, we have to put on a happy face and trudge through whatever we’re dealing with in our lives. It’s like how whenever anyone asks “how are you doing,” the answer is always “great,” no matter what the truth is.
Ruthie: I also feel like sometimes you get so deep into some kind of existential despair that you come out the other side and discover that there’s joy there. Then all you can do is laugh and bounce around and appreciate the big ironies and the small victories. That’s kind of my whole experience of being alive.
11. I love the artwork for your recent singles, who was responsible for that?
Nathan: There are a bunch of different artists for our singles. Here’s the list:
Violet and Where Are We Going - We adapted this art ourselves from the Book of Hours of Simon de Varie from the 15th century. The miniatures are done by four or more artists (according to wikipedia) “hand A who may have been a workshop member of the Bedford Master, the anonymous illustrators known as the Master of Jean Rolin II,[1] the Dunois Master (hand C) and the French miniaturist Jean Fouquet.” So, we don’t know who did the original art. We took this art and edited it ourselves, inverting the colors, making some edits and mashing some things together.
Haunt This Place - Nathan got a set of stamps to play with and ended up making this.
Spruce Grouse - this one was designed by Emily Poole. Emily’s illustration is what inspired the song, actually! One of the best collabs that came about through social media!
A Secret Dialogue on the Side of a Mountain - Ruthie made this one. Inspired by iconography of stylites, which were these hermit guys who went and lived on top of a pillar for the rest of their lives.
Crying in My Subaru - this is by artist and author Kate McMillan. Kate and Ruthie recently published a book together. It’s a subaru cathedral! Kate is a really incredible artist who does concept art at Disney.
Horseradish (and Horseradish Chiptune Remix) - Ruthie adapted a medieval illustration of some weird vegetable guys to look like our faces for this one. Based on an illustration of “mandragora” aka mandrakes.
12. It would be dreamy to see Small Fools out performing some gigs, is this a possibility at all?
Nathan: We’re working on it! We’ve been working on some cool technology to bring some of our trademark sounds to the stage. Stay tuned!
13. 'Violet' will be on the debut album from Small Fools, what can you tell us about the music that's to come?
Nathan: It’s esoteric and maximalist, but comes from the heart.
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Listen to and purchase the music of Small Fools on their Bandcamp page.
Visit their store to purchase cardigans, t-shirts, sheet music and more!
For more information about Small Fools, visit their official website.
Find out more about the individual works of Ruthie and Nathan on their websites.
Follow Small Fools on Instagram and TikTok @smallfoolsmusic.
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