Skylar Spence

Ryan DeRobertis (known by his stage name Skylar Spence and formerly known as Saint Pepsi) is an American electronic musician and singer who grew up in Farmingville, New York and attended Boston College for two years studying music. His electronic music project Saint Pepsi began in December 2012. As Saint Pepsi, he released his ninth studio album ''Hit Vibes'' in May 2013. He is a current resident of Brooklyn, New York.

Career

Stereogum named him their "band to watch" in July 2013, calling his music "addicting and fun." Pitchfork praised the release of "Mr. Wonderful," the lead track off the 2014 EP ''Gin City'', which was hosted on the music blog Gorilla vs. Bear. In February, Gorilla vs. Bear also hosted the premiere of the track "Baby."

In June 2014, Saint Pepsi went on tour with Painted Palms after signing to Carpark Records, whose roster includes artists such as Beach House, Cloud Nothings, Toro y Moi, and Memory Tapes.

''Hit Vibes''

The 2013 album ''Hit Vibes'' was very well known around the vaporwave and future funk communities, and is highly praised by critics. This would be Saint Pepsi's last full-length album, before changing his alias to Skylar Spence, after some legal trouble involving the name. However, Spence would use the alias again when releasing ''Mannequin Challenge'' in 2019. ''Hit Vibes'' has received acclaim from music critics for its seamless edits and catchy grooves alongside cleverly entwining dialogue from Woody Allen's musical comedy ''Everyone Says I Love You''.

Track listing

''Late Night Delight''

Also from 2013 (this time, collaborating with fellow vaporwave artist Luxury Elite), ''Late Night Delight'' features ''Enjoy Yourself'' which samples Michael Jackson's title track from his 1979 album ''Off the Wall''. The song used, for its music video, a McDonald's commercial from the late 1980s featuring corporate mascot Mac Tonight.

Track listing

''Mannequin Challenge''

Following a six year hiatus with the alias Saint Pepsi, in 2019 a surprise comeback featuring a new album was announced on August 27 and released the 30th of the same month.

Track listing

Style

Spence's musical style has been described as being in the categories of future funk, vaporwave, disco pop, futurepop, liquid disco, slow jam and gibber boogie, although he also borders between traditional music genres. He often incorporates unorthodox sounds in his music, using sources such as the soundtracks from games like ''Mario Kart 64''. He also commonly samples pop songs (ex:
Private Caller
', which also appeared on the compilation album ''Portals Summer II'', sampled Canadian artist Lustt's 1983 cover of Sylvia Robinson's 1973 track
Pillow Talk
)

''The Fader'' calls his nonchalant approach to Top 40 hits "refreshing," and calls his music "restless and nostalgic and sonically curious." He is quoted as saying, "I’m drawn to tuneful melodies; complex chord structures; outlandish synths and drums; and I like to take pop a cappellas and see how I can warp the songs while keeping the melodies almost entirely intact ..I want to make pop music for freaks, basically."

Discography

As The Cold Napoleons

*''Adversaries'' (November 16, 2012)

As Saint Pepsi

Albums

*''Laser Tag Zero'' (December 27, 2012)
*''Triumph International'' (January 1, 2013)
*''New Generation'' (January 2, 2013)
*''World Tour'' (January 3, 2013)
*''Empire Building'' (January 29, 2013)
*''Late Night Delight'' (split with Luxury Elite) (February 2, 2013)
*''Studio 54'' (March 7, 2013)
*''Winner's Circle'' (split with ショッピングワールド hopping Worldjp ) (May 11, 2013)
*''Hit Vibes'' (May 31, 2013)
*''Choice Cuts'' (split with Crowns, Dinosaurus Rex and Harrison) (July 25, 2013)
*''Mannequin Challenge'' (August 27, 2019)

Extended plays

*''Local Singles'' (December 28, 2013)
*''Gin City'' (February 25, 2014)

As Skylar Spence

Studio albums

*''Prom King'' (September 18, 2015)
*''Festival Music'' (TBA)

Singles

*''"Fiona Coyne/Fall Harder"'' (originally released as Saint Pepsi) (August 12, 2014)
*"Polyvinyl 4-Track Singles Series, Vol. 2" (June 1, 2015)
*"Can't You See" (July 7, 2015)
*"Faithfully" (October 10, 2016)
*"Carousel / Cry Wolf" (September 4, 2018)

Mixes

*''Mysteryland'' (June 15, 2016)
*''Alive 2020'' (August 26, 2020)

As Amelia Airhorn

Mixtapes

* ''The Knocks & Skylar Spence Present... Amelia Airhorn'' (June 19, 2017)

Singles

* "Miracle" (June 1, 2017)
* "New York is Red Hot" (June 14, 2017)
* "Street Performers Part. II" (June 19, 2017)

References

External links

*
Saint Pepsi on BandcampSpence's video playlist on the official Carpark Records YouTube channelVideo for ''Private Caller''
on YouTube
Audio only video for ''Private Caller''
also on YouTube

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Skylar
American electronic musicians
Carpark Records artists
Living people
People from Farmingville, New York
Record producers from New York (state)
Vaporwave musicians
Year of birth missing (living people)