Skylar Spence

Skylar Spence (formerly Saint Pepsi) creates music that feels like a vivid, hyper-saturated memory of a summer you never actually had. It is built on the bones of 70s disco and 80s city pop, but processed through the digital jitter of the internet age. The sound is characterized by heavy side-chain compression that makes the tracks breathe and pump, paired with shimmering synth leads and nostalgic vocal chops that feel both familiar and alien.

What sets him apart is the sheer earnestness beneath the irony-heavy vaporwave aesthetic. While his peers often lean into the eerie or the slow, Skylar Spence pushes toward the dance floor with a restless energy. He treats Top 40 melodies and obscure soul b-sides with equal reverence, warping them into something that feels like a celebration of pop music's most euphoric impulses. It is 'pop for freaks' that manages to be both technically complex and instantly accessible.

Start with the album Hit Vibes for the definitive blueprint of the future funk genre, where the sampling is at its most inventive. Then, move to Prom King to hear how he integrates his own vocals and indie-pop sensibilities into the electronic foundation. It is the perfect soundtrack for when you want to feel a specific kind of optimistic melancholy.