There’s this young electronic artist called Ryan deRobertis, and he’s a pretty rad dude. You might know him as Saint Pepsi or, more recently Skylar Spence, and he recently he released his debut album as Skylar Spence, titled Prom King.
In contrast to early Saint Pepsi material which saw him working primarily with samples, Prom King features deRobertis singing and playing instruments. The album has a part-disco, part-new wave feeling, along with the energy of someone who’s enjoying their youth.
“Affairs” is the second single off the album, and it includes a VHS collage that incorporates clips from ’80s commercials and foreign dramas at high-speed. It’s definitely not the kind of video you see every day. I find deRobertis’s lyrics especially nostalgic, as many of them emphasize coming of age. “I try to move you but I’m stuck to the clouds” is especially resonant.
Speaking about the video, deRobertis told Vulture, “I always thought that advertisements in the ’80s and ’90s had a sort of glamour that actually worked. We frown upon it now because it was a cheap way to sell things, but for me those artifacts stand alone as artistic achievements rather than something youâd use to sell a product, and when we re-contextualize them they look really cool. They tell a story rather than do what they were made to do.”
If you like the video and the sound of Skylar Spence, you can purchase Prom King via Carpark Records and iTunes. Follow him on Twitter @skylar_spence.
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HT: Vulture
IMAGES: YouTube/Carpark Records/Daniel Dorsa