Spaer shares new single "Vaguely Pleasant" announces EP
SPAER SHARES NEW SINGLE
“VAGUELY PLEASANT” - LISTEN
NEW EP FROM SOLO PROJECT OF PSYMON SPINE
CO-FOUNDER, LESSONS AND NONSENSE,
ARRIVES AUGUST 20, 2026 VIA VHS RECORDS
EP RELEASE SHOW SET FOR AUGUST 20
AT THE SULTAN ROOM ROOFTOP IN BROOKLYN, NY
WITH SUPPORT FROM PATCHING AND CHAMMEILI - BUY TICKETS
Today, New York City’s Spaer, the solo project of Psymon Spine co-founder Peter Spears, is excited to share another preview of his new EP, Lessons and Nonsense, which arrives August 20, 2026 via Vinegar Hill Sound Records. “Vaguely Pleasant, written during an earlier chapter of his life. Spaer’s new track channels the psychological and emotional state following the euphoria of MDMA, diving into themes of thawed coldness, resolved anger, and seeing life in a new light. Layered with gentle guitars, soft percussion, and breathy vocals, the song feels liminal yet atmospheric, fully capturing the feeling of defrosting your outlook and coming back to yourself.
Speaking about the second single, Peter shares, “This song is an older one as well, so a bit out of character thematically. That said, I don't even fully remember exactly what the lyrics are referencing. I do know that it’s generally about, and was partially written during, the “after glow” associated with the day after MDMA, in a time in my life when I felt a bit cold and angry. It can help reset your perspective and connection to others and leave you feeling vaguely pleasant, hence the refrain and the title.”
LISTEN TO “VAGUELY PLEASANT”
“The Express”, the first preview of Spaer’s new EP, arrived last month. Born from Spears' early days living in Bushwick, the track captures the gut-punch frustration of watching your train sail past without stopping. The song spent over a decade taking shape, arriving at a propulsive, hypnotic bassline that collides with layered harmonies and a second half that veers headlong into swirling, effects-drenched psychedelia.
LISTEN TO “THE EXPRESS”
Lessons & Nonsense is an EP that sweats the small stuff — finding entire worlds in overlooked corners of nature, relationships, and the mundane absurdity of everyday life. Sonically, it draws freely from psych rock, trip-hop, folk, and pop without feeling beholden to any of them, layering lush vocal harmonies over exploding drums, warped samples, and finger-picked acoustic guitar cutting through synth-heavy soundscapes. The songs span years of creative evolution, and throughout, Spaer holds beauty and brutality, humor and sincerity, hope and cynicism in the same open palm.
Spaer will celebrate the EP release on Thursday, August 20 at The Sultan Room Rooftop with support from Patching and Chammeili. Tickets are available here.
ABOUT SPAER:
Spaer is the solo project of musician and visual artist Peter Spears. Like a rainbow quilt sewn of whatever scraps its creator found in the attic, Spaers’ music is eclectic by nature, not force. He’s not trying to seem clever: it is simply how his brain works to erect bridges between sonic lands which most would never think to associate. Those familiar with Psymon Spine (the experimental pop outfit Spears co-founded in 2012) may recognize his unique ability to irreverently, yet convincingly, bend genre until you stop thinking in terms of genre altogether.
While there is clear sonic overlap with Psymon Spine, Spaer definitively inhabits its own space, acting as a sort of test kitchen for Spears to explore some of his most unhinged creative ideas. Vocal harmonies reminiscent of a Smiley Smile era Brian Wilson sit with purpose atop exploding drums and warped samples of Spears’ own voice and instruments. Finger-picked acoustic guitar proliferates otherwise synth-laden and shape-shifting soundscapes for a result that feels psychedelic and broad, yet thematically and sonically cohesive. It’s not easy listening, but it’s easy to listen to and easy to get lost in.
Spaer’s newest offering Lessons & Nonsense sweats the small stuff, with a penchant for metaphor through animism and building boundless worlds in tiny physical spaces. It feels like a friend encouraging you to look - no, really look - at the intricate, meandering channels of a cool leaf he found. If you give yourself fully to the moment, you realize you hold an entire world in your hand. The EP’s opener, “The Salamander and the Snail”, was inspired by a snail he once (actually) saw riding on the back of a salamander, who was itself riding a flip-flop like a life raft. Spears felt moved watching the two tumble in circles around a waterfall at the mouth of a cave and was inspired to write this touching reflection on friendship, futility, and relational cycles. In the EP’s penultimate song, “The Woodstove,” Spears croons from the perspective of a protective and ultimately concerningly possessive woodstove. And in the EP’s closer, “These Bugs,” he lovingly pokes fun at his vegan girlfriend, forced to kill ants following a hostile takeover of their kitchen.
Across the project, Spears is able to hold all at once beauty and brutality, hope and cynicism, humor and a genuine love of life. Fans of psych rock, trip-hop, folk, indie, and even pop, will all find resonance in the expanse of sounds by Spears. And if you don’t care about genre at all, all the better.
ABOUT VHS RECORDS:
Vinegar Hill Sound Records (VHS Records) is an independent, artist-run record label based in Brooklyn, New York, founded in 2024 by producer, mixer, and engineer Reed Black. Born out of the storied Vinegar Hill Sound recording studio, a 1,200-square-foot hybrid analog-digital space housed in a 19th-century former warehouse between DUMBO and the Navy Yard, the label carries forward the studio's ethos of handcrafted, deeply personal music-making.
Black, who has spent over a decade recording major artists including Solange, Karen O, Wet, and Depeche Mode, launched VHS Records with a different ambition in mind: not scale, but intimacy. Inspired by the community spirit of classic labels like Stax Records, VHS operates as a small, deliberately curated roster where every release is made with care and intention.
Free from outside investors and commercial pressures, VHS Records draws its strength from the same source as the studio that spawned it: a belief that the best records are made by people who care deeply, working in a space designed to let them do exactly that.
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Photo Credit: Nicole Miller
