Skeletosphere fuses Y2K punk and hyperpop

Skeletosphere, an alias for junior communication major Karla Torres, is all about making her sound the perfect marriage of Y2K punk noise and the hyperpop microgenre of the future. Her new EP, “Lovetaker,” explores the confidence it takes to embrace one’s emotions and desires as a woman. 

“It’s four songs that take you through this journey of different aspects of love and revenge,” Skeletosphere said. “It’s kind of about coming to terms with … being like, ‘You know what, I’m going to take everything … I’m going to be greedy and I don’t care what I look like to you.’” 

According to Jonathan D’Aguilar, a close friend of Skeletosphere, “Lovetaker’’ can be an avenue for listeners to channel their emotions while at the same time supporting a lesser recognized division of the genre. 

“What makes her unique is what she’s doing now is a queer version of [the pop punk genre], which I feel like we don’t really get from any other artists these days authentically,” D’Aguilar said. “An incentive to  listen to it is to reverberate with those emotions that she puts out.” 

Tracks like “Boy” and “Try My Blood” demonstrate Skeletosphere’s ‘90s era grunge influence, with heavy guitar backing and angsty, sensual vocals. The final song, “Lovetaker,” highlights Skeletosphere’s voice with the addition of a guitar riff that’s reminiscent of Nirvana. 

The contributing sound mixer to the EP, senior and fellow music industry minor, January Billington, also known as Girl Online, admires Skeletosphere’s sense of originality and indifference toward what kind of music gets the most streams and her choice to instead focus on the grunge rock sound Skeletosphere aligns herself with the most. 

“I really wanted to make sure that D.I.Y, grunge-y vibe was coming through,” Girl Online said. “[Skeletosphere] really wanted it to sound kind of raw and that goes along with the lyrical quality; a lot of it is very confessional and off the cuff and the engineering of the EP is very [telling] of that.” 

As a music artist on campus, Skeletosphere said the majority of the “scene” is very pop or indie pop and reflects what is given the most attention in the media. However, she notices a reemergence of the “DIY scene.” Skeletosphere said she hopes this will help to shoot the genre into the limelight, as her inspiration draws significantly from ‘90s and early 2000s grunge bands such as Hole and Bikini Kill. 

“I especially [like] the female pop punks bands, because the whole subculture of pop punk with all the Zines and the style was really female driven,” Skeletosphere said. 

As a high school student in Northern Nevada, Skeletosphere didn’t immediately come to terms with her pop punk persona that she is most comfortable with today. Instead, the infamous SoundCloud era of the late 2010s drew interest, and as guy friends started making rap tracks on the app, the artist was inspired to pursue her own music. 

“When I was in high school, the songs that I started making were hip hop and pop because that was the most accessible kind of beats to get online,” Skeletosphere said. “From there, [I went into] dark pop, knowing all along that I really like pop punk music, but it’s kind of awkward coming out of the gate making that kind of music when it’s not really popular.” 

Despite mainly keeping her music a secret in high school and dealing with the nerves that came with her peers discovering her sound, Skeletosphere attributes Soundcloud as a big driver in her pursuit of music. 

“Soundcloud was really monumental to me getting into music because in and of itself; it’s a really DIY platform, and it’s a really big community of creative people,” Skeletosphere said. “The reason I got into [rap] artists like Wifisfuneral was because they would sample all of those pop punk bands in their songs … and I thought that was so cool because they were inspired by that music too.” 

Skeletosphere devised her unique pseudonym in middle school. She began to write poetry which then evolved to song lyrics drawing inspiration from lyric-driven artists like Lana Del Rey as she made “random things” on her iPad. “I was dramatic and young, and I wrote a short story about a world called Skeletosphere where everyone was skeletons,” Skeletosphere said. “It does sound really Soundcloud-[like] which is just like a homage in a way. I like the name, it’s very ‘in the making’.” 

Prior to her new EP, Skeletosphere released a track and adjoining music video for her song, “Bad Like Avril,” interlacing the nostalgia of the late ‘90s/early 2000s pop punk scene with the newly emerging Hyperpop scene. Reminiscent of Hole and, of course, Avril Lavigne, the music video is shot through a fish lens as Skeletosphere sings to the camera in a bedroom with poster-covered walls featuring bands like Afterhours and The Doors. 

“What’s he holding you back for, is he even worth it?” sings a mesh-clad Skeletosphere alongside kaleidoscopic visuals. 

For Skeletosphere, it’s crucial to bring light to women in pop punk and alternative genres, because, despite the resurgence of the sound, women are not viewed on the same level as men in the industry. 

“It’s still been historically divided and, hopefully, within our work that we all do with each other and the communities that are growing already, [it] all helps push this genre into more of the mainstream,” Skeletosphere said.