SPAER Shares New Single THESE BUGS Ahead of LESSONS AND NONSENSE EP

Spaer, the solo project of Psymon Spine co-founder Peter Spears, has released THESE BUGS, the final single from his upcoming EP, LESSONS AND NONSENSE, arriving via VHS Records. The track, which features vocals from collaborator Katie Mertucci, was inspired by an ant infestation Spears encountered in his apartment. Spaer is set to celebrate the EP with a release show at The Sultan Room Rooftop in Brooklyn, New York, with support from PATCHING and CHAMMEILI.

Lessons and Nonsense arrives August 20, 2026 via Vinegar Hill Sound Records. As an ant infestation spread in Spears' apartment, he found inspiration for his rock opera. Featuring vocals from collaborator Katie Mertucci, the track assembles dreamy melodies, fuzzy textures, and a flashy guitar solo for a true epic. The closing track on Lessons and Nonsense, 'These Bugs,' delivers a finale that is genuine and fitting for Spaer's newest collection of stirring songs.

'Vaguely Pleasant,' the second single off Lessons & Nonsense, was written during an earlier chapter of his life. Spaer's 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.

'The Express,' the first preview of Spaer's new EP, arrived in June. 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.

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.

Tracklist

The Salamander and the Snail

The Express

Indie Movie

Vaguely Pleasant

The Woodstove

These Bugs

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, Spaer's 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. 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.

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.

Speaking about the themes running through LESSONS AND NONSENSE, Spears said he began writing narrative songs about animals and inanimate objects after growing bored with his usual lyrical approach, adding that the songs took on a darker, picture book-like quality shaped largely during the pandemic.

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