Stream Billy Vena‘s debut single “Space Hippie” today, before it goes live everywhere tomorrow.
We are delighted to be premiering Billy Vena’s debut single, the lovely “Space Hippie”. A San Antonio local whose interests seem to include vaporwave, GameBoy classic’s and 70s pop music, Billy Vena is trying to re-energise psychedelia by bringing it closer to funk. Whereas a large chunk of modern psychedelic pop feels undercooked on the songwriting side, “Space Hippie” does a complete 180 on the genre: it’s a psychedelic pop song taken to the next level by its delightful soulful vocals. The song comes first and then all the hazy stuff going on complements it, not the other way around. A bit Michael Jackson seen through modern psych-pop lens, Vena is highly reminiscent of some of the excellent work Dent May has done in recent years, or even of Beck’s liveliest material in the late 90s.
Most of all, the best thing about “Space Hippie” is how oversung it is. There’s no restraint here, all the contrary. The song was unsurprisingly written as a recollection of Vena’s first time smoking weed, so confinement is the last thing this needs. “Space Hippie” is funky, is catchy, and is, quite literally, about “feeling like a hippy”. You can’t really ask for more. Billy Vena just signed to Let Me Hear It, so stay tuned for more material from him.
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