Skylar

Boasting over 467,000 followers on TikTok alone, Skylar is already a certified star on the app with the beginnings of a highly lucrative music career. As you’ll soon learn, it’s the 19-year-old’s refreshingly candid approach that has helped secure her going viral. 

The pressure must be unavoidable but most of it comes internally, according to Skylar. “I feel that the person that puts the most pressure on me is myself. I think with songwriting it’s really hard to put pressure on yourself. You don’t create a good song because it’s about being creative in the moment. When there’s no pressure, I write the best stuff and when I’m forced, it’s shit,” she laughs. 

Despite her seemingly coming out of nowhere, music is a career that Skylar was always focused on. Describing herself as the “kind of kid that got bored really easily”, she’d go from wanting to be an astronaut to a writer depending on the day. However, music always came naturally due to her love of English and poetry.  

Inspired by a range of artists, she’s very into storytelling, which is why she loved Lily Allen and Kate Nash. Having a strong admiration for disco and funk artists too, the Bee Gees and Jamiroquai are among Skylar’s favourites. Amy Winehouse was also a key role model for her while growing up. “I thought she was so cool and really resonated as I was growing up,” she starts. “I never had a really sweet voice. I was so jealous of the girls in my year that would do choir. I would sound like a dying cat.” Adding, “Amy Winehouse had this unique, soulful voice. I was like, 'You know what, I’m going to look into developing this rather than being scared of it'.”  

When reminiscing about her first steps into music, she laughs, “When I was younger, I was the really annoying kid who would get all my friends to perform in front of the class. We’d sing those really silly songs, like ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber.” Joking that she “never shut up as a kid” and can still “talk for England”, it was all about making it into a job. After auditioning for the Brit School between the ages of 13 and 14, meeting like-minded people confirmed her career choice. 

"I HAVE A GUILTY THING WHERE I’M SITTING ON THE LOO AND ALL THE BEST IDEAS COME TO ME."

"I have a guilty thing where I’m sitting on the loo and all the best ideas come to me." As for how she wants to be perceived as an artist, she starts, “Very light-hearted, easygoing, and not thinking too much about it.” It’s clear that the reason her popularity has soared is that she acutely understands her listeners. “I think my generation is very perceptible to cringiness. We’re like, 'No, that’s cringe, it’s giving me the ick'. When you’re not trying too hard, the best things come about and are very conversational.”  

Taking this candidness to all areas of her brand, her Spotify reads, “I WANNA BE MYSTERIOUS SO BAD BUT I CANNOT SHUT THE FUCK UP". In her tracks, she always reveals her thoughts on aspects of society. Although never second-guessing herself, she’s naturally, always worried about her social media content. “I try to be as much myself and authentic as possible but it’s difficult. In this day and age, you’re criticized a lot online. It’s like, ‘I’m trying to be diplomatic here’.” After progressing and gaining more of a loyal fanbase, that might be her signal to be more controversial.  

Not that she underestimates the power of her present fanbase. She recently performed her first live show in Leeds and didn’t let people know until the afternoon of that day, in case she was “really awful”. “They’ve been with me on a journey which is so great. The live show itself was amazing. The energy was incredible and it was my first live show, so I was shitting it. It couldn’t have gone better and I can’t wait to do more.” Adding, “I was expecting them to throw tomatoes at me, that’s clearly my lack of self-confidence. It’s nice to have people that believe in me.” 

Her unexpected first hit, ‘Teenage Culture’, happened due to TikTok and lockdown. Using a local studio with a sound engineer, she wrote the song on the piano and he helped her produce it. “We just put it out on Valentine’s Day because it was kind of an anti-love song, I was single and really salty at the time. I was like, ‘I want a boyfriend’. I put the song out and I posted it on TikTok and that coincided, so I didn’t expect it at all.” 

Although her proudest work is her unreleased songs, it’s only because she’s the type of person that hates her music once it’s released. Although, she recognises that others might say, ‘Teenage Culture’, because it’s what allowed her to start doing music full-time. She exclaims: “It took it from a hobby to a full-time job which I’m so grateful for, and obviously happened on TikTok”. She adds: “I love ‘Hair Tie’, that’s a favourite of mine. I’m always a fan of disco, you can’t go wrong with that.”
 

Where her best music comes together might be surprising for some but it’s something that longtime Skylar fans already know. “I have a guilty thing where I’m sitting on the loo and all the best ideas come to me,” she says. “I made a joke out of it and then it became a trend that everyone was posting pictures of themselves on the loo. That’s just something my generation does, we’re so unhinged like that. On my TikTok, you’ll consistently see I’m playing guitar on the loo.” Blaming it on the echo for making her voice sound better, if it’s not broken, why fix it? 

Due to her music, she's been played on Radio 1, attended the Brit Awards, and performed Live at Leeds. It’s even taken her to work with producers in Stockholm as soon as school finished in September. She starts: “In a way, part of my brain couldn’t comprehend that people make music outside of the U.K., which is really silly and naive.” Despite being worried that they wouldn’t understand her British humour due to the language barrier, it wasn’t an issue after all. She laughs: “They’re really funny, you’d be surprised. They actually understood my jokes. It was easy to keep the quintessentially Britishness in my songs which is what I was worried about. There’s some great stuff from Sweden that I’m excited to share in the future.” 

There’s always a debate about TikTok shaping the music industry for good and bad. Skylar believes that it’s become a lot more of a democracy. “It’s not about the ‘CEO white man in a suit’ telling you what you need to do. It’s all about the fans and [...] the audience.” She’s grateful for her fans and their honesty, especially since they’ll tell her if they can sense that it’s more ‘major label’ than her. She adds: “It’s a lot more about your music than the name which is really good.” It’s also a lot more interactive, noting that: “Before an artist had to do a meet and greet to talk to fans but now, an artist can just reply to a comment.” She tells a lot of her followers to talk to her in her direct messages. “It’s much more of a personal connection, which I believe makes more personal music.” 

"I WAS THE REALLY ANNOYING KID WHO WOULD GET ALL MY FRIENDS TO PERFORM IN FRONT OF THE CLASS"

"I was the really annoying kid who would get all my friends to perform in front of the class" It’s this unique dynamic with fans that means a lot to her. Finding it motivational, it makes her happy when fans message about how her music has helped them through a hard time. "Music is therapeutic, so I do it when I’m feeling sad. I know that I’m helping myself but at the same time, helping someone else is amazing.” Her recent first EP had been in the works since the age of 17, and has assured us that new music is certainly on the way in the form of a second EP. 

For Skylar, success is defined by travelling with a job. Already managing that with Sweden, she says: “7-year-old me would be really ticking it off.” After performing Live at Leeds, her sights are set on places outside of the U.K. and is building a fanbase to allow that. “It’s so much more rewarding to know that your job is the reason you travel.” 

Even with living most of her life online, there are still some things that you might not expect from Skylar. She used to play basketball for an American team in her younger years, even though she’s only around 5 ft 1 and the rest of the team was roughly 6 ft tall. The only British girl on the team, they all used to make fun of her accent. She jokingly says: “Maybe that’s why I sing in my British accent, I’m proud of it because of all of the bullying I faced.” One girl accidentally fell on her while playing once, which meant Skylar tore her meniscus and has had two knee operations since. “I’m basically like an old lady with my knees. I also cracked my head open when I was young, which explains a lot.” Skylar is swiftly making her way from your TikTok For You page to a nearby stage, proving that the sky really is the limit - even when you have self-described ‘old lady knees’. 

"I’d Step On Lego For You" is available to stream on all major streaming services. Look out for her forthcoming second EP.