Skyshaker

Most widely known for their remixes of Kelela, Tinashe, Janet Jackson, Evanescence, and Cardi B, the "Skyshaker sound" has become a signature of New York's queer underground. Their sound has since been associated with industrial techno, deconstructed club, vogue, trance, and reggaeton. As a performer, they have made appearances at Red Bull Music Academy Festival, MoMA PS1, Boiler Room, New Museum, and Resident Advisor events since 2015. Their work has appeared on platforms such as The Fader, Mixmag, DJ Mag, Vogue, The Advocate, DAZED, Paper Magazine, and Artforum. They often cite Yoko Kanno, Aishwarya Rai, Miyavi, Ancient Methods, Ayumi Hamasaki, Janet Jackson, Sigur Ros, Daisuke Asakura, Sade, Imogen Heap, Michael Jackson, Naoki Maeda, Nick Drake, Takanori Nishikawa, Prince, and Trent Reznor as key influences. In 2004, the “Skyshaker” moniker was created as a ghostwriter alias while Vemanei was a lead vocalist of nu-metal band Kizashi Oversoul. As an early proponent of the moombahton sound in 2010, their first solo release under the “Skyshaker” alias was on Indianapolis-based Oreo Jones and Action Jackson’s “Reggie Miller” remix compilation in 2011. From then until 2014, Vemanei continued to work as a ghostwriter and sound engineer for several major label artists. Upon joining MikeQ’s Qween Beat crew in 2015, Skyshaker’s ballroom remix “Shmurda HA” on Venus X and Shayne Oliver’s GHE20GOTH1K was named “one of the best tunes of 2015” by FACT Magazine. During their time as member of the legendary House of LaBeija and Kiki House of Old Navy, Vemanei could be seen in ballroom documentaries KIKI, and Viceland’s My House. As a ballroom historian since 2016, Vemanei was invited by Mexico City’s N.A.A.F.I crew and ballroom pioneers Franka Polari and Vicki Letal to establish the formation of the Mexican ballroom community. Upon founding their Black and femme-focused mental health foundation Reiout Intergalactic in 2018, Vemanei formed the artist collective House of Vemanei as an incubator for the anticapitalist Streamline Xem community. In 2017, The Fader premiered Vemanei’s first release as Futurehood A&R called “Skins”, a collaboration with New York-based activist and poet Linda La. Their remix of Kelela’s “Onanon” on Warp Records in 2018 caught the attention of Shanghai label SVBKVLT, which released Vemanei’s “Novox 10” as a remix album in 2021 to positive reviews. Upon making several appearances on ShinjukuTV in Tokyo, their accompanying DJ mix to promote the album was selected as one of the “Best Mixes of 2021” by FACT Magazine. By the end of 2022, Vemanei’s remix of Prettybwoy’s “Rhapsody” was selected for the video game Fortnite’s “Battle Royale” radio series. Alongside Amazon Miyoko, they assisted Casey MQ in scoring the feature film Soft, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. In January 2023, Vemanei formed the equal rights collective ABCDLFG with Berlin-based artist Hedda Delin. In 2025, Vemanei announced the return of their Airiswyn and Jazgaram aliases with a string of forthcoming releases and upcoming tour set for 2026.