Alien Skin

George Pappas, an Australian musician, fronts the solo endeavor Alien Skin, which produces dark, atmospheric synth pop defined by melodic structures that remain spacious and exploratory. Having performed with new wave act Real Life across the 1990s and 2000s, Pappas launched an independent career that began with the 2008 debut album Don't Open 'til Doomsday. The record reached worldwide listeners drawn to electro-pop and darkwave material, after which Pappas maintained a steady output of albums, singles, and joint recordings that included vocalist Deity as well as Steve Kilbey of alternative rock band the Church. Alien Skin issued its thirteenth album, Put Your Lips on My Lips, in 2022.

Entirely self-taught, Pappas first took up guitar during his youth, then shifted toward electronic music and created synth pop shaped by Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode in the early 1980s. He next formed Strange Silence and staged performances throughout Melbourne before joining Real Life, the group recognized for its 1983 single “Send Me an Angel.” In that capacity he co-wrote much of the 1997 album Happy and the 2003 album Imperfection while participating in tours that visited Europe, the United States, and Australia. By 2005 Pappas had grown interested in pursuing a separate musical path and exited Real Life. Once the debut album was finished, he chose the project name from its final track, “Alien Skin.” A Different Drum—the label that had previously released Imperfection—issued Don't Open 'til Doomsday, which circulated among underground synth pop audiences through outlets such as MySpace. Alien Skin’s second album, the goth-inspired The Unquiet Grave, followed in 2010. In addition to standalone singles such as “Summer of Love,” which featured Steve Kilbey, and a cover of Kraftwerk’s “The Model,” the third album Ghost in the Rain appeared in 2012, accompanied online by the demo collection Volume One.

The Secret Garden arrived in 2013 as Alien Skin’s final release on A Different Drum before the label ceased operations. The lush, downtempo Creature with the Human Face surfaced in 2014. Pappas also recorded Like Strangers Do as a member of the trio Plastic Art Noise. Co-vocalist Deity contributed to the 2015 album A Blue Sky at the Edge of the World and the 2016 album Winter on Mars. European Electronic Cinema, containing the David Bowie tribute “My Polaroid Friend (Thin White Duke),” likewise appeared in 2016. The retro-oriented 1980 Redux followed in 2017, while A Spoonful of Voices, assembled from Winter on Mars session material, emerged in 2018.

After signing with Moscow-based ScentAir Records, Alien Skin released P.O.P. POP in 2019. New Romance: 1984 came out the next year and comprised reworked versions of songs Pappas had originally written and performed in the early 1980s. Cold War Pop, informed by the same era yet built from newly composed material, arrived in 2021. Pappas also retrieved some of his earliest compositions and issued them as 1981​-​1983 Cassette Synthpop. Taking additional cues from that period, the full-length Put Your Lips on My Lips appeared in 2022.