Multi-platinum indie alt-pop artist Dayglow, also known as Sloan Struble, has just released his self-titled album DAYGLOW via Mercury Records. It includes his latest singles “Every Little Thing I Say I Do” and “Cocoon.” Many might know Struble from his breakout hit “Can I Call You Tonight?” off of his mixtape Fuzzybrain which reached Double Platinum. The Austin-born, Malibu-based singer is nothing else but multi-talented. He writes, mixes, produces, performs, engineers and records all of his music himself.
On his latest record, he is being entirely himself and he tackles personal issues that many can relate to wrapped up in a funky, upbeat and typical Dayglow manner.
1883 sits down with Struble to discuss his latest album DAYGLOW, what the record means to him, life on tour and more.
Hey Sloan, how are you? I’m so excited to talk to you because I love your music. I’ve been a huge fan for years.
Thank you. I am honoured and so excited.
I’m so happy about your new album, I feel so honoured that I got to listen to it already.
Yeah, I was going to ask if you already heard it.
Yeah, I have. I still obviously need to let everything sink in. But I have listened twice, also on my way home before the interview. How are you feeling today? If you could describe your mood with a song, which one would it be?
I feel good. I’m trying to think of a song that talks about feeling good. Michael Bublé has a song about feeling good. I’m feeling good. It’s not my genre.
I’ll take that! I’m glad you’re feeling good! How are you feeling now your self-titled album is coming out?
I’m feeling really good. I don’t think I have processed that it’s happening. I’ve just been focused on trying to make TikToks. But I’ve been so excited for this album to be out for a long time. A lot of these songs have been with me since Dayglow started when I was 17. I’m excited. I think so excited that I don’t even feel it, it‘s like I haven’t processed it yet. I think playing shows will be when it clicks. But I don’t think, I personally, even realize how soon it’s happening. It‘s so exciting.
I feel like your music has been with so many people for years and it’s so exciting to get a new album. I’ve been listening to Can I Call You Tonight? a lot, it’s a classic that everyone knows. And I also love Crying on the Dancefloor. All of your songs immediately put everyone in a good mood. When I listened to the new album I was like: ‘Yes, this is so Dayglow’. One of my favourites so far is Nothing Ever Does. What is your favourite song, if you had to choose?
That’s funny that you said it’s your favourite. I feel like from a radio pop perspective, I think that’s been the lowest on the tier. But you’re not the first person who’s heard the album that said that which is interesting. I think it’s the most high energy, it punches you in the face. With this record, it’s also inspired to sound so Dayglow, because that was the goal. And I feel like when people hear it, that is their conclusion, but nobody knows exactly what that means. It’s just like: ‘Oh, this is totally what Dayglow has been. And it sounds like Fuzzybrain, but I think it is its record. I think it feels so Dayglow. And I think it finally clicked for me, what that meant. And, I mean, it’s self-titled, so, it’s just going to make sense.
This is what Dayglow is. It‘s so self-explanatory. I think Mindless Creatures is probably my favourite, just considering the backstory and its emotional value. It was the first Dayglow song I ever made. And I made it when I was 16 and the song is about being jaded and feeling burnt out, which I found myself feeling. So I rewrote the song to myself. And it’s this full circle Dayglow world moment. So that’s probably my favourite.
So all of the songs have been years in the making?
Yeah, the first song and the last song are both old, so “Broken Bone” I had written, but didn’t finish when I was making “Fuzzybrain”. “Mindless Creatures”, the original version is on SoundCloud, original Dayglow fans know about it. It sounds completely different now. Those are the two that are old, and then everything else I wrote in the past two years.
If you would compare this record to your previous records, and as we spoke about before, it’s still Dayglow, but what did you do differently while recording or writing the songs? And what do you want your fans to take away from this album?
The writing process was technically still the same. I mixed this album myself. So, what you’re hearing no other person has touched the music at all. It got mastered. That‘s kind of a complicated process. But it‘s basically from me to the listener, and that’s how it’s always been. But in terms of how I recorded it, my last record, People in Motion, was very dance focused and I went down this wormhole of electronic music and electronic tools on how to make dance music which was extremely fun to make, but it was a side quest and I got a little burnt out of doing that.
And so what I did was, I sold almost all of my gear. For the first half of making this record, I had the same setup as I did for Fuzzybrain, which was just one guitar, one bass, headphones, a computer, and that’s it. It was fun to strip things back and make it as raw and from the source as possible. Make it as Dayglow as possible. That was the goal, to be influenced as little as possible by anything other than myself. And I think it worked.
It did! You did a good job, also lyrically. If you had to pick three lyrics from the new album, what are your favourite ones that you’ve written?
Nothing Ever Does is pretty all the topics and all the songs are pretty existential and pretty heavy. And I think I covered a lot of philosophical things in this record, like on the song Weatherman. It’s a song about thinking that you can predict the future and using a Weatherman as a metaphor for saying what the weather’s gonna be like, but there are so many variables that could affect that. It’s like, who cares if it’s raining later today if there’s going to be an alien invasion that we don’t know about?
And so it’s this funny thing about predicting the future, and the depth of that. Nothing Ever Does is a song completely about having a panic attack and having anxiety but also feeling as an artist like you almost need anxiety to make the art. And so the lyrics in the chorus are: “If I wait for the noise to die down and go home, then I’ll lose where the source of it is. And I need it.” So it’s like saying: “This sucks, and I have anxiety, but I almost need this anxiety to make music.” And the weight of that. There’s a lot in the lyrics, and a lot of me fighting with reality and being a human, but all covered up by catchy major music.
That’s what I was thinking. Because I think one of my favourite lyrics is from the chorus of Nothing Ever Does. You sing “Wishing everything could stay the same, but nothing ever does.” It’s like, yeah, actually, everything is changing, and it’s sad, but the song just sounds so happy.
Yeah, in that song too, it’s ironic because the song is talking about how you can’t have a grip on anything despite how hard you try and everything changes, but the song itself is one chord. And I tried to make it feel ironic that lyrically it’s about nothing ever staying the same, but the song itself is just one chord.
I don’t know much about music, so writing music, but now that you mention it, that’s a cool take on it. And what was the most challenging, about creating this album?
That’s a good question. I think this has just been my conclusion, being an artist and being a creative person, your brain exists in very extremes. You have high highs and low lows. Artists aren’t people that exist in a grey area. To make impactful things, you have to feel them deeply. And that’s the burden you bear as an artist.
Making this album, it’s just been a journey. I’ve had a lot of really low lows, and also just triumphant highs of self-discovery because this wasn’t a concept album. This is an album where I was trying to be like: “This is who I am.” At least in terms of Dayglow, this is what Dayglow is. I had to refine my vision work on myself in a lot of ways and be brutally honest with myself. It’s been the best year of my life, but honestly, probably also the hardest. I’ve grown a lot. I’ve been through a quarter-life crisis and I think I’m coming out on the other end.
I think it’s also a lot about reflecting on being in your 20s. If you could describe the album in three words, what would they be?
Dayglow world domination. I’m gonna go with that. [Laughs]
That’s a good one! [Laughs] You’re gonna tour the album as well which is so exciting! What’s your favourite thing about going on tour?
I love tours. I love playing shows. That to me is hand in hand with what Dayglow is. People have to see a Dayglow show for it to make sense. I think that’s happened to a lot of people. It clicks for them after they see it and live the experience in person, because I think that just provides so much context to what I love to do and how I like to present Dayglow as a whole. When I started Dayglow, my idea was very much live band-focused, it’s just me. But I wanted to make songs that could be played live by a band, kind of like Tame Impala. But my favourite part about touring is meeting fans and seeing what has happened. How do people know about my music? It’s crazy.
With Fuzzybrain I was genuinely just from a small town in Texas and made the album by myself. And random stuff had happened. Emma Chamberlain had reposted my song and all these random things that happened that brought my music to people across the world and now I have a label which is so incredible and I’m so stoked. But from the beginning, I was like: “How is this happening?” Playing shows is always so cool and meeting people. And I’m like: “How do you know my music?” I just love meeting fans.
Your music is the epitome of summer for me. You mentioned Emma Chamberlain, she has a lot of playlists for her coffee company on Spotify. A lot of your songs are on them like Listerine and Can I Call You Tonight? You should look it up on Spotify. Chamberlain Coffee.
Oh really? I didn’t know that, that’s so cool!
It is! What’s one of your favourite things that a fan has said to you?
I made a series on YouTube. About how I produced my songs and how I made my songs, and that’s been a cool thing that has impacted a lot of my fans. And I didn’t realize how many of my fans were fellow musicians, and so a lot of times people would stop me and be like: “Hey, because of you I learned how to record this song and I learned how to make music, and now I’m going on tour.”
That’s cool to pass that on and remove the veil of this mystery of people can do it. One of my other things with Dayglow is, that my goal is, I just want to make the art that I wish existed already. I wouldn’t need to feel the need to be another version of this person that already exists because they already do. With Dayglow, I want to make music that I wish was there. I love my music and I love listening to it because I’m making the songs that I wish existed. And the YouTube series was the same thing. I was like: “I wish I could look at my favourite artists and know how they made their songs.” And so I did it, and it’s been effective.
Who are your top three musical inspirations?
I love Phoenix. I think they’re probably my favourite band. A lot of The Strokes and just that era of early 2000s indie rock that’s melodic and happy. Weezer fits into that category too. So, there’s my three. Yeah, Phoenix, Weezer, The Strokes.
Who are your dream collaborations that you would want to pursue?
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. I’ve always been really scared to collaborate with people, not because I feel like they would change anything, but because I always thought: “Why would anybody want to collaborate with me?” That’s my negative thoughts.
But recently, I’ve opened up that part of my brain. It woild be cool to collaborate with anybody, a legacy artist like Phoenix or Vampire Weekend. In terms of modern music, I’d love to collaborate with Olivia Rodrigo. If Olivia Rodrigo is reading this, let’s make a song. [Laughs]
We will make this happen! I will tag her when this interview comes out, and I’ll post it on my story. [Laughs] And what’s the best career advice you’ve gotten?
Ooh, that’s a good question. It’s something you have to remind yourself of, don’t take yourself too seriously. It’s so cliche and abstract, but that’s something I try to remind myself often to don’t take yourself too seriously and just have fun. As simple as that, it’s crazy how easy it is to forget to have fun. The way that we’re wired, we’re so, self-protective.
Once you find success, you’re immediately worried it’s gonna disappear and you’re always surviving, but you just have to remind yourself to have fun. I love to make music and it’s what I would be doing even if I wouldn’t have found any form of success, this is what I love to do. I’m trying to remind myself that I’m getting to do what I love to do. And that’s so awesome. What a gift.
Absolutely! How do you think you have grown as an artist ever since you first started making music?
I have gotten a lot more confident. I don’t think I am the beacon of confidence but from where I started, I think I’ve grown a lot. I used to be pretty shy and very critical of myself. It might have not been very evident from the outside, but internally I was pretty insecure.
And right now, I’m finding myself, I feel proud of where I am and what I’m doing and I feel a lot more present and I can say out loud: “I am an artist and this is my job and I love doing it.” I used to explain myself a lot to people. I was like: “I’m a musician. I make music, we’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll do something else.” But this is what I do and I love it. I’ve grown in confidence.
What is an advice that you live by? Probably something along the lines of that. Don’t take yourself too seriously. I
Think something too that’s important, with social media and the way our world is wired now, comparison is always gonna, ruin your joy, even if you’re comparing it from above, you’re comparing yourself to a worse thing. It’s just never good enough, especially with art. I’ve learned that comparison is gonna kill your happiness. Just stay in your lane, stay focused and speak highly of other people. And what you speak of other people, will be spoken back to you.
What is something that you want to leave behind, as an artist, but also as a human being?
Hmm, I want to leave behind a trail of confident young people. Just a younger audience. And if they can see me and see what I make and come to my shows and leave feeling more confident and less isolated, then I feel like I’ve done my job. I can make people feel like they have friends they live in a community and they can trust the people around them. I think that’d be a job well done.
I think you’re already doing a great job! And you have to come to London at some point!
I totally will!
I know you’ve been here two years ago, in 2022 but I couldn’t make it to the show.
It was so much fun. I love playing in London. And I will be back. I think pretty soon I’ll be able to say that officially, but I’ll be back, I think next year.
Okay, perfect!
I’ll see you there!
I’m so excited for everyone to hear the album, and you can be very proud of yourself. You did an amazing job.
We’ll see what happens. [Laughs]
DAYGLOW is out now.
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