If you aren’t already familiar, meet Sloan Struble — more popularly known as Dayglow. The 22-year old indie pop virtuoso seems to have an unlimited supply of fresh, feel-good tunes with retro flair that will have you dancing. Sloan has been making music from a very young age and has a true passion to create and share his music with others. He’s risen to recognition following his hit single “Can I Call You Tonight,” which has amassed over 90 million views on Youtube and went viral on TikTok. Since then, he has worked hard to continue evolving and show the world just what he’s capable of.
Struble has used the commercial success of that song as a jump start and hasn’t looked back. His writing and producing chops are truly impressive. Pair that with relatability, an infectious personality and individuality, you’ve got yourself a winner. His debut album Fuzzybrain released in 2019 with the formidable Harmony House following that up in 2021. Melodic had the privilege to catch up with Sloan to talk new music and much more before his set at Forecastle Fest.
When it comes to other artists, who are some that you are drawn to, or have influenced your own music over the years?
I’m always trying to change my sound. I try not to stick to one thing. I definitely don’t want to be like an offshoot of someone else. I mean, that’s unavoidable to some degrees. I love Phoenix. They’re a band that I’ve always loved. You know, like MGMT, just classic indie pop music from the mid 2000s, like Passion Pit, I love it. But one of my favorite songwriters is Paul Simon. And I’ve been realizing more and more recently, just how much he’s influenced my music. It doesn’t really sound that much like it, but just energy wise, I think I take a lot from Paul Simon. Yeah, he’s such a good musician.
Now that you have toured extensively, as you go into your writing process, are you thinking about how songs will be received by the audience in a live performance?
Definitely. I mean, Harmony House is a really interesting record because I didn’t have the context of live performance as much. So that kind of made it a listening album rather than a performing album. I mean, not holistically — like “Close To You” is probably my favorite song to play live — but, yeah I haven’t gotten to tour that much until recently. With these two albums out, it’s been a really odd rollout. My new music that I’m making is very live-focused. And now I have context on what a Dayglow fan generally looks like and what they’re looking for in a show. So that’s been really fun. We’ll have some new music coming out this summer, and hopefully an album this fall. I’m doing a new song today. So we’ll see how that goes.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otPB54Wxf5c
Everybody is different when it comes to songwriting and production workflow. Are you somebody who is constantly writing, or do you have more of a “tour mode” and then “studio mode”?
Sort of a mix of both. The way that I write, I have to be in my studio. So, I’ll get ideas [when on tour]. But usually when I write a song, it just flows out, like at a rapid pace in the studio. So while I’m on the road, I actually built my own Ableton Live rig and stuff. I’m doing a lot of tech stuff. I love thinking about that. I kind of focus more on how I’m going to perform my songs live while I’m on the road, and then I record when I’m home. So right now I’m just really focused on how to make the most streamlined live show possible tech wise — nerd stuff.
People associate the word “nostalgia” with your style in music and also your videos. There are obvious influences from the 70’s and 80’s. Where do you think this all stems from?
I mean, I think there’s a whole thing with our generation, we have this sense of false nostalgia. … we long for something that we didn’t even experience. So like the 70s and 80s. That’s really happening in pop culture, or like people our age are fascinated by it. I think that has to do with our overexposure to technology and social media, just content in general. We want to be nostalgic for something but we can’t for the life of us remember anything. So, we think ‘well maybe if it was an 80s theme we might remember it.’ It’s a weird cultural thing that’s happening. I’m sure I’m part of it. But yeah, I just love the fun and experimentation and the fresh feeling of 80s pop music because recording equipment was just getting better. People were doing such different takes on it. Where now it feels like there’s nothing new you can do in music. There was just this pureness to 80s pop that I try to reach for as a musician.
I hope my songs blow up on TikTok — that’s not going to hurt anybody — but that’s not what I’m making it for. And there’s so much that now like, just TikTok-ish stuff or like, stuff that’s designed … like, this music was made to blow up versus like, this is a musician, and I’m a musician. Hopefully people see me as that. I just care about making music. That’s why I like 80s pop more than pop nowadays, although there’s very good pop now, depending on who you’re talking about.
Thinking from my perspective, because we are the same age, I have always dreamt about what it’d be like being a part of a tour. What is your take on touring? What have you enjoyed?
It’s just one of the most encouraging possible things that I could ever imagine, creating art, and getting to share it with people in such a large way. It’s like a painter putting work in an art gallery, and the best version of that is like a really popular art gallery … people look at the Mona Lisa. There’s like, hundreds of people there, and that’s amazing. But to make art and play it for this many people all at once is really a mind trip. It’s weird, to be honest. And it can really kind of take a toll on you. It’s just so overwhelming in amazing ways. Yeah, and it’s fun. For me, I just love making music and I love to perform. I never imagined myself, or desire to be like, somebody else’s icon. I feel weird doing that. I’m just a person and anybody else is just a person, but it’s really fun getting to share my music with people. I’m always getting encouraging stories from people about how they had a fun time. That I can do that worldwide is really cool — to give people a good feeling.
Oh, my gosh, it’s been crazy. I mean, I could have never predicted any of it would happen.
Time is flying, that’s for sure.
Festival season is in full swing and you are now stranger to that now. Do you have a different mindset going into a festival rather than your own personal show?
For sure. I mean, it’s a different experience altogether. Festivals are so strange, because it’s just a wide range of types of energy between artists and it’s so cool, but it’s really exhausting. It’s so much fun to play shows in front of a lot of people that aren’t familiar with music, but you kinda have to perform more. It’s just tiring, but in a good way.
Photos and Words By: Andrew Herner
