Dayglow on latest album 'People In Motion' and North American Tour

Sloan Struble, commonly known for his contribution to pop-indie project Dayglow, is a singer- songwriter based in Texas. After the release of debut album “Fuzzybrain” in 2019, the artist gained popularity with songs “Can I Call You Tonight?” and “Hot Rod” after the songs became viral on platforms like Tik Tok and Spotify. Since then, Dayglow has released three albums, most recently People In Motion, and is set on the “People In Motion” Tour.

Off the Record Press’ editor Reegan Johnson got the chance to talk with him about Dayglow’s latest release:

Reegan Johnson: So I know that for your first album, Fuzzybrain, you ended up creating the cover art, the clay sculpture. Where did you get the inspo for the People In Motion cover art? 

Sloan Struble: Yeah, you know, this record was kind of made for live performance and it was kind of made in the context of live performance. And, you know, I had gotten to tour a lot last year and I had realized that Dayglow was beyond myself. And it was like more of this communal experience. And so I wanted to take myself out of the picture, literally for this cover. It's like for Fuzzybrain and Harmony House, I'm symmetrically like on the front, but for People in Motion, I wanted it to feel more artistic and abstract.

So that came with the concept of this like stagnant hue of light, which basically is like this show that you'll be seeing. I wanted it to be juxtaposed with the title, like I love doing juxtaposition in art because I think that's how you get people to ask questions.

R: So with the new album, what was the writing process like for you? What was the first song confirmed to be on the track list for the album?.

S: Good question. Hm. What was the first song?  It might have been “Deep End”. I feel like I finished “Deep End” really early on in the process. I don’t know,  I think that song just entered into this newly driven like, pop focused sound that shaped the rest of People In Motion. But writing process, I made it all myself and recorded it all myself and produced it myself, alone in a bedroom studio. 

R: Did any of  the songs from your first or second album carry over? Were there were some songs you didn't want on the first or the second album, but for the third one, were there songs that would definitely fit the tracklist.

S: Let me think of the track list. Most of them are like fresh new songs. Okay, “Someone Else”, I made kind of during the “Harmony” Era. I might have already finished Harmony House, but I remember that one. I had the idea of pretty early on of ‘Talking To Light’, as well, but neither of those were like intended to be on Harmony House. So yeah, all fresh songs. 

R: For the opening track “Second Nature”, what was the process behind that? That's a five minute track, which is typically considered a longer song. For songs like that, do the lyrics or the rhythm come first for you?

S: So for “Second Nature”, it was definitely music that came first, not the lyrics. I was actually just making that song for fun. Like I didn't think it was gonna be a Dayglow song. I didn't think it was gonna be an anything song. Like I was just making this jam in between making other songs. So it was kind of this thing that I would go to and add to it for fun. It originally was like this 20 minute long, like really long  jam with all these melodies and things. It was like, not even really a song. 

And then one day I came up with the like the vocoder line, the second nature line, that thing. And that shaped the song's lyrics. I love ambitious pop songs that kind of stretch the amount of time you're supposed to have. So it's kind of my version of Lionel Richey's, like “All Night Long” or “Wanna Be Starting Something” by Michael Jackson, the opening of “Thriller”. And both of those are basically like two chords, essentially, which “Second Nature” is the same thing. 

R: So you already mentioned that you made the album in your bedroom.

S: Yeah, so it's in a spare bedroom in my house, that I have kind of turned into a studio, but people have slept there, you know.

R: So talking about bedroom pop, that kind of genre, I know that that genre has some small roots in the 80’s and 90’s, kind of early on, but it has definitely grown in like the 2010’s. I feel like you were a foundational artist for that genre. How did you feel watching that genre grow? 

S: Yeah, I mean, well, thank you. I think it's really interesting, I didn't become aware of bedroom pop, like after I had made Fuzzybrain. So before I released it, [bedroom pop] was in very early stages. Like there's an artist in Boy Pablo, who's my friend, Nico, and I'd like seen his YouTube video kind of popping up. And “Can I Call You Tonight” was kind of like in that same algorithm circle somehow. And I knew about like Clairo and Rex Orange County, but I think the only common thing we had was that we were all kind of the same age. 

But my music didn't really sound like the other bedroom pop stuff. It was just kind of like the same quirky spirit that wove it all together…I feel like Dayglow was a very foundational thing for bedroom pop, but it was never my intention, you know, like I was just making what I could in a bedroom.

R: So speaking of YouTube videos Dayglow released the music video for, “Then It All Goes Away”, and in the past you've mentioned that you've had a lot of input on all the creative things that Dayglow is involved with. Did you pitch the idea for the music video or any of your past music videos, what does that look like?

S: Yeah, all the videos I made for this record were all my ideas. And for “Then It All Goes Away” specifically, I knew I wanted to shoot a music video, at a 90 degree angle, like through what was plexiglass… I kind of wrote a little bit of a concept around it and then pitched it to my friends who, they're called Bedroom Studios, and they kind of helped me flesh together the idea and shot it with me, but it was so fun.

So we built this structure that was like 8 feet off the ground,  and then got a huge piece of glass essentially, and set it on top. And then the camera crew and everything was underneath. Underneath. We just shot it all up there. 

R: Wow. Okay, that's intense. Are you scared of heights? 

S: Not necessarily, uh, but there were some moments that were a little sketchy. But no, I wouldn’t say I would be scared.

R: So you recently started the “People In Motion” tour. How is the energy of the crowd, compared to maybe your performances in the past? 

S: It's been great. You know, I think it's really encouraged me how well received the show has been. It's just been like, fun is such a simple word, but I feel like it really encapsulates what's going on. It's been really fun for me and fun for everybody involved. and it just really encouraged me for my second tour. It's seemingly being better received than my last one. And there's a lot of people that have come back to shows.

R: Are you seeing more fans who are into your older music or more fans who are into your new music or maybe a combination of both? What do you think?

S: Definitely a combo. Yeah. It's weird cuz when I tour “Harmony House”, it had been out for.  like six months or something, and I'm touring “People In Motion” right now, and I released it a day before the first show. So the music is really fresh and every show that I go to, like the new music is being sung a little bit louder. It's like people are understanding the music, so that's been cool to watch and see it be received.

R:  You come from like a smaller town in Texas. What would you say to those who are in smaller towns and looking to get into a similar career path or maybe looking into bedroom pop as a genre, or maybe creating music on their own. Any advice?

S: You know, the internet is a strange place and it blurs all boundaries of  location. You know, you can be anywhere and anything can happen to you, thanks to the worldwide web. So, if I had any advice to give, I don't necessarily know exactly what I'm doing, but if I had advice to give, I'd say just keep learning and pushing yourself and have fun.

If you can make your mind think that the goal of all of it is to have fun, then that's pretty achievable. And then if you gain an audience, then that's. But if your primary goal is to have fun, then you can do that wherever, you know?

R: Is there anything that listeners can expect in the future? 

S: Yeah, you know, I'm always making new music. I definitely want to just keep going, keep writing and learning and expanding what I'm capable of doing. I'm sure more shows in the future, more music too.

End of interview.

Stream People In Motion, out now, and check out Dayglow on tour! Click here to see our review and exclusive Off The Record Press pictures of the St. Louis stop of the “People In Motion” Tour.

Thank you to Sloan and his team for the opportunity.