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How Indie Musician Dayglow Went From Bedroom, To Sold Out Tour
Sloan Struble was born on August 10, 1999. He is best known for his indie rock, disco pop, project titled Dayglow. He is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and instrumentalist from Aledo Texas. When Struble was 11 years old, his cousin showed him how to use Garageband and he immediately became obsessed. After a longtime of messing around with the loops and presets, Struble knew he would have to learn instruments in order to perform better. By the time Sloan had reached high school, he had mastered the basics of Garageband, and had written music entirely on his own. He had formed his first project Kindred, and on October 1st 2016 he released an album under the same name. The album was only released on SoundCloud, but he would later go on to release covers of popular bands such as The Beatles and Francis and the Lights. On March 30th 2017, he released a single titled, “Spent My Life,” on streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Struble has said he had, “felt lonely in what he was doing,” back in his hometown. “There are pros and cons there, because I didn’t have any outside voices telling me, ‘Hey, it should sound like this, or you should be like this.’ It just became my own thing.” In his senior year in high school, Sloan would form his most popular project, Dayglow. With non stop hours of recording, he released his 8 track debut record, “Fuzzybrain,” on September 28th, 2018. The album would later go on to receive positive reviews from local Texas articles. Struble would go on to finish high school and in the fall he began attending the University of Texas at Austin to study advertisement.
Shortly after he was attending college, a social media influencer with over 9 million followers posted one of Dayglow's songs on her Instagram story. Meanwhile, people on the app TikTok would use the same Dayglow song in their videos, and soon, the song would have over a few thousand hits. People started to view the song on YouTube provided with a music video that was attached with a budget of, “literally nothing.” This song was titled, “Can I Call You Tonight?” the second track of his first record. With the magic of the internet, “Can I Call You Tonight?” became an instant hit, with the music video on YouTube now having over 80 million views. “I put some stuff up on Spotify and made some music videos, and I guess the algorithm gods did the rest,” he said. “It’s pretty crazy how the internet can just make things blow up.” In January 2019, Sloan sat down with his parents to discuss his future. They had talked about how his fame was growing, and his father suggested he drop out of school. “I’ll never forget it,” Struble explained. “He was like, ‘Yeah, you shouldn’t be in school if all of this is happening’.”
Sloan had found four friends who would help him play his music live, and would then go on to open for bands like COIN, and Night Cap. In the spring of 2019, Dayglow played a few shows in Texas that were completely his and his alone. At this point in time Sloan had officially become famous, with quite the following. Fans would visit his shows to hear songs like, “Hot Rod,” “Run the World!!!” and of course his most popular, “Can I Call You Tonight?” Even though Struble had made his music alone in his childhood bedroom, he had some help from a few ex-classmates, and lifelong friends. A little after touring Sloan took a step back on his debut record Fuzzybrain. He had two tracks, “Nicknames,” and “Listerine,” that were considered bonus tracks on an early cassette format of the album. On November 14th, 2019, he decided to re-release his album with those two tracks, now with Listerine being the closer, rather than Junior Varsity. “Both those songs were written around the same time as the rest of the album and very much exist in the Fuzzybrain universe,” he says. “Each is deeply intertwined into the conceptual universe and purpose of Fuzzybrain, and it just wouldn’t feel right releasing them in a separate body of work.” Now, with a re-released 10 track record, some headlined shows completed, and a good fanbase, Dayglow had a bright future ahead of him.
In early 2020, Dayglow had a sold out Spring tour that was planned to last from mid March through late May. As Sloan was heading towards his first show, he had gotten news about the COVID 19 shutdown, forcing him to cancel the tour. Sloan had stated, “Although I’m totally bummed, I want to keep everyone safe and healthy.” For the next few months the world would not hear from Dayglow, aside from a few photos on Instagram. On October 29th 2020, Sloan recorded a live performance from a small venue that no one attended, and released it on the internet. This would be the first time where we would see him cover, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” by Tears for Fears and transition it into his own song, “Run the World!!!” This would later go on to be the encore at a lot of his concerts. Dayglow continued to be silent for the next two months.
In mid December Sloan made a very exciting Instagram post, explaining that he was grateful for everyone’s patience and that next month he would be releasing a new song. On January 9th, 2021, he released his first single in two years, “Close to You.” Sloan described the single as a, “Whitney Houston influenced,” song. The song would rise in top song charts, and would later go on to be in many summer playlists. About a month later Sloan would announce his sophomore record, “Harmony House,” and the first song off the album, “Something.” With May 21, 2021 being the release date for “Harmony House,” Sloan released two more singles in between when he announced the album and May 21st. He released “Woah Man,” a guitar ballad, and finally released his last single, “Balcony,” an upbeat song inspired by The Cure. The time had come for the album to release. “Harmony House,” was finally here. The sophomore record had 11 tracks, one more than Fuzzybrain, but the album was 2 minutes shorter. Critics gave it very positive reviews, and described it as, “an 80’s disco pop album with an indie take.” “I wanted it to feel like a soundtrack to a sitcom that didn't exist,” Struble explained. “The album is about growing up and finding out that change is okay.” He went on to explain that the album was inspired by, “Paul Simon, The Doobie Brothers, and Talking Heads.” In every song on “Harmony House,” there is a continuous medley that Sloan suggests is, “the ‘Harmony House theme’.” This is best shown on first and last tracks, “Something,” and, “Like Ivy.” “It’s taking time, it’s taking time,” Struble sings in the opening track, with a few notes we become very familiar with throughout the album. In the final track, Sloan echoes back to his old self from track one by saying, “it’s taking time to realize,” He says, “In, ‘Something,’ I can’t get out what I’m trying to say, which kind of symbolizes the overstimulation of viral fame. And in ‘Like Ivy,’ it’s like this fresh breath of air. I can finally say, ‘it's taken time to realize’. It’s all very intentional.” Even with that huge theme, Sloan also gives us lessons on overthinking, love, and growing up on the album.
In late summer of 2021, Dayglow would perform a completely sold out North American tour. This tour would be titled, “The Harmony House Tour,” with Hovvdy opening for him the first part of the tour, and Courtship the second. He also had a European tour scheduled for Spring of 2022. Sloan would perform in L.A. at, “The Fonda,” two nights in a row and would add, upgrade, and cancel venues as the tour progressed. He would also perform at some music festivals such as Wonderstuck in Cleveland, and Lollapalooza in Chicago.
Sloan had chosen the name, “Dayglow,” from a song titled, “Day Glo,” by the band Brazos. Dayglow’s music style is a blend of indie rock and disco pop. Washington Square News wrote that Struble’s style, “draws inspiration from the upbeat, groovy style of other artists such as the Doobie Brothers and Michael McDonald.” Other inspirations come from bands such as Phoenix and Tame Impala. In December 2020, Sloan got engaged to his girlfriend Reagan Liddell. On May 28th 2021, they got married. His other hobbies include hiking, and spending time with his wife, friends, and family. Sloan’s music will always have a message of comfort, love, and finding peace to bring upon others.
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