For alt-pop sensation Sloan Struble, aka “Dayglow,” everything is ‘fair game’ when it comes to making music. The 22-year-oldsinging, songwriting and producing triple threat propelled to virality as a teenager with the release of his debut album “Fuzzybrain” (2018) and has amassed nearly 7.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify since then. Infectious melodies and colorful harmonies seem to pour out of Struble’s (not-so) fuzzy brain and will soon spill onto the Academic Quad in a highly anticipated performance at the university’s Spring Fling concert.
Dayglow is a project: Sloan Struble is the man behind the operation, but he doesn’t perform alone. In a 2018 interview with BLEND Magazine, Struble said, “If you know who Tame Impala is, the structure of how they work is it’s one guy named Kevin Parker, and he writes and produces everything in his house. [Parker] is the mind behind it and [Tame Impala] tours as a band, so I’m hoping to do that with Dayglow. I wrote and produced it all in my room and played all of the instruments.”
Struble’s childhood bedroom in Aledo, Texasdoubled as a recording studio in the production of “Fuzzybrain,” which Struble began writing in 2017.
In an interview with the Daily, Struble shared that he didn’t expect his project to be such a hit.
“I would just make stuff because it was fun,” Struble said. “And I wasn't trying to blow up or anything. I wasn’t trying to make a career out of it.”
But his music did blow up. Despite not being able to read music, Dayglow is becoming a household name, one that is associated with artists such as Mac DeMarco, Logic and Ritt Momney.
“I saw Jack Antonoff [at Corona Capital],”Struble said. “We were both getting salad. And it seems like he might have known my music.”
Struble isn’t just a songwriter known by Antonoff; he is a self-proclaimed producer, releasing all of his music from his bedroom, where he wrote, recorded and produced his hit debut album. His discography expanded in 2021 to include his sophomore album, “Harmony House.”
“I made the music myself, I made the videos myself, I didn't have a label … I didn’t have managers,” Struble said. “Usually people are backing something, even if the face is one person. There’s usually a team behind it. And for my situation, it was really weird because I was just completely alone.”
Struble demonstrates in both of his album releases that he thrives at the intersection of genres. He draws inspiration from a variety of artists, and his own music reflects his diverse influences. “Fuzzybrain”plays with the bedroom pop sound with its warm vocals and dreamy soundscapes, whereas “Harmony House,” which has clear 80s synth pop roots, features upbeat dance tunes that would flow well in any yacht rock playlist.
“I feel like the jump from ‘Fuzzybrain’ to ‘Harmony House’ was really different,”Struble said. “But because I'm a producer, I think people will allow me to do whatever I want. … It’s really nice that I can just have the freedom to make whatever I want, and I don't have a label telling me what to do."
This artistic freedom will allow Struble to take his next release in yet another direction — New Wave.
“It's a really good album that I'm really proud of. It's definitely different than the past two records in a lot of ways,”Struble said. “It’s very dancey. Kind of as if Passion Pit and Phil Collins and LCD Soundsystem and The 1975 were all in a room together.”
While Struble was unable to share when this album will be released, members of the Tufts community should get ready to hear several of these New Wave tracks at Dayglow’s performance at Tufts this April, where Struble willshare the stage with Aminé, Bia and Ella Jane.
“I'm excited; it’s gonna be really fun,”Struble said. “It's always interesting, getting to play alongside other artists who make different types of music.”
Struble’s Tufts appearance won’t be Dayglow’s first in Boston; he gave an acclaimed performance at the Paradise Rock Club last October. After the regrettable cancellation of his 2020 tour due to COVID-19 and an extremely successfulU.S. “Harmony House” tour last fall, Dayglow is planning to embark on yet another tour in the coming weeks, with performances in countries including the United Kingdom, France and Australia.
“We’re touring a lot this year, which is gonna be really fun,” Struble said.
While Dayglow may be scoring high on Billboard’s alternative charts,Struble remains down-to-earth and hasn’t lost sight of what it’s all about.
“I really, truly, from the bottom of my heart, love to make music,” Struble said.
