Surrounded in a sepia-tone world and clad in wide lapelled, candy-colored suits, Sloan Struble’s Dayglow project has lead him to his 80s-synth-laden sophomore album, Harmony House. And now, Struble is finding a harmonious balance between his personal identity and his Dayglow performance identity.
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“I intentionally decided to not put music out under my name, so there would be sort of like a filter for me to put personal things into the void,” Struble explains from his home in Austin, Texas.
The Fuzzybrain artist adds, “I think it allows listeners to personalize what is being said more. Where if it was my name people would be listening to my story alone, where with Dayglow it allows everyone to be part of the team.”
However, the Texas native is the only one behind the Dayglow name. Sloan writes, produces, and records his own music, oftentimes using authentic pieces of analog “gear” from the 80s to produce his signature sonic identity.
“The way I make music, it’s totally personal,” says Struble. “I don’t have anyone else involved on the creative side, of anything really because I mix it myself as well.”
The “Close to You” singer says that for him he “kind of wears” his inspirations on sleeves, which translates both through his music and his sense of style. Growing up with a mother who had a passion for thrifting, Sloan’s affinity towards all things “vintage” is translated through his music and his visual presentation.
Harmony House is an auditory manifestation of his natural passion for technicolor ephemera and storytelling that anyone could latch on to. Focused on a “quirky” sound but driven by purposeful lyrics, the record that debuted earlier this month is allowing Struble to gear up for live shows that will serve as an introductory showcase to his wonderfully DIY sound.
Sloan’s sophomore album is centered around making “optimistic and happy music,” where tracks like “Close to You” and “Crying on the Dancefloor” ooze a feeling of lightness and joy.
However, the singer who has a tendency towards perfection, but a sound that comes off as effortless, says that he often walks a fine line trying to ensure that his jovial sound is not conflated with being “hokey” or overtly campy.
Sloan feels, “where optimistic and happy music can just so quickly be subcategorized as a Disney thing, or like I don’t know… music that’s taken seriously is very rarely optimistic music.”
And not that Struble is knocking sad music, he loves it, but for him, he tells us, “I just want to be really conscious of like if I’m making optimistic music to also be addressing things and talking about things that are serious.”
He adds that his track “‘Crying on the Dancefloor,’ is like a paradox.” And one of Sloan’s biggest goals with Dayglow is to explore the tension between optimism and melancholic themes.
Harmony House is out everywhere now.
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