LP Walkthru: Dayglow - People In Motion

Image Credit Dana Trippe

From the humble origins of his childhood bedroom, Sloan Struble began making indie pop sounds under the guise of Dayglow only four years ago. The now 22-year old Texan native is hot off playing Splendour In The Grass in addition to three sold-out headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne and a sold-out North American headline tour, as he unveils his highly anticipated new album People In Motion. 

Spanning from funky and danceable to dreamy and pop tinged - all wrapped in a good dose of indie charm, People In Motion has plenty of lighter euphoric moments, and also deeper obstacle-overcoming reflections over the course of its 10-track duration. Written, performed and produced by Sloan himself, stating “I make music because I love making it," continuing "I just love recording and producing”, the new record is a true reflection of the delightfully pure, hyper-melodic manifestations of an artist's desire to share emotion, to share something to love. 

Out today via AWAL, we took the chance to get a breakdown of what went into each track on the LP from Daylow himself. Be sure to hit play on People In Motion, and take a read of what Sloan had to say on the record below.   

Second Nature

Second Nature was originally a formless jam that I had been writing over the span of like 4 months. I just keep adding more and more melodies to it, and it ended up being this “song” that was like 25 minutes long. I then reworked it in my brain and got it down to 6 minutes, which felt ambitious and fun. I love the album Thriller, and Wanna Be Starting Something’ inspired Second Nature both sonically, but also using it as the opening track for the record. It just feels like a new door is opening.

Radio

Radio is the antidote to Video Killed the Radio Star. It’s about overconsumption and the overload of choices we face everyday, and feeling nostalgic for a time when that wasn’t the case. It’s sort of the mouth-piece for the meaning behind the record, and just feels like an honest pop song that addresses so much.

Then It All Goes Away

I wrote Then It All Goes Away after coming home from a tour. I just felt like there was a song missing in the set I was playing that felt fun and just bouncy. I wrote and recorded the song in essentially one day and it felt so natural. It’s one of those songs that just feel like it wrote itself.

Deep End

Deep End came from a day where I was just playing around with a new synthesizer I had just gotten called an Oberheim Matrix-6. I wasn’t intentionally writing a song, I was just playing around with patches and accidentally wrote it. It ended up feeling very therapeutic and that feeling drove the lyrics. It’s all around a song just about letting go.

Stops Making Sense

I absolutely love watching old David Byrne videos, and this song is basically an homage to the Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense”. I love that sentiment and wanted to just embody it in a song.

How Do You Know?

How Do You Know is a very philosophical one. This is one of the few songs I have written where lyrics seemed to have come to me before the music. I was just exploring this concept of knowing someone and how that’s even possible, and I just wanted to playfully pose that daunting question with a pop song haha.

Someone Else

Someone Else was made during the pandemic essentially. I am friends with a band called Sure Sure, and their drummer Kevin Farzad and I were just sending each other demos and stuff back and forth. The drums for Someone Else are essentially all Kevin, which is the only moment on the entire record where someone else is playing something— I guess that’s ironic haha! 

Like She Does

This song started almost as a country song believe it or not. I wrote it all on an acoustic guitar one day, and then eventually reworked it in my mind to be faster and most anthemic. It’s just a genuine love song about my wife and a song about celebrating commitment. I think love has to be paired with commitment, and I just don’t see that celebrated much in culture today and especially music culture. So it feels like a very special song and message to me and is definitely a song I’m very proud to have written.

Turn Around

The whole record kind of has the early 2000’s flair to it hidden in the melodies, but this song is definitely the strongest reference to that era. I love the band Switchfoot and their music inspired and shaped me so much growing up, so something about that “sound” is synonymous to growing up to me.

Talking To Light

Along the same lines of Like She Does, I just wanted to write a commitment love song, and the most committing thing I could think of doing was starting the song with my wife’s name, “Reagan”. So many love songs are vague and I wanted to write one that felt crystal clear. It’s the perfect track to close out the album and just feels like the end of a chapter for me, and the beginning of a brand new one.

Dayglow's new album People In Motion is out now via AWAL. 

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