For His First Time in Manila, Dayglow Brings Joy to Center Stage

Ahead of performing at Wanderland Music and Arts Festival, the indie rock artist talks about making songs about growing up and finding people who relate to them on the other side of the world.

- By Andrea Panaligan

Loan Struble is asking to leave the stage, just for a second. More popularly known by his musical moniker Dayglow, indie rock singer Struble is headlining the Karpos stage on Day 1 of this year's Wanderland Music and Arts Festival. The energy was electric right before he ran backstage; maybe he broke a guitar string, or there's something wrong with his microphone.

He returns wearing the iconic red and gray button-down of a Jollibee employee, on top of his shirt already emblazoned with Jollibee's smiling face. It's silly, but I found it a fitting comparison. Joy is central to both the singer and the bee: "Bida ang saya" may as well be Dayglow's mission statement.

Struble was born in a Texas town with less than 5,000 people. At 17, like most high school seniors, he was thinking a lot about change, so he wrote and produced an album about it called "Fuzzybrain" in his bedroom. It went mega-viral, and things never stopped changing after that.

Growing up has been a constant theme in his music. His latest record, the self-titled "Dayglow," begins with Mindless Creatures, a reimagined version of the first Dayglow song he ever posted online. It's a full-circle moment that pays homage to his roots and how it led to everything he has now, but also reminds him of how far he'd come.