Dylan Marlowe with Katie Neal

Katie & Company

01-10-2024 • 17 Min.

Many Country stars dream of making it big from the time they’re kids, but for new-comer, Dylan Marlowe, the dream started as a college kid with a competitive spirit.

After realizing he could sing just a few years ago, Marlowe is already on the Country charts with a top 25 single, “Boys Back Home,” featuring Dylan Scott. The young Georgia-native recently sat down with Audacy’s Katie Neal to talk about his expedited journey to the Country music charts and the career he hopes to build.

“I started learning how to sing and write and play [guitar] in college,” he shared. “I didn't really know my whole life that I could do any of that because I always did baseball.” Dylan shared he first got a guitar from a “dude in my neighborhood” and was motivated to try it as he’s “always been kind of a competitive person.”

“There was a dude in my neighborhood, Colin, who pretty much gave me his extra guitar to learn how [to play],” Dylan explained. “ I started kind of writing songs,” he shared before explaining he decided to try some open mic nights. “I would go up there and play two songs and… see what people reacted to. Once I started hearing videos of it kind of sounding decent I was like, ‘Maybe I can work on this you know start taking vocal lessons and really trying like dig in.’”

That’s exactly what Marlowe did after a handful of open mic nights, some encouragement from friends and support from his parents. After trading in his baseball glove for a guitar and college classes for vocal lessons, Marlowe says he hasn’t looked back since. “My Dad was the one that said, ’Hey, if you don’t want to do college, just leave, quit. If you want to go do music, there’s no point in me paying for you to go to college if you’re gonna quit,” he said of his parents’ reaction to him calling it quits after only one year in college.

“I started learning guitar and moved to Nashville and met a guy named Dallas Davidson who's written tons of huge songs for like, Luke [Bryan] and all those people and he signed me and we've just been going since then.”

The 27-year-old’s career has moved at a rapid pace compared to most and now, he’s celebrating the release of his debut album, Mid-Twenties Crisis, just a few years after learning to sing and play guitar. The project features 15 songs featuring his unique sound he describes as “kind of all over, it's like a chaotic mess.”

“Somebody commented on my TikTok yesterday of ‘Heaven's Sake’ and they said, ‘This sounds like Blink-182 went down to Georgia and drank some moonshine,’” he laughed. “I was like, ’Yes, I love that.’” With a sound that’s all his, Marlowe says he’s less interested in trying to define it and more interested in keeping things authentic.

“I’m kind of just trying to make ...