Playtime is over; Slushii is officially grown up. The 21-year-old producer’s third album, Dream just dropped, and its 16 tracks are beautifully intimate, with a great hand on dynamics. Some of it sounds distant and dreamlike, while other bits blip just beside your ear. It’s a soft-hearted mix of R&B, emo ballad vocals, and future bass textures. It’s an album that melts in your heart, not in your hands.
Some of the songs are quite short — not even two minutes long — but each captures a real mood in the artist’s life. Much of it was written on tour. Some songs tell stories of fantasy, while others express real pain and beauty from Slushii’s life.
“Was really scared to release this album tbh,” the artist tweeted. “It took a lot out of me to write music at my lowest emotionally and mentally, but I did it because music is therapy for me and decided to put it out in an effort to help others like me escape, even if it’s just for an hour.”
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On Dreams, Slushii learns to love himself through the darkness, and we’re falling in love with his courage on each tune. Billboard Dance caught up with the producer to hear a bit more about each track and the inspiration behind it. Dive deep into the feels with Slushii in this exclusive track-by-track album breakdown below.
“Close To Me”
This was actually one of the last songs I wrote for the album. I tried to make a song that made you feel like you were floating in space.
“Feel It”
I wrote this song about an imaginary relationship. Some of my songs are about situations I make up to fit a certain melody or sound.
“Find”
I wrote this song back when I was living in New Jersey. I kinda just accidentally made the lead for this song, and everything else fell into place.
“Stay”
This song, like a lot of songs on the album, were written and recorded in a hotel room on tour. I just had that melody in my head at the time, and recorded it with my laptop microphone.
“Fly (On The Wall)”
This one was written after a night of not being able to sleep. I was sitting on the couch just playing PS4, and I saw a fly buzzing around, and I got that line from seeing an actual fly.
“Come Closer”
This one’s about the feeling you get when you’re near someone you care about and you just wanna hug them tight and never let them go.
“Underwater”
Now we’re getting into dark territory with this song. I wrote this after a deep depression while on tour. I’ve had on-and-off depression since I was little. Lately, I’ve been just writing what I want when I want to ,and I feel really good about it. I felt really sad and lonely when I wrote this one, kinda like I was made of glass and could tip over at any point.
“For You”
Fun fact about this song; if you listen closely, you can hear my friends phone ring in the background after one of my lines. I kept it in because it was just too perfect.
“Stargazing”
Wrote this one for a good friend of mine and YouTube streamer, Etika. He’s been going through some crazy stuff lately, and this song was written as a get well soon letter of sorts. Shout out the dude Etika.
“Sleep”
This song’s about wanting to sleep a lot and get lost in the worlds that you can dream up.
“Overflow”
This is another dark one about feeling alone in the world. At this time, I was on tour, and felt like I was outside of myself and feeling down.
“I Saw U in a Dream”
I wrote this after watching the Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show. Watch The Truman Show, and you’ll understand what this song is about.
“Some Nights”
Another one written after a sleepless night, when I used to go through bouts of depression, referred to as a “disease.”
“Conquer (Victory For All)”
This was officially the first song written for the album. It’s also the oldest, being three and a half years old. I wrote this after my best friend started dating my other best friend in high school. Goooood [sic] times. The original demo for this song is long gone, but I ended up finding the original stems on an old hard drive and turned it into the song it is now. Then that computer broke, so now, what’s left is this version.
“Goodbye Star Girl”
Wrote this one about a girl…
“WALLS”
Wrote this one in my bedroom with a guitar in New Jersey, the first “Sapient Dream” style track I’ve written — even predating “Sapient Dream.”