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 it my own thing,” he explained. “I don't necessarily want to like label it as anything, but I feel like it's just me, just Dylan Marlowe. [It’s] me writing songs that have been fun to write and fun to play live and just aiming for that.“

It’s clear he’s having some fun with a trending song, an opening slot on Dan + Shay’s Heartbreak on the Map tour, and some big time collabs on his debut record including one with Riley Green titled, “Stick to my Guns.”

“I had that song, ‘Stick to my Guns,’ and I knew that it needed a feature and I kind of always knew that it was Riley,” he explained. “I thought in my head like either Riley or HARDY would be sick. The more I listened to it I kept thinking, ‘Riley's got to be the guy,’ so we hit him up first and he said ‘yes’ immediately and went in and sang.”

While “Stick to my Guns,” and the single, “Boys Back Home” featuring Dylan Scott are two songs getting a lot of attention on the new album, Marlowe makes it clear he doesn’t need a established Country star to feature in order to make a song successful. His solo songs are also making big impacts including “Devil on My Shoulder,” “Heart Brakes,”  and the title track, “Mid-Twenties Crisis,” which was the last song added to the album.

“It was the last track to like make the record,” he shared. “We were about a week away from having to turn the whole thing in and I still didn't have a title. I wanted it to be special, I didn't want it to just be a random title of a song on the record and I had been praying a bunch about finding the title because I just didn't know what to call it.”

He continued, “I felt like it had to be another song, which is what scared me because I obviously I didn’t had time to record another song. One night, I got up [at] 4am… and it just popped in my head while I was getting up and I knew that was like the title of the record immediately... that was on a Tuesday and then that weekend I ended up writing that song on the road just by myself in the back lounge of the bus and it was really just an honest, open, vulnerable song about kind of what I felt like I was going through probably for the last few months.”

While the song came together with no time to spare, it was well-wroth the hustle and proves it’s meant to be as it ties a perfect bow on the album, available now.  Hear more about how the title track came together, stories behind the songs, touring with Dan + Shay and how the “Boys Back Home” keep Dylan humble by checking out his entire conversation with Audacy’s Katie Neal above.

Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Katie Neal