LA native and USC student Dane Schumacher is officially 3 for 3 and off to a hot start with the release of his third ever single “Sucker Punch” that will leave you seeing stars. His solo journey has only just begun this year but Dane is far from new to this music thing. He’s been the lead man of Subtle Orange since 2017, of which we featured on our Fashionably Early playlist a couple months ago. On the solo side, Dane takes a lighter, pop Dominic Fike type of approach.

“Sucker Punch” captures the ephemeral adrenaline spike of a fleeting relationship that ricochets Schumacher through the aftershock. Getting caught up in the undertow of momentary bliss and false imagination, Schumacher writes about knowing better from the start, and still, not being able to resist. When you dig into his lyrics, you’ll get hit with retrospective tenderness and a hollowed-out yearning for what once was. He sings, “She knows the code to my games / She’s got the keys to my place/ I know she’s leaving in May – it’s alright.” Contrasting these intimate vignettes with his crushingly honest chorus makes you brace yourself for the blunt force impact of what could only be described as a spot on ‘sucker punch.’

Lurking beneath the surface of this track is a garage-reminiscent riffs clouded with haunting undertones of bass and saccharine atmospherics for a perfect split between softness and edge. It feels like I pick out something different in Schumacher’s voice with each listen. The vocal is addictively layered with dull harmonies that you have to dig for, and when you find them, it’s like striking gold. Whether it’s Subtle Orange or Dane, both projects present an audio lens into the luminous and colorful future ahead for Dane Schumacher