Funnily enough, only recently I was wondering what happened to Dan Croll. I always used to see him around Liverpool, and who could forget the absolute banger “From Nowhere”?
It turns out that his 2 year hiatus after the release of his second album “Emerging Adulthood” was due to a re-evaluation of his career, relationships and life in general – resulting in a move to L.A. on a whim, and hasn’t returned.
The good news is that he’s gone back to basics with his song writing, taking inspiration from the likes of James Taylor, Burt Bacharach and Joni Mitchell and has begun a new chapter.
Speaking about the experience of moving to L.A., Dan explains, “The past two years have been a rollercoaster, starting from scratch, alone in a different country, but I’m so happy to have come out the other end with this collection of songs. These first two tracks really set the scene for the story of my first year in America, what I was going through mentally and physically, and how the decision to move came to light.
Feels great not only to be back on the music scene, but to be doing it with songs that I finally feel represent the influences and music I truly love. Both of these tracks mark a fresh start, and though I’m far away from Liverpool they both still draw directly from the sounds and experiences of home.”
Over the course of 2020 Dan Croll will be releasing new material in couplets like this, which chronologically document the results of the seismic decision to move from Liverpool to L.A. From the impetus to go, the reason he stayed, to the people he met and the universal challenges he had to deal with along the way. It all begins with ‘Yesterday’…
The track being about Dan’s experiences of how he regretted not making the most of his interactions with Paul McCartney while he was studying at LIPA.
Paul, do you remember me? / We shook hands a few times, you made the drive despite demand / Say, could you come back to me? / ’Cause there are things that I regret, too much dwell and too much fret…”
Stay In L.A.’– the second of the simultaneous releases – is a rousing, contemporary piano ballad documenting the reason Dan never returned from this fateful visit to the U.S.
You can listen to both songs here on Spotify:
