Dan Croll, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts alumni and purveyor of gorgeous, intelligent, sunny indie pop and rock has just announced a new album release. The British singer-songwriter, now ensconced in California will release third album “Grand Plan” on August 21st through Communion Records. It was produced by Matthew E. White at Spacebomb.
The album is available to pre-order now here and will feature fantastic new double-a-side singles: album title track ‘Grand Plan’ and ‘Work’.
If these single are anything to go by, then “Grand Plan” is going to be a very special album indeed, dripping with luscious melodies and vocals.
Croll plans to issue groups of songs in the run up to the release of the album. The latest tranche to be released is the album title track “Grand Plan” – a song about the overwhelming feeling created by moving to a new city, thousands of miles from home, where you feel like you don’t know anything and feel a bit at sea, an outsider, scared. The song is just beautiful and features Croll’s lush harmonies and delicately picked guitar that are infused with Californian sun and the spirit of 70s singer-songwriters who wandered Santa Monica Boulevard. When Croll sings: “everyone’s got a grand plan, but I’ve barely come prepared” you can’t help but feel for him. The reality is that all those people dotting about LA in front of Croll’s eyes feel the same as he does. It’s an unforgiving city, but with songs like this, Croll won’t be looking for forgiveness. Croll explains the meaning of the song:
“I wrote ‘Grand Plan’ a couple of months into my move to California, things had got off to a tough start with having to start life from scratch again. On one hand it’s incredibly exciting to live in such a creative city and be surrounded by very talented people, but on the other hand (and in my case) it can also be quite overwhelming and make you feel like you’re lagging behind everyone else. ‘Grand Plan’ was about that feeling, being on the back foot, feeling like everyone but yourself had this grand idea and plan for life and you’re still figuring out the basics.”
The flip side to “Grand Plan” is “Work” – a lovely, gentle, elegantly minimal song about being in a new relationship and wanting to spend as much time as possible together. Of ‘Work’ he says:
“Work’ is just a simple and I guess romantic song about being in those early stages of a relationship. Wanting nothing more than to just spend time with that person and forget about all of the real world/adult responsibilities out there.”
The album chronicles the 12-month period from February 2018 when Croll, suffering from itchy feet, decided to up sticks and move from Liverpool to Los Angeles in search of inspiration. Over the ensuing 12 months, he turned his experiences into over 20 songs, eventually whittling them down to a solid dozen, each telling a story, in narrative order.
Since the global lockdown, Croll has reignited the ‘Dial Dan’ hotline – for those needing a mental escape during quarantine. He’s accepting calls / texts / WhatsApp audio and messages from all over the globe every Monday. You can Dial Dan on +1-323-304-1701
In response to the global pandemic Dan Croll has rescheduled his live dates to September 2020. See Dan live at the following (tickets on sale from www.DanCroll.com):
8 Sept – London – Oslo, Hackney
9 Sept – Paris – Hasard Ludique
10 Sept – Amsterdam – Cinetol
11 Sept – Berlin – Curfew Bar
16 Sept – New York City – Rockwood 2
18 Sept – Los Angeles – Gold Diggers
Pre-order ‘Grand Plan’ here – http://dancroll.lnk.to/grandplan
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