Daniel Francis Croll (born 18 July 1990) is a British singer-songwriter. He began his career in 2011 when he was named Songwriter of the Year by the
Musicians' Benevolent Fund while attending the
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. His debut album ''
Sweet Disarray'' was released in 2014 by the
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...
subsidiaries
Deram Records
Deram Records was a subsidiary record label of Decca Records established in the United Kingdom in 1966. At the time, U.K. Decca was a different company from the Decca label in the United States, which was owned by MCA Inc. Deram recordings w ...
/
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...
(UK) and
Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
(US). Since that time, he has released a number of works with
Communion Music including the studio albums ''
Emerging Adulthood'' (2017) and ''Grand Plan'' (2020). Since 2018, he has been based in the United States.
Career
Early career
Born in
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...
in
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, Croll moved to
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
when he was 18 to attend the
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). While at LIPA, he won the national Songwriter of the Year award from the
Musicians' Benevolent Fund and was one of eight students picked to have a one-to-one with LIPA founder
Sir Paul McCartney.
Croll's first release was as part of the
Communion record label's compilation ''New Faces'', released on 23 April 2012. Communion have supported Croll both with this release and promoting many of his early live performances.
2012–2015: ''Sweet Disarray''
Croll signed to Turn First Records at the start of 2012. His debut single, "From Nowhere," was released worldwide on 24 September 2012 via Turn First / Racquet Records (Croll's own imprint) as a digital download and limited 7". "From Nowhere" spent 3 days at the top of the
Hype Machine
Hype Machine is a music blog aggregator created by Anthony Volodkin.
History
Hype Machine was originally a music database created in 2005 by Anthony Volodkin, then a sophomore computer science major at Hunter College.Heilemann, JohCapturing the ...
popular charts, was playlisted in the UK on
BBC 6 Music
BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...
,
XFM
Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2015 ...
and
Amazing Radio, and received spot plays on
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
. The song also received airplay in the US, reaching #36 on the Billboard Alternative chart. Croll was named a ''Guardian'' New Band of the Day in November 2012 and described as "Paul Simon jamming with Prince. Very nice".
Croll released his second single "Compliment Your Soul" in March 2013. This was followed up by the release of "In/Out" in July 2013.
On 13 October 2013, Croll released the song "Home" on his own
VEVO
Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...
channel on YouTube. On 29 October 2013, during an on-air
Virgin Radio
Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale.
In 2001, ...
interview, Croll confirmed he had finished recording his full-length debut album. The LP was expected to be released early in 2014.
His song "Compliment Your Soul" was included in the soundtrack for the video game ''
FIFA 14''. As well as FIFA, a remix of "From Nowhere," titled "From Nowhere (Baardsen Remix)", was featured on the soundtrack of ''
Grand Theft Auto V
''Grand Theft Auto V'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2008's ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', and ...
''. The song was featured on one of the game's radio stations,
Radio Mirror Park
The music for the 2013 action-adventure video game ''Grand Theft Auto V'', developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games, was composed by The Alchemist, Oh No and Tangerine Dream in collaboration with Woody Jackson. The game is the ...
, and in the official trailer of the game regarding its release on PC, and the next-generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles.
In November 2013 he announced, during a concert in
Camden Town
Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...
, London, that his first album ''
Sweet Disarray'', would be released on 10 March 2014.
On 19 April 2014 for
Record Store Day
Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...
, Croll released a limited 10" orange vinyl featuring 2 unreleased songs. Side A featured "Hello My Baby" (featuring
Ladysmith Black Mambazo) which was backed with "Ever at Your Side". Croll went to
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
to record "Hello My Baby" with the group. The limited vinyl was released in independent record stores on the day.
2015–present: Subsequent releases
In September 2015, Croll released the single "One of Us." In June 2016, Croll announced that he had signed with
Communion Music.
The
electro-song "Swim" was released on 25 August 2016 through the label. The music video for "Swim" was released on 31 August 2016. Croll's second studio album ''Emerging Adulthood'' was released on 21 July 2017.
The album was produced by
Ben H. Allen.
In 2018, Croll relocated from Liverpool to Los Angeles. In 2019/2020, he began working with producer
Matthew E. White
Matthew E. White (born August 14, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and arranger. He has worked as a collaborator, producer, and arranger for acts including Bedouine, Natalie Prass, Cocoon, Foxygen, Justin Vernon, Hiss Golden Me ...
at his
Spacebomb Studios in
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
, image_map =
, mapsize = 250 px
, map_caption = Location within Virginia
, pushpin_map = Virginia#USA
, pushpin_label = Richmond
, pushpin_m ...
. In early 2020, multiple new songs were released, and a third album named ''Grand Plan'' was announced on 15 April via social media. It was released on 21 August 2020. In 2021, he released a live version of the album, recorded at Spacebomb. Later that year, Croll released the four-track EP ''On Top''. Released in July 2021 via Communion, it was also produced and recorded with Matthew E. White.'
Discography
Studio albums
Studio EPs
Live albums
Remix albums
* ''In / Out'' (
Turnfirst /
Decca Decca may refer to:
Music
* Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label
* Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group
* Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label
* Decca Studios, a recording facility in We ...
, 2013)
*''Nobody Knows (Remixes)'' (Decca, 2014)
*''Home (Remixes)'' (Decca, 2014)
*''From Nowhere'' ''(Remixes)'' (Decca, 2014)
* ''Tokyo EP'' (2017)
Singles
Guest appearances
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Croll, Dan
1990 births
Living people
British male singer-songwriters
People from Newcastle-under-Lyme
Alumni of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts
21st-century British singers
21st-century British male singers