Dan Croll

Liverpool-based Dan Croll is a fabulous new solo artist with enough facets for a whole band. He's the electro boy with links to the folkie scene (Communion Records included one of his tracks on their recent New Faces compilation), a multi-instrumentalist whose songwriting prowess has impressed everyone from former Beatles to legends in the world of fashion and design. He started 2012 with one of his demos (Marion) as a Q Essential Download and another (Home) picked up by Steve Lamaq on 6 Music and ended it with his debut single "From Nowhere" being hammered by Radio 1. His debut EP, From Nowhere, was released March 12th on Lava/Republic.

Don't be fooled by the Buddy Holly specs -- he's a one-time rugby fanatic whose career in the sport at the highest level was derailed by a broken leg -- or by the sensitive acoustica: the 22-year-old is a former nightclub doorman who lives above a strip joint in Liverpool.

Dan was born in 1990 to a marketing consultant dad and nurse mum in Trentham, a suburb of Stoke-On-Trent, home of Robbie and Slash. He played rugby for his school, county and the Midlands, but a shin-on-shin collision aged 17 left him in a cast for a year and his hopes of ever playing for England about as up in the air as his leg.

Music was his other adolescent obsession, one partly acquired from his mother, a jazz, blues and folk fan who used to sing in brass bands. His first love was the nu metal of Blink 182 and Sum 41.

"I've tried to find a balance between my folky/acoustic roots and my recent experimentation with electronic production and synths," Croll explains. "I'd say it's a good indicator of what's to come from my debut album."

Sirius XM's Alt Nation leads the way with over 800 spins on "From Nowhere" before the official impact on April 30th.

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