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Dan Croll Proves The Beatles Aren't the Music From Liverpool

11/06/2013
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(Radio.com) Dorothy once said, "There's no place like home," and Dan Croll, well, he clearly agrees. The British singer/songwriter's song "Home" is an ode to the place where he rests his head with cutesy lines like "So if you ever come 'round to my house take your shoes off at the door/'Cause it's impolite not to; you'll be damaging my floor" and a video that is set in the same adorable universe Wes Anderson frequents. The clip even features Croll's tea-drinking grandma. "My nan," Croll said with delight. "Yea, she's incredible. She's 87 and still looking good."

Croll wrote the song nearly three years ago after a trip to Berlin that he had taken with his now ex-girlfriend in the middle of winter. "I can just remember the trip being great, but just very cold and quite gray and it was just the feeling of flying back home," Croll said. His dad picked him up from the airport and brought him back to Stoke, England, where his parents still live. He just remembers walking through the door and seeing his whole family sitting by the fire and it just being so nice. He wanted the song to emulate that same warm and fuzzy feeling.

Home for Croll is Liverpool, where he grew up and still lives now. It also happens to be the birthplace of a little band called the Beatles. And as one might imagine, it's a hard act to follow.

"They're such a historic band and we're very proud of that history and we made the most of it with all the tourist trips," Croll said, admitting that he, like so many artists from the city, can't escape the Fab Four comparisons. "It's a tough one because they are such a great band and they're still such an inspiration for so many amazing historic bands�so you have to just take it on the chin. I do like the Beatles, they're good, but now there's a really good scene that really needs that attention."

It's a scene that has flourished thanks to the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts (LIPA) where Croll learned all aspects of the music business, from music law to production to music theory. "I struggled with that massively," Croll said. "I just want to play." While there he also got a little one-on-one time with the school's founder, Paul McCartney who gave him some feedback on a few of his songs and said "groovy" a lot.

It's a hard program to get into with over 2000 applicants each year and only 24 spaces to fill. When Croll first told his family he wanted to apply, they were surprised to say the least, mostly because the Brit was never one to play his songs for the general public. "You know, I was very focused on doing sports and that kind of ended quite abruptly and then there was a quick transaction to music," Croll explained. "And I think it was such a quick transaction that I think my mom especially was like, 'You sure you want to go for a career in music? Can you do that?'"

Looking at Croll in his Buddy Holly frames, you might not believe he originally planned on becoming a rugby star before an injury when he was 17 dashed his hopes of going pro. It was only in the last five or six years that music became his focus. Though the switch wasn't that much of a surprise. more on this story

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Copyright Radio.com/CBS Local - Excerpted here with permission.

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