- Music
- 16 Jun 20
Shot by visual collaborators Wild Honey Pie.
Dan Croll has unveiled the new video for his latest single 'So Dark', with his long-awaited third album Grand Plan, expected to arrive on August 21 through Communion Records.
Recorded entirely in the backseat of an Uber and captured by visual collaborators Wild Honey Pie, the singer-songwriter takes a ride around Los Angeles, homesick for his native UK.
"I wrote ‘So Dark’ after an unverified ride home with some friends, we were having some pretty dark and funny conversations, I think that first verse tells it pretty straight," Croll said, of filming the video.
"After that night we would take a lot of late night drives, exploring the neighbourhoods, picking up food and drink, it became a pretty important ritual of living here. It felt only right to film this video on the backseat driving around my neighbourhood and reliving that feeling/those moments."
'So Dark' explores the difficulty Croll experienced in trying to fit in to a new environment.
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A lens of fuzzy guitars and space synths alongside emotive and humble songwriting are the backbone of the track.
Explaining the motive he had for ‘So Dark’, he said, “After a few months in LA I started to find my feet a little, but where I still lagged was on the social side of things.
"Everyone I met in LA seemed to be desperately happy, sugar coating everything, forcing humour out of fear to be seen as sad," he adds. "It made me really miss home, It made me miss that dark British humour and the ability to laugh at yourself, no matter how bad it gets. 'So Dark' is about that search, and the moment that perseverance paid off to meet someone like-minded.”
Croll's album Grand Plan chronicles the 12-month period when Croll decided to move to Los Angeles after he found himself becoming restless in Liverpool in 2018.
Over the next year, Dan turned his experiences into 20-odd songs and eventually narrowed them down to a dozen tracks for the album.
In the spring of 2019, he spent a month with Matthew E. White in Virginia bringing to life the songs in the country-psych-soul style.
Croll released double a-side singles ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Stay In L.A.’ in 2020, both recounting the beginning stages of a seismic shift in his life after being mentored by Paul McCartney, and the decision to relocate.
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After the release of second album Emerging Adulthood, Croll went back to basics with his songwriting and took inspiration from the music of James Taylor, Burt Bacharach and Joni Mitchell).
“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," he said.
"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.”
Dan has recently launched a live stream companion to accompany his regular weekly 'Special Delivery' playlist on his Instagram Live.
The radio-style show style stream broadcasts every Sunday, and he has reignited the 'Dial Dan' hotline for those needing a mental break during lockdown.
He's accepting calls, texts, WhatsApp audio notes and messages from all over the globe every Monday to interact with fans globally.
Dial Dan on +1-323-304-1701, and pre-order his new album Grand Plan here.
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Check out the full video for 'So Dark' below: