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Dan Haynes (left) & Robin Groucutt

Stourbridge-born singer-songwriter Dan Haynes is no stranger to 成人论坛 WM Introducing, having performed live on the programme twice since the summer of 2007.

In recent months though, Dan has teamed up with another young musician Robin Groucutt, son of the late ELO star Kelly Groucutt.

Together Groucutt and Haynes are poised to take the West Midlands music scene by storm, having put together a full, multi-instrumental backing band and recorded their debut album.

On 24th September 2009, days before their album launch, the pair performed live on 成人论坛 WM Introducing. Dan explained how their collaboration came about:

Rob and Dan

"I was a solo artist on the Midlands scene, playing all the venue in this area. It kept happening that I was either playing on the same bill as or supporting a group called Korda which was the duo that Rob was in then.

"You get talking and you get to know each other a little bit better. It sort of went from there. Initially Rob helped me and played percussion on me as a solo artist it sort of developed from there really."

The duo's first album - Another Good Reason - launches with a party at the Robin 2 in Bilston on 30th September 2009. It features a selection of tracks written both individually and collectively, with the backing of a range of instruments including guitar, piano, flute, sax, cajon and even a didgeridoo.

Playing live

"We both had a collection of songs that were written to that point," said Dan. "Initially, Rob learnt all my songs. Then as we deiced to play as a duo, I learnt a few of Rob's. We decided to put ourselves out there as Groucutt and Haynes as a product and club them all together and we wrote a couple of other ones too."

The pair have evoked comparisons to a modern day Simon & Garfunkel but for Robin Groucutt, his main influence may be much closer to home.

"My dad Kelly Groucutt was the bassist for ELO," he said. "It was inevitable (I'd be doing this) because I'm just around music all the time at home and all my brothers and sister are all musical as well. My one brother is the drummer in our full band actually.

www.groucuttandhaynes.com

So what was it like growing up having a Birmingham music legend as a father?

"It's quite weird because I've not known anything different. For me it's quite normal. I was only very little when the change happened and there was ELO Part II. I've been kept away from the kind of fame and stuff like that which I think in hindsight is quite a good thing (laughs).

"You get people going 'well, he must be pretty good because of who his dad is' but I've still had to kind of practice for seven hours on one chord. When I first started out I was very kind of wary of using (my real name).

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"I didn't want it to come across like I was trying to name drop or anything. But in the last couple of years I've thought that I think it's something to be proud of anyway and it's such an individual name that I think it would be kind of wrong to become Rob Smith instead or something."

For more on Groucutt and Haynes, click on the audio, video and text links below: