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To round off a big year for Gustaffson, with the release of their debut album and shows including a sell-out one at Bush Hall, the band - led by Ellis/Carnival Row/Black Mirror star Andrew Gower – have now released a new and joyous soul single called Dance to the Algorithm.
Says Gower, “It was a whirlwind year doing the album, sticking the album out, and then going back to do season two of Ellis, as well as the shows. But I always wanted to finish the year with a release.”
In March, they released Black & White Movie, their acclaimed debut which was particularly unique due to its pro-vinyl approach and with its highly-accomplished short films bringing the singles to life. The presence on the record of some of Gower’s friends in the acting world – such as one Sir Ben Kingsley – extended to these short films, which involved the likes of Daniel Ings (The Gentlemen) and BAFTA-winning director Andrew Goddard (Downton Abbey).
Their approach was striking in that it seemed both old school and progressive, in the sense that artists today are so individualistic - sometimes more influencers than musicians - that being a band, with serious intent and a love of the album, suddenly feels revolutionary again. Gower laughs at this when we put it to him, but is in complete agreement.
“The individual feels a lot easier to sell than the collective of a band. Social media definitely has a role in that but it's more economically stringent too. But while it probably costs more energy and is a lot harder to navigate than being one person, I think as humans, we need to be part of a collective. We need to find who we want to work with and who we want to coexist with because otherwise the world can be quite a lonely place. I think when it comes to making art now, probably progressive is the right word even if we do feel old fashioned. The world does cycle doesn’t it?”
Indeed it does, and it seems that there is a growing need for physicality back in music, certainly in terms of the booming live music area, but also in the artistic pleasures of being in a band, and audience pleasures of listening to something that people have given their heart and soul to, not simply dashed out with TikTok in mind.
Which is of course where Dance to the Algorithm comes in. In its style and message, it is both a throwback and a way forward.
Says the Liverpool-born Gower, “We went back into the studio with [producer] Craig Potter from Elbow for this single to bookend the year, with something feelgood for the winter months. We wanted to put some Motown soul out into the world.
It came about organically. We have that natural tendency, growing up near a port in Liverpool to love that music coming in over the waters from America. I grew up listening to a lot of Motown and a lot of soul music. I didn't think we tapped into it too much in the album, but this single shows where we want to go in 2026.”
It’s a highly effective tune, one that has that irresistible and unifying dancefloor thrust of classic soul and shows off Gower’s vocal abilities to the fullest. Lyrically, it was sparked by something to do with The Beatles; another thing in the blood with Liverpudlians.
“I was at a Q&A with Giles Martin at the Beatles ‘64 documentary screening and basically he said that nowadays people hear music, they do not listen to it.
I went away and penned Dance to the Algorithm with a play on the words, and asking what does it mean to dance to the algorithm, and, and how do we digest music in 2025 and why is it so different?
I understand that Spotify is the main source of how people will listen to our music and how we will be discovered by a lot of people, on algorithms. That can really benefit a band, but at the same time, do we actually really listen to music now, or is it something we're just passively absorbing, and that's just put in front of us.”
The song reaches a crescendo in which he exhorts people to not forget the truth of what it takes to make music, singing, ‘Without the imperfection, it will never be human.’
He continues, “It's the imperfection of human genius that makes the best music. Paul McCartney messing up a take of Let It Be that’s gone worldwide, which John Lennon mocks him for. The beauty of music and the beauty of art is that one-off feeling of it, that it can never be perfect and should never be perfect because the beauty of humans is the imperfection.”
The new single also allowed Gower to step behind the camera for the first time for the video, which again, is a short film a cut above your usual fare, as a spaceman takes a journey out onto the streets of Manchester, an apt metaphor for Gustaffson as an entity, “putting the extraordinary in the ordinary.”
They squeezed it the filming while they were finishing the track and after a false start – “I wouldn’t advise directing and recording at the same time” – managed to spend a day taking in iconic locations including a memorable sequence in Manchester Art Gallery.
As for 2026, well you can expect more of these now trademark films, a tour, and a new album, produced by PJ Harvey producer/collaborator John Parish.
Ahead of then, they have a Manchester show and then a London show on the 27th November at the Courtyard Theatre in east London. This is one not to be missed, a chance to have a taste – and a feel! – of the unity Gustaffson encourage.
He signs off saying, “The biggest joy for me when I make music, is to bring people together. Whether that's the audience or whether that's collaborations. That’s been the overriding thing for me with Gustafson this year, and I don't want to lose sight of in 2026. The power we have as people, is to make stuff that brings other people together and I definitely want to try and continue to do that.”
Dance to the Algorithm is out now. Gustaffson play Courtyard Theatre on 27 Nov.
