Dance Gavin Dance

Dance Gavin Dance formed in Sacramento in 2005 out of the wreckage of an earlier band, Farewell Unknown, with guitarist Will Swan and drummer Matthew Mingus joined by harsh vocalist Jon Mess and singer Jonny Craig. The group self-released the EP Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean in 2006, signed to Rise Records, and put out its debut album, Downtown Battle Mountain, the following year.

The band has cycled through several vocalists since, with Jonny Craig, Kurt Travis and Tilian Pearson each fronting different eras alongside longtime unclean vocalist Jon Mess; Andrew Wells now holds the lead vocal role. Swan, Mingus and Mess are the only members to appear on every studio album, bar one for Mess. Bassist Tim Feerick died in 2022, with Sergio Medina taking over live bass duties, and Pearson parted ways with the band in 2024 following a hiatus.

The group is built around Swan's funk- and math-rock-influenced guitar playing, which gives the music its jittery, brightly coloured character, paired with a two-vocalist format that sets clean singing against screamed passages.

Their catalogue now runs to ten studio albums, including Happiness, Downtown Battle Mountain II, Acceptance Speech, Instant Gratification, Mothership, Artificial Selection and Afterburner, released at a steady clip alongside two live Tree City Sessions records. Four of their albums have reached the top twenty of the Billboard 200, one of them cracking the top ten, with records built on intricate riffing, sudden tempo shifts and pop-leaning choruses.