GANS share new single ‘NIGHTWALKING’
Watch the video HERE
Debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL out 19th September on Strap Originals
UK headline tour dates through September
GANS | Photo credit: Benji Charles
Birmingham newcomers GANS continue to tease their debut album today, with the release of new single ‘NIGHTWALKING‘. Debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL arrives on September 19th via Peter Doherty’s Strap Originals label. Produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, Amyl & The Sniffers, The Fall, Working Men’s Club), ‘NIGHTWALKING’ follows recent singles ‘I THINK I LIKE YOU’ and ‘IT’S JUST LIFE‘, both of which landed on the BBC 6 Music playlist.
Throughout the release of these singles, GANS have set their stall out as a band with many different strings to their bow. A duo of borderless noise-makers with intensity at the core of what they do, on new single ‘NIGHTWALKING’ they continue to surprise, swerving away from the heated post-punk and darting electronics of former singles, and this time residing in the dusky, after-hours brooding of a world without definition.
Drummer and vocalist Euan Woodman expands: “‘NIGHTWALKING’ addresses that space between love, desire and lust. Love does not always have to be clean and pure – it’s not that simple and one-dimensional. It can be dark and cruel. It can be late night f******. Simple, selfish acts of love. We tried to write our version of a soul track with a dark twist and we deliberately made the recording warm and swing with brass sections from our pals in Ibibio Sound Machine. It was kinda like a Grand Theft Auto late night cruise with Marvin Gaye driving through the streets of Digbeth…. that was kinda the vibe we had in mind.”
For GANS, it’s the world around them, and specifically their upbringing, that roots them in their sound. Growing up in working class areas of the Black Country to parents who worked in factories and mills has helped define an approach that seeks to merge uneasy realism with horizon-chasing escapism.
Across their upcoming debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL, the band tackles subjects of acceptance, self-destruction, and body image. Informed by a shared love of painting, literature, and poetry in particular, GANS is where all of these concepts coalesce, in the hive-mind of songwriters Euan Woodman (drums, vocals) and Thomas Rhodes (bass, vocals).
Continuing about the album, he says: “GOOD FOR THE SOUL was the ultimate journey for us. You have your entire life to write a debut record and this is ours. 24 years of life distilled through noises and vibrations. We went to the Welsh countryside in December 2024 to write the record. We hired a cottage for 10 days, armed ourselves with enough food, booze, weed and music to listen to that would keep us inspired, and we wrote about 15/16 songs. It was an idyllic place with a little brook flowing in the garden – all very Led Zeppelin.
We then took those songs to Ross Orton who had produced ‘IN TIME’ and ‘I THINK I LIKE YOU’ with us already.
We started recording with him in the first week of January 2025 so it was all super-fast. brand new songs we loved and Ross was great to work with, he inspired us and challenged us. He’s a bit of a nutter – but that’s kinda what we like, we like to be around interesting characters. After 3 weeks in Sheffield we had a record done.”
Pre-order GANS’ debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL here.
Hear new single ‘NIGHTWALKING’ on streaming services here and share the video on YouTube below.
GANS live dates 2025
Tickets available here.
Aug 15th – Route Du Rock Festival, St Malo, FR
Aug 29th – Shunkfest, Port Talbot, UK
Sep 2nd – Green Door Store, Brighton, UK
Sep 3rd – Oporto, Leeds, UK
Sep 4th – The Louisiana, Bristol, UK
Sep 5th – The Bodega, Nottingham, UK
Sep 6th – Mama Roux’s, Birmingham, UK
Sep 9th – The Lexington, London, UK
Sep 10th – YES (Basement), Manchester, UK
Sep 11th – The Parish, Wrexham, UK
Sep 13th – Blow Festival 3, Frankfurt, DE
Sep 26th – Neotribe at Sunbird Records, Darwen, UK
Sep 27th – Float Along Festival, Sheffield, UK
Oct 8th – Changeover Festival, Belgrade, RS
Oct 16th – Swn Festival, Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, UK
Oct 22nd – Arena Club, Vienna, AT ^
Oct 23rd – Santerina Toscana 31, Milan, IT ^
Oct 24th – Exil, Zurich, CH ^
Oct 25th – Orange House, Munich, DE ^
Oct 28th – MTC Club, Cologne, DE ^
Oct 29th – La Boule Noire, Paris, FR ^
Oct 31st – Razzmatazz Room 3, Barcelona, ES ^
Nov 1st – El Sol, Madrid, ES ^
Nov 6th – Stereolux, Nantes, FR
Dec 17th – Crookes Social Club, Sheffield, UK
Dec 26th – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, UK (Xmas foodbank fundraiser)
Dec 31st – 100 Club, London, UK %
^ = Supporting BIG SPECIAL
% = supporting C Turtle
GANS live dates 2026
Jan 3rd – Rockaway Beach Festival, Bognor Regis, UK
Feb 13th – Waterfront, Norwich, UK ^
Feb 14th – Rock City, Nottingham, UK ^
Feb 15th – Digital, Newcastle, UK ^
Feb 18th – Stylus, Leeds, UK ^
Feb 19th – SWG3, Glasgow, UK ^
Feb 20th – New Century Hall, Manchester, UK ^
Feb 21st – O2 Institute, Birmingham, UK ^
Feb 24th – Electric, Bristol, UK ^
Feb 25th – 1865, Southampton, UK ^
Feb 27th – The Roundhouse, London, UK ^
^ = Supporting BIG SPECIAL
GANS – Good For The Soul album artwork
GANS – GOOD FOR THE SOUL album tracklisting
1. A FOOL
2. IN TIME
3. IT’S JUST LIFE
4. NIGHTWALKING
5. FAR AND WIDE
6. EVERYTHING IN EXTREME
7. I THINK I LIKE YOU
8. THE KING’S HEAD
9. THIS PRODUCT
10. OH GEORGE
11. WELL DONE
More about GANS and debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL
GANS are Euan Woodman (drums, vocals) and Tom Rhodes (bass, vocals).
Growing up in working class areas of the Black Country to parents who worked in factories and mills has helped define how they approach GANS. As Rhodes puts it, “We both come from places where people get locked in by their surroundings – trapped by jobs and ambitions that go as far as getting married and settling down by the time you are 23. We knew we did not want that. We felt connected when we met and we had ambitions that lay beyond that world. We are fiercely proud of where we are from and we strongly believe in how we were raised. It’s just we have ambitions that are more Copacabana than Costa Del Dudley.”
Woodman would sit scribbling away in his books. Not only does he write poems, but he also paints. Some of his paintings are disturbing Francis Bacon-like images of animals dressed as humans. There’s a Goose smoking a cigarette. Ironically this is where the band got their name – GANS is “Goose” in German.
Woodman says, “I have to be creating, and I will do until I die. I know people say that, but I truly don’t know any other way, I don’t know what I’d do.” He is the main lyricist in GANS. His words reflect a sense of discomfort and unease with life.
GANS went away in November 2024 to Wales to a remote cottage to write their debut album GOOD FOR THE SOUL, a direct, honest, noisy, heartfelt collection of songs to reflect the times the band find themselves in. There are songs about electronic gadgets to improve your life (‘THIS PRODUCT’), ‘OH GEORGE’ tackles mental illness head on, and stories of “Little England” mentalities and the ghosts of Reform supporters shine through on ‘A FOOL’ and ‘IN TIME’.