After the release of “Pantheon” in 2025, Swancore band Dance Gavin Dance (DGD) returned to release their new studio album “Tree City Sessions 3” on May 22. The album features remastered versions of many DGD songs from early in their career. However, this album does not feature the band’s previous lead vocalist, Tilian Pearson, who originally recorded vocals for albums before “Pantheon,” instead introducing the re-recorded tracks on “Tree City Sessions 3” with their new lead vocalist Andrew Wells.
DGD has had a decent history of rotating lead vocalists, or clean vocalists, featuring vocals from the likes of Jonny Craig, Kurt Travis and Tilian Pearson, while keeping their unclean, harsh, vocalist Jon Mess since the beginning of the band’s creation. Wells officially became the band’s new lead vocalist in 2024 and appeared on their album “Pantheon.”
“Tree City Sessions 3” appears to have been well received by fans online. One user, gengarvibes, shared their satisfaction with the album in the replies of a r/PostHardcore subreddit post titled “DANCE GAVIN DANCE Releases Tree City Sessions 3, Watch ‘It’s Safe To Say You Dig The Backseat’.”
“Whole album is cinema. Insane to hit a new stride 20 years and 4 lead singers in. But DGD just keeps getting better,” the user said.
Despite the positive reception, some fans felt a bit dissatisfied with the re-recorded versions of songs on the album and compare Wells’s vocals to those of the band’s previous vocalists. Under the same post, another user, d11dd11d, points out the contrasts between Wells’s vocal execution in the re-recording to the band’s original lead vocalist, Jonny Craig.
“Although Andrew does his best Jonny impression, it just doesn’t quite feel right. I’m not sure what it is –– maybe Andrew is like… too precise? Andrew is soulful in his own way, but just not like Jonny. 1 of 1, ya know,” d11dd11d wrote in a reply. “Don’t get me wrong, he did a really good job. Of course DGD should be able to play all their songs, but I wonder if he should try to make these his own? On the other hand, DGD is bigger than their revolving door of singers.”
DGD is sometimes haunted by the controversial legacy of their original lead vocalist Craig, who, despite being beloved for his strong vocals, was dismissed from the band due to his severe drug addiction.
In a reply to user, d11d11d, user 350SBC agreed that they too believe Wells’s vocals differ greatly from Craig’s.
“No other DGD singer has been able to even come close to doing Jonny’s parts right. Andrew is the closest by a huge margin. It still misses the mark, but he’s certainly the best at it,” they replied.
Other fans felt that Wells actually out-performed previous vocalists of the band, such as user Sdnz0r, who replied to 350SBC.
“Honestly from all the lead singers they had so far he was the best one to cover Jonny and Kurt vocals, his impression on Tilian is also not that bad (i actually prefer his because tilian was too high pitch for my like). I actually prefer that he did this way instead of trying to adapt it into his own way,” Sdnz0r wrote.
While fans seem overall satisfied with “Tree City Sessions 3,” some appear unable to separate the re-recordings from the original recordings with Craig and other previous DGD vocalists, leaving them all compared to Wells. Others view the band more holistically, feeling the change in vocalists is normal for the DGD project, and appreciate Wells’s approach of maintaining similarity to the band’s previous vocalists.
Currently, the band is on a North American tour, which began on May 5 and is set to continue until July 25. Their next show is set for June 5 in Birmingham, Ala., where they will play at the Avondale Brewing Company. Following the North American tour, DGD will pick back up on Sept. 1 to begin their European tour in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at Melkweg.
Juliana Maldonado is an Arts and Entertainment Intern for the spring 2026 quarter. She can be reached at jrmaldo1@uci.edu.
Edited by Corinna Chin and Joshua Gonzales
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