Take That have revealed their goals for 10th studio album Dreamers as they look to build on a landmark year.
With a hit Netflix documentary and smash tour already in the books in 2026, Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen return to the Music Week cover this month to discuss the next phase of their evolution.
The trio are joined by Corduroy Artists, Island EMI, UTA, SJM Concerts and more as they open up on the campaign and their future plans.
“Take That are national treasures,” said Louis Bloom, their label boss at Island EMI. “They put on a show and it’s joy and escapism at its best.”
Written and recorded in London, New York, Nashville and Los Angeles, Dreamers will be released on November 20 via Island EMI and boasts a vast supporting cast including Stuart Price, Jamie Scott, Martin Hannah, Red Triangle, Tom Odell and Johan Carlsson.
As with 2023 predecessor This Life, Gary Barlow and bandmates Howard Donald and Mark Owen worked on songs separately before bringing them into the Take That realm.
“We’d come off the back of This Life and were writing in a similar vein,” said Owen. “But then Howard came in with this song, Higher, which was built around an Earth, Wind And Fire sample he’d found. He sent us a WhatsApp saying, ‘Blast this fucker in your car.’”
Owen said the record, which has been trailed by the singles You're A Superstar, Sweet July, Feel My Love, Higher and the title track, "almost acknowledges all different parts of the band over the last 30 years, over the last nine records".
We were all writing to a bar that was, ‘If it’s not a single, if it doesn’t feel like a special song, we’re not going to put it on an album’
Gary Barlow
When it came to making the record, Barlow said there was no room for filler.
“I feel like it’s been one of the simplest records we’ve made in a long time because we were all writing to a bar that was, ‘If it’s not a single, if it doesn’t feel like a special song, we’re not going to put it on an album,’” he said. “It was about coming up with your best work.”
With their career now well into its fourth decade, Barlow acknowledged the changing dynamics of the music industry, but stressed that artists must remain focused on building and nurturing relationships with their fans.
“Everything is so fragmented – it’s about getting your audience and taking care of them,” he said. “It’s not about delivering what everyone else wants. You know your audience is on your side because they like you, so just be you. If there was ever a time to respect, look after and love your audience, it’s right now. And the business side of it runs alongside all that – the business side allows you to deliver to that audience or play for that audience.”
The release of Dreamers follows Take That's Netflix documentary and this summer’s Circus tour, which saw them perform to more than 700,000 fans across the UK and Ireland. In Barlow's view, however, it was important that the year ended not with a look back at the band's history, but with a reminder of what's still to come.
“The thing with something like the Netflix show is you’re dealing with a global corporation and they decide when it’s ready, so it would’ve been really hard for us to map this year out two years ago,” said Barlow. “Once we knew it was dropping in January, we could then start to organise the rest of the year, and it just so happened it was the same year we were doing The Circus tour. But it was important that we finish the year facing forwards, letting people know that we’re still making new music and when we tour next, it’ll be a brand-new tour.”
It’s such a buzz to see a whole new audience
Howard Donald
A key addition to the team bringing the Dreamers project together was ex-Polydor and Karma Artists A&R Ross Gautreau, who runs A&R consultancy firm Second Verse. Gautreau says the record features work from around 30 writers, 20 producers and seven mixers.
The strategy behind the album's collaborations was to identify territories where the band were gaining traction and find the right local artists to work with. A pertinent example is the song Glow, which sees the group join forces with Manila folk-pop group Ben&Ben, while Irish-American singer-songwriter Michael Patrick Kelly – a huge star in Central Europe – popped up on recent single Feel My Love.
“Working with people internationally is a little bit more logistically challenging but absolutely worth it,” said Gautreau. “I think all the collaborations on the record have been really special and the band haven’t traditionally done a lot of those. They were really open-minded.”
Next summer, the band will visit a number of European cities for the first time, playing some of their biggest shows on the continent to date. The 2027 tour will comprise more than 30 festival and outdoor shows across 16 countries.
For Donald, the greatest motivation is giving audiences an experience they’ll remember long after the show ends.
“That’s what we love,” he said. “Then, it’s word of mouth. Mothers are bringing their daughters who are in their teenage years now, and it’s such a buzz to see a whole new audience, and a lot of guys, too. I get lots of guys coming up to me and going, ‘I don’t necessarily like your music but you cannot fault your show.’ They love it – it makes me proud.”
Subscribers can read the full Take That cover story here.
PHOTO: Jason Hetherington
