Andy Leon & The GMP is a band based out of Los Angeles, California. They have a variety of influences ranging from indie, jazz, rock and folk music. Andy Leon & The GMP write their material with a multitude of styles and genres with the primary goal of pulling on your heart-strings and getting your butt moving with its sounds. Their most recent EP is called “The Great Mouse Parade” and can be found on all streaming services.
Andy Leon & The GMP recently dropped a new single called “The Morning After”. The sweet sounds of this band are obvious from the beginning and their jazz and folk influences shine through clearly. The song is easy-listening and every instrument is pleasing to the ear. The vocals are sincere and tuneful, and the arrangement of the song builds ever so gradually. This building quality is incredibly gratifying near the end when the song builds to its climax, with all the instruments dropping out and the vocals ushering in the final chorus, complete with sultry sounding strings. This is a band to look out for, and we highly recommend their latest offering called “The Morning After”.
Listen to "The Morning After" here and get to know more about the band below!
Hey, thanks for catching up! Would you start us off by explaining who you all are and how the band got together?
We met in college in Boston and throughout the four years each had our own music projects—some of the band members had solo acts, some were in bands, some had both. We knew each other as friends first. When we moved to LA, Michael and I started writing music and performing together and one night after a gig we flirted with the idea of starting a band and it just grew from there.
You have a wide variety of influences, but who would you say are your collective biggest inspirations?
I think individually we all have very distinct inspirations but we’ve been lucky in being able to combine our backgrounds in differing genres into one. I’d say collectively our sound is inspired by Lake Street Dive and Norah Jones- the way that they capture a feeling and put it to words and music is something we strive for in our own songs.
What does your writing process look like? How do the songs all come together?
Typically Michael or I will bring a song into the practice space and then we’ll build the music around it, trying new things, seeing what does and doesn’t work. Marc and Dom will usually work together to find the rhythm that drives the song and Jono will try out different sax parts to find where and what fits. When we write together it starts with a single line or melody and we go from there, treating it like writing a story (where do we want this to go, how do we want this to end, what are we trying to say, how will this make you move?). When writing alone I think I personally go from a feeling into a song and then when the band takes it on I try and convey the feeling to them in order to get the sound to match that.
You have a new single called “The Morning After”. Did you have a message in mind when you were putting the music together?
The morning after is sort of a reflection on the rebound— waking up to/being with somebody and feeling a very distinct disconnect. It’s trying and failing to pinpoint the root of that and answer all of the questions that come with attempting to move on from someone. The song is a very stream of consciousness processing of the repetitive and cyclical nature of heartbreak. The music has a slow build to it that mirrors the way that thoughts build up when they aren’t spoken until they reach a breaking point.
What can we hope to see in the future from Andy Leon & The GMP?
More music! Always more music. We’re playing shows around Los Angeles now and are in the works of writing more, recording more, releasing more. There may be a couple videos on the way as well so definitely keep your eyes peeled! Thank you for listening :)