Leroy From The North packs a different kind of heat with My Favorite Gun, the dark and expansive follow-up to the power trio’s acclaimed debut, Toughen Up. Stacked high with guitars, grooves, and the occasional synth, it’s an album that showcases not only the wide-ranging firepower of the band’s influences — from southern rock to cosmic country to British psychedelia — but also their decision to blur the lines between genre and generation, creating a spacey, sweeping sound that exists out of time.
Before launching the band in Los Angeles, frontman Eli Wulfmeier grew up in Michigan, raised on the sounds of 1970s bands like Humble Pie and Free. He headed to California during his 20s, laying the foundation for his own band while establishing himself as a go-to guitarist for acts like Shelby Lynne, Sam Morrow, and Nikki Lane. Filled with sharp songwriting and rhythmic stomp, 2023’s Toughen Up found him nodding to his roots as a Motor City rocker who’d found a new home in California’s country community. Two years later, My Favorite Gun sets its sights on a new horizon. This time, Wulfmeier and his longtime bandmates — drummer Jason Ganberg and bassist Adam Arcos — aren’t focused on where they came from. They’re more interested in where they’re headed next.
“There’s something about this record that feels like a Black Mirror episode, where everything is just a little bit off, a little disconcerting, a little weird,” Wulfmeier says. “All three of us have played so much Americana and country music over the years that we wanted to get outside of our own comfort zone.”
For inspiration, he found himself listening to moodier music — including indie-folksinger José González, trip hop duo Zero 7, and art rock band The National — and watching reruns of Miami Vice. Something about the TV show’s dark and dangerous aesthetic seemed to mirror his adopted home of California, too, and it influenced the songs he wrote for My Favorite Gun. Embracing the use of alternate narrators, he began filling the album with stories about twisted love affairs, meltdowns, and even the apocalypse. “When you grow up in the Midwest, LA looks so glamorous,” he explains. “Then you move here and see the nastiness, too, and there’s something really interesting about that dynamic. I like exploring those darker sides. I like finding the beauty in something that other people might pass up.”
My Favorite Gun was tracked at Mountain Sound Recorders with producer Joe Bourdet. Thanks to Toughen Up‘s promotional tour — which included shows alongside bands like Silverada and Whitey Morgan — Leroy From The North had grown into a well-oiled machine, their musical instincts sharpened by numerous hours spent together onstage. To showcase that chemistry, they captured the bedrock of each song with a series of live-in-the-studio takes, then added extra layers of instruments to build new sounds. “It was a process of pushing things as far as we could, then bringing it back if needed,” Wulfmeier remembers. “We went for things that we wouldn’t normally do.”
The results speak for themselves. “Cuban Heels” blends humor with heartland classic rock. “It Doesn’t Matter” matches a hedonistic storyline with a breezy, yacht rock-inspired arrangement. “Leaving” is an atmospheric, western-sounding space ballad, while “I Belong” — co-written with Johnny Rossa — pays tribute to the seedier side of Los Angeles with slide guitar, reverb, and plenty of Pink Floyd-worthy ambiance. Then there’s “Laid to Rest,” a psychedelic synth-rocker about the end of the world. Filled with guitar riffs and keyboard tones that nod to ZZ Top’s Eliminator, the song unfolds like the soundtrack to a highway joyride in a Trans Am, all muscle-car swagger and vintage southern stomp.
Wulfmeier, who’s always struggled to condense the band’s diverse sound into a short description, laughs at his inability to describe My Favorite Gun. “It’s a refined country-rock indie sleaze thing,” he begins. Then he corrects himself, calling it a “spacey, moody, western guitar record” instead. Finally, he gives up and embraces the uncategorizable charm of his band’s finest record to date.
“There are no wrong instincts anymore,” he says. “We’ve been playing together for so long that we can go anywhere we want, musically. It feels really freeing. We’re redefining ourselves… even if that definition can be hard to pin down.”
With My Favorite Gun, Leroy From The North fires on all cylinders.
