Los Angeles band Gal Pal have announced their new album This and Other Gestures (out June 2nd) and shared the lead single “Angel in the Flesh,” a harmony and feedback-laced banger about the freedom that comes with letting yourself love. The album is their first in 6 years, and finds the trio of Emelia Austin (she/her), Shayna Hahn (she/her) and Nico Romero (he/him) in their mid-twenties and at the height of their personal and collective power, working through gender dysphoria, personal loss, and the confusion of young adulthood. “These songs are about us processing change. Is it good, is it bad? We’re grieving, we’re celebrating” reflects Austin.

Romero explains “I grew up listening to a lot of pop punk and emo bands. I was a big fan of labels like Fueled By Ramen and Decaydance as a kid. I think this song definitely comes from that background a bit. It’s easy for me to want to sing about crushes and longing because it’s a fun feeling to indulge in and romanticize, even when it hurts.”

Gal Pal was born out of a serendipitous meeting in college — same dorm, same floor, each member drawn to the other by shared ambition and a desire to play music in a space that felt non-judgemental and generative. Initial collaborations were improvisatory, long-winded and playful in the truest sense. They worked with equipment recently bought, a drum kit no one yet knew how to play. “We were learning our instruments together,” says Romero. “The project started from wanting to learn how to play and write songs with other people.”

This they learned, and learned fast. Gal Pal recorded their debut album GIRLISH (2017) while still in college and then moved back to the Los Angeles area from which they all hail. They’ve played shows with Pile, Ian Sweet, Palehound, and Momma. The songs on GIRLISH and subsequent EP Unrest/Unfeeling (2019) were written as Gal Pal began — all three in a room, switching instruments spontaneously, trading riffs and rhythms until the sense of wonder emerged, eyes met, and something stuck. This energy is palpable in the music — songs expand over multiple movements, time signatures shift in a blink, guitar riffs interlock as if dueling.

Songwriting for the album happened in isolation, the recording process for the album was collaborative. Touring bassist Cole Brossus and engineers Danny Nogueriras and David Jerkovich helped produce most of the record at Balboa Studios, with additional contributions from Sami Perez (Cherry Glazerr) at her studio Wiggle World. The bandmates swapped instruments frequently, following their natural instincts. Gal Pal thrives in this setting, leaning into the sound and shared musical language they’ve developed over 7 years of living, playing and growing together.

Gal Pal
This and Other Gestures
Tracklist

01 Say No
02 Varsity Star
03 Pleasures
04 Crave
05 Design
06 Mirror
07 Takes Time
08 Think About Your Crush
09 Angel in the Flesh
10 Pure
11 Always There
12 King Mama
13 And The Sun Was Still Hot
14 This and Other Gestures

Pre-order This and Other Gestures by Pile HERE