Gordy Murphy Unveils New Single ‘Leather Cigarette’

Boston-based one-man-band and sonic auteur Gordy Murphy returns with his latest single, “Leather Cigarette,” a brooding, cinematic track that wrestles with the seductive pull of danger and the uneasy allure of living without limits.

Taken from the critically praised debut album, Memory’s Edge, a haunting dive into the recesses of the psyche, Murphy pushes deeper into murky emotional territory with "Leather Cigarette." The track is a dark, restrained piece of alternative rock, smouldering with quiet intensity and carried by Gordy's signature mix of psychedelic textures, spacious instrumentation, and raw, poetic lyricism.

“Leather Cigarette is about the limitations of making rational choices,” Murphy explains. “I was thinking about a time in New Orleans when a girl came out of a bar, lit a cigarette, and started up her El Camino... the rumble of the V8, the smoke curling out of the window. It was like the clearest argument I’ve ever seen for living a life of sin.”

That memory became the spark for Leather Cigarette, a track that plays out like a fever dream. It draws listeners into a visual and emotional sequence: smoke, steel, suggestion — a visceral moment frozen in time, asking the listener not what should be done, but what might be done. It’s that ambiguous space between impulse and consequence that Murphy masterfully occupies — with both guitar and pen.

Sonically, the single channels the raw energy of Hendrix, the moody cool of The Doors, and the aching introspection of Jeff Buckley — all distilled into Gordy’s unmistakably modern voice. Created in his home studio in Boston, the track is deeply personal and viscerally atmospheric, part storytelling and part self-examination.

“Whether she knew it or not, that girl outside the bar had the power to make you question everything,” says Murphy. “The song invites you into that moment and dares you to choose — do you get into that passenger seat, or walk away?”