Freshly Pressed – Mattie Leon “Dreaming On Your Feet”

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Mattie Leon here at FTS, so it’s always a good day when he releases new music! His latest single “Dreaming On Your Feet” is a bright, punchy, folk-rock earworm, co-written by John-Angus MacDonald of The Trews. We caught up with Mattie to chat about the new music, the writing process behind the song, and the evolution of his dance moves.

From The Strait: Tell us about the new single, “Dreaming on your Feet”.

Mattie Leon: Dreaming On Your Feet is a song I wrote with John-Angus MacDonald from The Trews. It’s a big Ol’ folk rock love song that you can dance to. Horns. Tons of harmonies. Jangly guitars. It sounds like a lost Help era Beatles single that got remixed by Mark Ronson in 2025. Ideally you listen to it 5 beers deep at an outdoor wedding.

From The Strait: What was the process like, writing with John-Angus MacDonald of The Trews?

Mattie Leon: As a longtime fan of The Trews it was a pretty cool experience to get to write something with John-Angus. We both live in Hamilton so we met up a few times in 2022.

For this particular song John-Angus had the chord progression for the first half of the chorus and the line “Dreaming On Your Feet”.

The song. The chords. The lyrics. It was all very back and forth like tossing a football in the backyard. “Here’s a lyric”, “how about we go to this chord”.

When it came time to record we both have setups at our houses. So I did vocals, bass and drums at my studio with Mike (my brother/drummer) and he put all the guitars and horn arrangements down at his place.

From The Strait: We’ve known you for years, we know you’ve got some moves on stage… but do you enjoy dancing? At weddings and events, are you the first one out on the dance floor?

Mattie Leon: Honestly I love dancing. When I’m on stage I feel like I move to the music a lot. But dancing to dance…ya…I love it.

I was so into it as a little kid that my parents put me in a dance class. The only boy in a class full of girls. I was “The Boy From New York City” for the recital. I only lasted one year but I think I left my mark on the Brampton dancing community.

Somewhere along the way. Probably like 12 years old I got way too self conscious to dance. I would NEVER dance at parties. Never at formals. I was too scared of making an ass of myself.

College. Weddings. Bars. Couldn’t get on the dance floor unless I’d had a bunch to drink. I think now that I’m married and I don’t care I’m finally enjoying dancing again. I’m not the first on the dance floor but I’m out there.

Mike Leon is a first on the dance floor guy.

From The Strait: What have you been listening to most these days? Anyone under-the-radar that we should have on our lists?

Mattie Leon: As always I’m listening to demos and mixes I’m working on for our next thing. I spend the majority of my time tweaking my songs…so I’d have to admit it’s that and the reference tracks I’m using for each song.

Stuff I’m liking otherwise? I love Mikhail Laxton’s new stuff. It’s so great. My buddy John Muirhead is always bringing the goods. Nelson Sobral (my bass player) put out a great new record called Tres. Hang On was nominated for an International Portuguese Music Award. We played with Brother Elsey late last year in Toronto. Their new album is rad in that classic Kings Of Leon way.

From The Strait: What is your favourite song to cover? Or, alternatively, what song would you love to cover?

Mattie Leon: I sang In My Life recently for my Uncle Peter’s Funeral. The words. The chords. They’re just so perfect and emotional. It was damn near impossible to get through.  

As a songwriter it was like stepping into a Rolls Royce and going around the block for a few minutes. “Oh so this is how good a song can be”.

I don’t play a lot of covers on stage. I feel like once you play one cover, the rest of the set is a let down for the audience. How can you compete with someone else’s big hit? Also having written a song called Cover Band I feel like I’d get a lot of shit from people if I started doing them too much!

From The Strait: What do you have planned for the rest of 2025? Is there a Mattie Leon World Tour?

Mattie Leon: It’s going to be a very busy year when it comes to recording and releasing music. But it’ll be a relatively quiet year when it comes to the stage.

Our next record is going to be split into two EPs and I’ll start rolling out the first of those in the summer. I’m super excited about those songs and the record as a whole. I’m working on it as we speak! 

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Check out Mattie Leon’s new single, “Dreaming On Your Feet”!

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