Hope and Balouzian were working together on a film in 2016 and were searching for a choir for the soundtrack when they came across the work of Lusk. Lusk had previously appeared on American Idol in 2011 and sang backing for Diana Ross and Gladys Knight but they hadn’t seen this, at the time Lusk was orchestrating an amateur choir. They asked him to come to Hope's music studio in Palm Springs to make more music and when he declined, they instead camped outside Lusk’s church with a remote recording studio.[2]

The band is named after St. Gabriels Avenue, the street in Sunderland, England that Hope grew up on. Together they are said to fuse musical styles such as gospel, doo-wop and jazz.[3]