Andy Platts

After initially signing with Decca UK in 2008, in 2009 the band’s debut album Routes to Riches, almost exclusively written by Platts and spearheaded by Platts’ own song ‘House on a Hill’, gave the band a great start with a no. 3 sales chart hit in Japan with the album yielding airplay no.1’s in Japan, Hong Kong and Indonesia. ‘House on a Hill’ was the most played song on Japanese radio in 2009. It also led to major national radio playlisting in the UK with tracks like ‘Let’s Find A Way’ and ‘Pots of Gold’.

Thanks to their debut and follow-up The Life & Soul, Mamas Gun have become a potent live force in South East Asia, regularly touring territories like Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore in recent years as well as much of Europe and the UK, sharing stages with the likes of DeLa Soul, Raphael Saadiq, Lee Fields, Gregory Porter and Mayer Hawthorne to name a few. Their 3rd record Cheap Hotel (2013) made the top 30 in the UK Independent album charts, with A-playlisted singles across the BBC in the UK and in major national stations in Europe and Asia. In 2015 a change of personnel saw the band refine their sound pursuing a more classic soul aesthetic. 4th album Golden Days in many ways was the beginning of Mamas Gun 2.0. Tracks like “You Make My Life A Better Place”, “I Need A Win” and “This Is The Day (Band Version)” garnered heavy radio playlisting and set them up to dig deeper for their 5th album Cure The Jones (2022). Widely reviewed as the group’s finest album to date and universally lauded by critics with many nods for album of the year, the album saw Platts finding a stride and consistency in his songwriting and production values that perfectly straddled his contemporary and classic influences, and subsequently set the group up to take its first steps into North America after many rave reviews and endorsements from notable radio stations such as LA’s KCRW.

The forces behind Young Gun Silver Fox are Andy Platts and Shawn Lee. The duo fuses the talents they’ve mastered in their respective careers, from Andy’s role as frontman and principal writer in Mamas Gun to Shawn’s numerous self-produced projects with AM and his own Ping Pong Orchestra. Their debut LP West End Coast (2015) pays homage to the golden era of music made on the West Coast of the USA in the late 70’s and early 80’s with references to acts such as Hall & Oates, America, Doobie Brothers and Fleetwood Mac. Although billed as a ‘passion’ side project West End Coast was picked up by Wax Poetics in the US, Legere in Europe and P-Vine in Japan, with key supporting shows in Japan. Following up with AM Waves (2017), Canyons (2019) and Ticket To Shangri-La (2022) YGSF cemented their following in places such as The Netherlands playing large venue sold out tours across the country, while expanding their reach to Germany, Spain and the USA, playing their first stateside shows in 2023.

As well as his work with Mamas Gun, Platts has enjoyed success writing songs for artists in Asia and Europe. Most recently, Andy has co-written and produced the lead single “This Life” for UK superstars Take That and their 2023 album of the same name, one of the biggest albums of the year.

In 2012 he penned a Korean no.1 hit single ‘Falling’ for Korean-American Artist John Park. In Japan 2014 Platts wrote the lead single for the no.1 Japanese album ‘YOU’ by JPOP heart throb Yamashita Tomohisa, as well as writing 4 singles for well-known Japanese duo Every Little Thing. In April 2015 he enjoyed a second no.1 South Korean hit single with ‘Shine Your Light’ for Korean superstar Park Hyo Shin. In June 2017 Platts contributed a song ‘The Night’ to Korean megastar’s FT Island’s 10th Anniversary album.

In Europe over the past two years he has enjoyed Top 20 chart success and a radio smash with Dutch Artist Waylon with ‘The Escapist’. He also penned the title track for female Dutch artist Lisa Lois’ sophomore record ‘Breaking Away’, as well as significant radio play and R&B chart success with Steffen Morrison’s ‘Do It All Again’ and a clutch of singles for his Movin’ On album. Early 2017 saw Platts co-write the lead single ‘When We Were Young’ for Jo Harman’s debut record ‘People We Become’ album, collaborating with vocal legend Michael McDonald in the process. After co-writing and producing Dutch Jazz/pop artist Wouter Hamel’s 4th album Amaury (2018) at his studio just outside London, Platts contributed the song “Army of Two” to a brand new Netflix anime series called Carole & Tuesday, which has since gone on to become very successful. A return to writing for Asian artists that same year saw Platts pen the track “You’re Coming” for Korean balladeer Seung Hwang Jung’s debut EP.