[engl] Young Gun Silver Fox are the captains of AM Waves, setting sail towards an isle where melodies soak the shoreline and grooves sway like palm trees. Their route traces a natural progression from West End Coast, an album that cast Andy Platts (Young Gun) and Shawn Lee (Silver Fox) as musical virtuosos of SoCal-infused pop. AM Waves does more than duplicate the perfection of West End Coast. It improves it. Recorded at The Shop in London and Roffey Hall in the English countryside, AM Waves burnishes the blend between the duo's modern aesthetic and their sumptuously crafted homage to '70s-styled pop, rock, and soul. "This music hits a certain spot for me personally that nothing else quite does," says Shawn, who produced the album amidst his projects for Saint Etienne, Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra, and several other acts. "It's real high-caliber music. It's easy and breezy to listen to but it's really hard to make. Every aspect is A game." The A game behind AM Waves fuels 43 minutes of Young Gun Silver Fox in peak form. "AM Waves is much more instinctive," says Andy, whose penchant for writing irresistible hooks and melodies also shapes his role as lead singer and lyricist/composer for the band Mamas Gun. "It's more vivid. You can see the clarity to the colors of AM Waves whereas West End Coast is slightly more impressionist, as it were." Originally issued as a single in September 2017, "Midnight in Richmond" is the anchor of AM Waves. "I hit one chord, which I'd never played before, and the song sort of wrote itself," notes Shawn. "It was intuitive. In many ways, the primary function of what I'm doing is trying to find that chord that opens a door and takes you someplace else. Those chords have magic." Andy embellishes the song's appeal by nimbly juxtaposing wistful emotions with a sun-kissed melody, his voice evoking richly drawn memories. The qualities that make "Midnight in Richmond" an instant classic abound throughout the album. "Lenny" and "Take It or Leave It" spotlight Andy's versatility as a songwriter. The former was inspired by a dream he had where Lenny Kravitz owned a bar. "It was surreal," he says. "He was polishing the glasses and just serving me hit after hit." Like swimming through moonshine, Andy languorously savors every syllable in the song. "Take It or Leave It" is pure pop bliss. "That was one of those songs that fell out in half an hour," he says. "I had everything and it was done." Shawn adds, "It's such a perfect song in itself. When I listen to it, it's like you've created a record that already existed." Young Gun Silver Fox introduce a five-piece horn section on "Underdog" that literally trumpets the song's protagonist. Shawn affectionately dubbed them the "Seaweed Horns" in honor of the Seawind Horns, an LA-based unit that recorded with powerhouses like Michael Jackson, Rufus & Chaka Khan, and Earth, Wind & Fire during the late-'70s. Andy explains, "The horns grab another hue of the west coast sound, which is the starting point, but it's also maybe the point where we're injecting a little bit more of ourselves and some outside colors into the familiar west coast palette." A bounty of treasures course through AM Waves' ebb and flow. "Mojo Rising," which the duo penned with Rob Johnson, is a veritable retreat to paradise. "Sky-bound, heaven sent / Way above the clouds watching shooting stars descend," Andy sings, mirroring the music's celestial undertones. Sensuality contours the notes on "Just a Man," a song that basks in the allure of a woman who leaves "footprints on the water" while "Love Guarantee" is festooned with the Seaweed Horns. "I wanted to bring more of that R&B slickness into the mix," Shawn notes about the latter track. "We hadn't done a tune with that sort of groove." Similar to his work on "Underdog," Nichol Thomson's intricate horn arrangement on "Love Guarantee" exemplifies another distinction between AM Waves and its predecessor. "Caroline" occupies a special place on AM Waves, beyond spawning the album title. It tells the story of Radio Caroline, a pirate radio station that broadcast from an offshore vessel during the '60s and '70s. "They played the music that kids wanted to hear, whether it was the old stuff or cutting edge stuff," says Andy. "'Caroline' is about Radio Caroline's eventual capture." Complementing Andy Platts' deft wordplay, which draws parallels between radio airwaves and the station's literal home on the ocean, Shawn Lee layers nearly a dozen different parts on "Caroline," showcasing the vastness of his musicality. "I loved that track as soon as I heard it," Andy continues. "It's a beautiful fusion of me and Shawn."

[engl] With their first two albums "West End Coast" (2015) and "AM Waves" (2018), Andy Platts and Shawn Lee, better known as Young Gun Silver Fox, formulated a modern version of the classic West Coast and soft rock sounds. The third album "Canyons" consequently develops the formula with ten well thought-out compositions, wonderful harmonies, incisive brass and inimitable sound images. Young Gun Silver Fox's approach has worldwide respect. They played well-known European jazz festivals (North Sea Jazz, Überjazz or Pori Jazz), sold out several times the Amsterdam Paradiso and were the only current band to feature in the soft rock TV documentary "I Can Go For That" on the BBC. Like the two predecessors, "Canyons" was once again composed, recorded and produced by Platts & Lee in their London studio. A striking feature this time is the brass arranged by Nichol Thomson (Incognito, Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, Gregory Porter). The ten new songs are an incredible journey through all facets of the golden era of soft rock between 1974 and 1984. "Who Needs Words", "Long Distance Love Affair" or "Things We Left Unsaid" could also be found on albums by genre heroes like Pages, Stylus and Player. "Dream Woman" has a Chicago touch, "Danny Jamaica" is perhaps the crazy theme music of a lost TV series from the 1970s. A real AOR album includes the great ballad ("All This Love") and top pop hits ("Kids", "Private Paradise"). "Canyons" refers to the importance of the valleys around Los Angeles to the West Coast sound: Some of the most important albums of the 1970s were created in Topanga and Laurel Canyon, they were simply mystical, magical places. Even if Platts & Lee were not there, their "canyons" transport this magic into the present.

[engl] “West End Coast”, the debut album by Young Gun Silver Fox, was one of the surprise releases of 2015 and ended up in many “Best Of” lists at the end of the year. “Young Gun” Andy Platts and “Silver Fox” Shawn Lee are busy writing and recording the follow-up which is set for release in 2018. In the meantime, they present the first single from the new album. “Midnight In Richmond” and “Lenny” are two compositions in a classic early to mid 70s vibe, impeccably recorded and arranged but placed in the here and now, unmistakably sounding like Young Gun Silver Fox.

[engl] Young Gun Silver Fox are musical sorcerers. On “West End Coast”, they've fashioned a fresh and modern sound that summons one of the most vibrant and influential epochs in popular music. The ten songs herein pay homage to 1970s Los Angeles, a golden age of recording that infused the pop charts and FM airwaves with a blend of soulful voices, immaculate melodies, stellar musicianship, and sophisticated studio technology. The forces behind Young Gun Silver Fox are Andy Platts and Shawn Lee. It was inevitable that two of the most prolific and versatile pop music linguists would one day collaborate on a studio project that crystallized many of their creative strengths. “West End Coast” fuses the talents they've mastered in their respective careers, from Andy's role as frontman and co-founder of UK band Mamas Gun to Shawn's numerous self-produced projects with AM and his own Ping Pong Orchestra. The authentic hybrid of styles on “West End Coast” is further steeped in the fact that Shawn, the team's silver-haired Silver Fox, is an American who resided in LA for seven years before relocating to London. "Speaking for myself, this is an album I've wanted to make for some time and Andy was the only person I felt I could make it with," he says. "Andy understands the classic melodic pop side as well as the soul funky side that was absolutely vital to the creation of this music. What a voice!" Recorded and mixed at Lee's Trans-Yank Studio in London, “West End Coast” straddles several sensibilities that are united by the duo's impeccable song writing. Each song is like a post card from their unique musical universe. Album opener "You Can Feel It" sets the tone with a soundscape that conjures the vastness of California's Pacific Coast Highway and a cool ocean breeze blowing through the chorus. London's West End sets the scene for "Emilia," with a little Sunset Strip flash fuelling the song's high octane grooves. "Better" casually sways from one chord progression to another as layers of different instrumentation are stirred into the mix and bring the song to a fever pitch. A strand of Philly-inspired soul threads through the DNA of "Distance Between Us" while "See Me Slumber" serves up a three-minute reverie of cascading melodies. The latter tune's coda sends the song into a whole other kind of orbit before the infectiously tuneful "In My Pocket" glimmers like a pot of pop music gold. In fact, little sonic treasures abound on “West End Coast”. A vigorous horn arrangement is among several attractions on "So Bad," which packs a carnival of dazzling ideas into four minutes. Elsewhere, the central question in "Spiral" — "If your heart could only speak, what would it say now?" — is accompanied by slinky and sensual cadences. "Saturday" operates in two gears, one that snaps and crackles and another that curves and coasts, powering the song to its swift conclusion. Like waves crashing beneath a midnight sky, orchestral elements swell and recede amidst the more saturnine backdrop of "Long Way Back." As the last note fades, the curtain falls on Young Gun Silver Fox's series of ten vividly produced vignettes. In the world Young Gun Silver Fox have created on “West End Coast”, every song leads to another sphere. No compass needed for this journey, just drop the stylus and get lost in the music.