"YGSF tunes are always about bringing the sunshine, so we made ‘West Side Jet,’ an instantaneous summery jam of folky disco perfection that beams brightly like the golden hour," states the duo Andy Platts and Shawn Lee, who make up Young Gun Silver Fox.
Young Gun Silver Fox, the acclaimed indie duo with yacht-rock tendencies comprising of Andy Platts of Mamas Gun and Shawn Lee (vagabond award-winning video game composer) release their 1970s-influenced pop-rock sounding single “West Side Jet,” the first taste of their fourth studio album Ticket To Shangri-La, due out this fall. The single drops on June 17th on Mixto Records and is accompanied by a fun retro style gaming music video directed by Jack Pell. Watch it at https://youtu.be/LKTKXA6U_O8.
The lead single ‘West Side Jet’ started in Shawn’s London studio and became an instant contender as the first introduction to the album. “When Andy sent me the vocals I was honestly like ‘this is the first single!’ We hadn’t even finished the album yet but it was instant.”
"Lyrically I knew I didn't want to do anything romantic,” expands Andy, “it can’t be about the dancefloor it can’t be ‘I love you, break my heart’ etc. it needed to be something different. The only musical I really like is West Side Story and I’d watched the original again recently, so it’d come back into my consciousness just how brilliant the music and writing was, so it was just a bit of a nod to my fondness of that as a piece of culture.”
Capturing the vibe of the music video, is director Jack Pell bringing it to life in an 80s video game style. Shawn adds, “We had worked with Jack on previous video’s and we were a fan of his animation style. We loved the idea of a Super Mario world for the Westside Jet video. We had a blast shooting our bits except for the part where we had to spin around. I thought I was going to throw up!” Andy elaborates, “Being an evil floating head in the video game version of your own song is one ticked off bucket list! Jack is fantastically talented - he always manages to create a world that you can dive into. Shawn’s right though - spinning endlessly on an office chair = Young Gun Silver Barf.”
The duo's fourth studio album, Ticket To Shangri La showcases a band at the very top of their game, fine-tuning their potent brew of sun-kissed pop-soul, west coast AOR and natural groove with a skill for composition and production that sees them forging ahead down a musical highway blessed with blue skies and positive vibrations. For both participants, the chance to make a new record together is always a liberating experience, as Andy explains; “I always come back to Young Gun Silver Fox like taking a drive to the coast and I just smell the ocean and the air and it’s like ‘wicked I’m back here again’ and I can just kick back and enjoy it.”
Ticket To Shangri La will be released on October 21st and is guaranteed to generate some rays of winter sun!
Music Video (25) Young Gun Silver Fox - West Side Jet (Official Video) - YouTube