Deriving their name from Erykah Badu‘s acclaimed and beloved album Mama’s Gun, the London-based soul outfit Mama’s Gun — currently, Andy Platts, Cameron Dawson, David Oliver, Terry Lewis and Chris Boot — formed back in 2008. And since their formation, they’ve released four full-length albums: 2009’s Routes to Riches, which broke big in Japan and eventually lead to the British band being the most played international artist on Japanese radio that year; 2011’s Life and Soul; 2014’s Cheap Hotel; and 2018’s Golden Days.
Adding to a growing profile, the London-based soul outfit have opened for Level 42, Beverley Knight, Ben l’Oncle Soul and Raphael Saadiq while developing a fanbase across Southeast Asia — in particular South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Singapore.
The rising British soul outfit began 2022 with the “Party For One”/”Looking For Moses” double A-side single. Released through the band’s Candelion Records with Secretly Group and Colemine Records, the double A-side single served as a teaser for the band’s fifth album Cure The Jones. (More on the singles a bit further below.)
Written and produced during the pandemic by the band’s Andy Platts’ with additional soundscaping from the band’s Chriss Bott, Cure The Jones was recorded direct-to-tape with an array of analog gear at Platts’ home studio in a breakneck three day session. The album, which is slated for an April 1. 2022 release, is reportedly informed and inspired by the spirit of conscious late ’60s and ’70s soul (think Bill Withers and Marvin Gaye) and the turbulence of the past couple of years. While being a lush, nuanced meditation on a world turned upside down, the album thematically explores and touches upon love, loss, and life through the most pressing sociopolitical issues of our day.
“Party For One” is a slow-burning and strutting bit of 70s psych soul and neo-soul centered around the sort of low-slung and wobbling bass line that would make Bootsy Collins proud, a lush horn line, fluttering psychedelic effects and Andy Platts’ dreamy falsetto. “Party For One” points out a bitter irony that even loners and homebodies felt during pandemic-related lockdowns — sometimes, you just want to see and talk to another human adult.
“Lyrically ‘Party For One’ comes from me being a bit of a loner – I like my own company and space to create, think and reflect,” the band’s Andy Platts explains. “I was in my ideal world during the early stages of the pandemic, on my own and with no one around, but I was mourning the company of strangers. There is something in anonymous togetherness that is the stuff of life.”
“Looking For Moses” continued a run of crafted and expansive, 70s inspired soul centered around Andy Platts’ easygoing Bill Withers-like delivery paired with a warm and lush arrangement of wah wah pedaled guitar, glistening and arpeggiated Rhodes, shimmering strings and soulful harmonizing. Much like its companion, “Looking For Moses” comes from a deeply personal, lived-in space –while actually paying homage to the legendary Withers.
“‘Looking For Moses’ was the track that kicked off the writing for our new album [to be announced shortly],” Platts says. “Everything was panic stations at the time, it was my daughter that inspired the first set up with the lyrics ‘her mama says she can’t go out, baby girl maybe one day you’ll understand, when all of this is in the past.’ I wanted to imbue it with a bit of hope too – it’s about leaning on your beliefs but more so it’s about standing united and staying the course, and the reality of simply getting by and getting through life.”
“Good Love,” Cure the Jones‘ third and latest single is classic Motown era-inspired love song (think What’s Going On era Marvin Gaye, in particular), centered around a shuffling, two-step inducing rhythm, a sinuous bass line, squiggling funk guitar and twinkling keys paired with Platts’ soaring and expressive falsetto. But at its core, the song is a contented and thankful sigh for the constant and dependable love you can count on –for better and for worse.
“This is a love song, no doubt about it,” Mama’s Gun’s Andy Platts explains. “But it was really prompted by life in the pandemic which forces you to reflect on what you have. The thought of getting through this pandemic alone like so many others out there — on top of everything else like work struggles and raising children — was overwhelming. So it is about counting your blessings, the constant and dependable love of your significant other.”
Directed and edited by Polyrock Films prominently stars a lizard named Ted and a doll named Barb as the couple’s odd yet devoted couple. Throughout the video, our protagonists are thrown into scenes that classic movies, including King Kong. At the end of the video, Ted remarks that he thought love — the love they have — only happened in the movies. It’s adorable.
