Andrew West currently teaches on our MA Songwriting programme.
Doctor Andrew West has been a professional musician since 1990, when he joined Hugh Cornwell (The Stranglers) and Roger Cook (Blue Mink) to form the eclectic trio Cornwell, Cook and West.
Over the past three decades more than 350 of Andy’s songs have been published and his songs have been used in the Grammy winning shows ‘Heroes’, ‘Lost’ and ‘True Blood’ and in film and TV in over 40 countries. As a live performer, Andy has played at a wide range of London venues including the Palladium, Bloomsbury Theatre, Jazz Café, Mean Fiddler, Borderline, South Bank Polytechnic and Ronnie Scotts.
Whilst resident in Nashville between 1997 and 2003, Andy was signed as a staff songwriter with Warner Chappell and recorded his songs with Ian Wallace, Garry Tallent, Kenny Vaughan, Willie Weeks, Michael Rhodes, Chad Cromwell, Joey Spampinato and Tim Hinkley, musicians better known for working alongside Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, David Bowie, Etta James, Neil Young, Chuck Berry and The Who.
He released a solo album ‘Sundays and Birthdays’ on the US based Infinity Cat label and produced Julie Lee’s ‘Stillhouse Road’, an album featuring Grammy award winning vocalists Alison Krauss and Vince Gill.
In 2006, Andy designed and course directed the world’s first Masters’ degree in Songwriting at Bath Spa University. He led the Postgraduate department at Leeds Conservatoire from 2011 to 2023, during which time he delivered guest workshops and presentations on songwriting in The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium.
His first book ‘The Art of Songwriting’ was published by Bloomsbury in 2016 and a second book ‘Paul Weller and Popular Music’ was published by Routledge in 2022. In 2021, Andy was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and in the following year he was appointed a member of the Association of European Conservatoires (AEC) Lifelong Learning Working Group as part of the ‘Empowering Artists as Makers in Society’ project.
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Take the first steps in your music career with ICMP
We've been developing and delivering contemporary music education for over 30 years – longer than any other music school in the UK. With a proven track-record, countless music industry connections and unrivalled access to facilities, it's easy to see why hundreds of students choose ICMP each year.
To completely immerse yourself in your music career, chat with our friendly Admissions Team via email enquiries@icmp.ac.uk or give them a call on 020 7328 0222.
Find your course
We've been developing and delivering contemporary music education for over 30 years – longer than any other music school in the UK. With a proven track-record, countless music industry connections and unrivalled access to facilities, it's easy to see why hundreds of students choose ICMP each year.
To completely immerse yourself in your music career, chat with our friendly Admissions Team via email enquiries@icmp.ac.uk or give them a call on 020 7328 0222.