We had the chance to sit down with THE James Bay in Zurich during his short Switzerland visit this week. After performing at the Nachteulen Festival in Sursee we got to chat with James. Keep reading to find out which song he is most proud of and where he would like to perform in the future.
Your brand new album “Change All The Time” has now been out for 10 days, congrats on that. How do you feel about that?
Well, it’s a good question. A lot of people have been asking me about that recently. It’s my fourth time doing this, which is a huge privilege. I feel so much in the creation period of an album. So from coming up with the songs to going in the studio and recording and then all the mixing and all of that stuff that comes after you’ve been in the studio. It’s such an involved and invested experience and period of time. And then the day comes that you release it. Release day is a strange thing.
And then there’s kind of release week. So after Release week, now I start to feel a bit more what it’s like for the music to be out in the world because I can receive feedback from fans. But then there’s this kind of slightly numb in-between moment between the making of the thing and when we go out on tour in 2025 and we start playing these songs live. That’s a really big bit for me where I can really relax and really embrace and enjoy the songs and sort of love them as fully as I can.
The bit in-between releasing and touring the songs, which can be quite a long time sometimes, and it kind of is this time, because I’ve only played some of these songs acoustic, really. But the bit in-between releasing the music and then touring the music is a strange period of time where I feel like I’m just sort of floating in between two spaces. And in the meantime, I sort of receive nice feedback, I’ve got to say, so I’m pleased about that.
It’s me. It’s probably me like you think, you know. If you’ve heard any of my music. But more honest, more earnest. More vulnerable.
So for someone who hasn’t heard the album yet, how would you describe it in just a couple of words?
Oh, wow. Well, in a couple of words, I would say me. It’s me. It’s probably me like you think, you know. If you’ve heard any of my music. But more honest, more earnest. More vulnerable.
There’s many different ways that I could describe how it’s more vulnerable, but I just know it is. And that’s, I guess people like the sound of this word, and I think I can use it as well. More raw. You know, people love saying “oh, it’s so raw”. And I think it is that for me. It was hard to do that.
It’s hard to say I’m going to let myself be honest with myself, let alone whether you actually reveal how that works. One of the hardest things for me is talking about what the songs are about. I write stuff that I find hard to communicate. That’s more of a release for me than the terrifying prospect of talking about my feelings.
Oh yeah, I totally get that. Actually, one of the songs that stood out to me was “Dogfight”. Was that one of those hard songs?
Oh! Bullseye. But I love that it stood out to you, by the way. That’s like, I really want that. It’s a funny thing and very human, I think. It’s not a character trait that I’m enormously proud of. Maybe none of us are. But the thing I’m talking about is when you say, well, I don’t know how to express my feelings, so I’m going to make a thing and show you and hope for kind of a reaction, or hopefully the sort of right reaction.
And you recognizing, or any fans, lots of fans have since the album’s been out, they’ve gone straight to that song, which is the last one on the album. I’m just glad people got to the end of the album when they were listening. You know what I mean? So I’ve made this thing to say, it’s often very hard for me to feel okay.
You know, I come with a kind of an outer layer, like we all do, and it’s hard to reveal the deeper stuff. But that song is me sort of digging into the depths of my own struggles and trying to express them. And I did it so kind of accurately that people are really responding to the song, which is kind of scary.
It is, but it shows you you’re not the only one feeling that way.
That’s important to me, yeah, because it’s hard to talk any more about that song. But it’s so important that people connect with it.
Yeah, I get that, because I heard it and was like “oh, that sounds so familiar. I know how that feels, sadly”. But for us “regular” people, it also shows us, that someone like you, who seems so confident and cool, can feel that way too.
Yeah, there you go. Eventually, we’re all normal people, aren’t we? I wrote that song with Holly Humberstone and our very good friend, Phil, who wrote it with us. And Holly, who’s a brilliant artist that I greatly admire, who’s a new artist compared to me.
I’ve been around a lot longer than her. And she said when we were writing it, like, “wow, James Bay feels all this stuff”. And I was like: Holly, I really do. I’m just like you. Yeah, 100%. True.
You have to focus, you have to believe, and then you have to go for it.
Talking about Holly Humberstone and collabs. You also worked with Brandon Flowers, Noah Kahan… How is that for you working with other people that you look up to or that like look up to you? How has that influenced you in songwriting?
Brandon is a good example because he’s already such a legend. You know, when I was 13 and started playing shows for the first time in bands that I was in, him and The Killers’ music was affecting how we did that. We go out and do a gig at some local community hall or something.
And in some part, we were trying to be The Killers, in our heads at least. Because of his confidence, ultimately, in a writing environment, and I understand that confidence has grown over many, many years now, nearly 20 years of The Killers, but I watched that when I was writing with him and when I’ve seen him on stage, and I think you kind of just have to go for it. You have to focus, you have to believe, and then you have to go for it. You have to jump off the cliff. Yeah, and so that inspired me massively working with him.
And then you’ve got someone like Holly who’s like new and has a vulnerability and almost a sort of shyness in a way that is still so artistic. She’s trying to just be herself when she’s up against this quite daunting new experience in life. And I’m watching her do that, and I’m thinking, you can be yourself, James… You know, you don’t have to be, whoa, so outward and like, look, I’ve got this noise and showiness. Like, she’s kind of a little bit more quietly just fantastic at doing this art of sort of songwriting and singing. And so I learned lots from all these people.
And Noah Kahan, he used to open up for my shows and then this summer I was opening up for his shows, and then he also joined me on my own song. So it’s really cool. We’re intertwining in our way on our individual journeys. There’s always something to learn from other artists that you admire.
So talking about live shows.. I remember seeing you at the Blue Balls Festival a few years back, when I think your bus broke down on the way and you got there several hours later…
Oh yes! It was a disaster! It was horrible.
Yes I can imagine! But you still wanted to go on stage and you did. And performed like a boss! Playing live still seems to be a great passion… How does it feel to perform now compared to like the early days? What does it feel like to play huge iconic venues like, Madison Square Garden – even if they’re not headlining shows…?
Those ones feel amazing to be a part of. And yes, those weren’t my headline shows, but I still got to play. And you know what is even more unbelievable? Because I’ve been an opening act in many capacities for many years, you know, for 10 years or more. But suddenly if I’m an opening act at all, then the audience like know my songs. And for the half an hour that I’m up there, make me feel like it’s my show. And that is actually unbelievable because I absolutely dream and work towards being able to play in Madison Square Garden and it’d be my show.
But if I’m not there yet, then I can’t believe that I can go in there, be invited in there by Noah or, you know, when I was opening up for Ed Sheeran around all these different sports stadiums around Europe… I’m invited in to just warm up the crowd and they get very warm because they are singing like my songs at the top of their lungs. It’s so fascinating and a fantastic privilege, yeah.
Okay. So Madison Square Garden is for sure on your bucket list to play a headlining gig?
100% bucket list. I would love to get in there! I will work, I will constantly keep working to maybe get in there one day. But in the meantime, to have been in there in the capacity that I have is wonderful, like a real dream.
Do you have any other venues that you just love to play be it because they’re special to you or they have cool vibes?
Definitely, yeah. Madison Square Garden is one. Red Rocks in Colorado is one. I always heard about heroes of mine in the sort of 70s and 80s playing a venue in Japan called the Budokan. I would really like to play there. Also, I think I would like to play, there’s a place called The Gorge that we opened up for the Lumineers in recently.
I would love to do a show there. I would love to, one day, even if I’m like 55, I would love to do like Hyde Park in London. They do like a 60,000 capacity show. I’d love to do that one day. Maybe I can get popular enough that I can go away for 10 years and then come back and say, I’m doing one show in the UK. Everybody come to Hyde Park. That would be really fun.
Oh yeah, you wouldn’t be the first one doing that. I actually I just saw Billy Joel at Hyde Park last year, he basically did exactly that.
Fan Questions for James Bay in Zurich
Irina: What song are you most proud of?
Wow. That’s a good question. It’s like pick your favorite baby. There’s many answers to that question, but Scars is the one that first comes to mind. It’s on my first album. I’m really proud of that song. Because I let it take like 18 months to write that song. I let it take that. And it’s a loooong time.
And I remember around that time, or maybe it was even afterwards, but I remember seeing a video of Paul Simon talking on a show in the 70s. The guy asked him, how long does it take to write a song? He said, oh, typically, you know, six months. And I was like, oh, that’s great. It doesn’t need to take two hours or a day, it can take some time. It can take a long time. It’s okay.
Sandra: Have you ever had like a funny fan encounter?
Yes. Always. So many. I’ve been stuck in a very small elevator with fans once. Because initially it was just kind of a cute like, “oh, we got in the elevator at the same time” to a thing that I was doing. It was like a radio thing or something where there was fans in the same building. And then the elevator just stopped and jammed for like 15 minutes.
I think one of them started to quietly sort of panic. And I felt really bad because I get it, it’s not nice getting stuck in an elevator. Nobody wants that. I remember that and thinking, wow, we got a lot more than we bargained for here. The fans were just like “hey, we’re going to get the elevator with you. Which was sweet. And then we got stuck. And it was like, oh, shit. So, yeah. I always remember that one.
I also had a fan encounter where I was backstage after my show, somewhere in i think Oslo, Norway. Typically, you see people backstage throughout the day and some of them, you don’t fully know who they are. And then they come in later afterward and they happen to be the promoters and introduce themselves.
This young couple came in, boy and a girl, probably like 18 or 20 or something. They just came in and stopped in front of me and stood in my dressing room. I said, hi guys. And they just sort of froze in front of me. And then my tour manager and a security guard ran into the dressing room. Like top speed. These two guys turned around and ran out the other door. They were not supposed to be there. They’d like broken in. And they were ok, everyone was fine. But like they were just trying to see how far they’d get. And they got into my dressing room. That was the only time it’s ever happened, but it’s kind of wild.
I would like to sit on my guitar while Aretha Franklin sits on her piano and we play music and she sings
Francesco: If you could collaborate with any artists, dead or alive.
Wow. Dead or alive is a big one. Maybe one dead and one alive. OK, so I would like to sit on my guitar while Aretha Franklin sits on her piano and we play music and she sings. I would like that because she’s an unbelievable piano player as well.
And then I’ve been thinking more and more recently and talking just as much as I always have about a great artist called Feist who’s from Canada and she’s just a favorite of mine. So she’s somebody that’s still doing it that I would love to work with. Basically, she’s she put out a great album in 2012 called Metals that I’ve always found to be so inspiring and I sort of talked about a lot and yeah the other artist I’d like to work with.
Quick Fire Round!
First thing I do when I get off stage is… Sit down. Like last night, I had a glass of red wine, but maybe like a gin & tonic something like that and definitely some water.
Acoustic or electric guitar… That’s the hardest question of all time. It’s both to be honest. So I adore playing electric guitar, but I think acoustic is where songs get born from more often as well. So I can do everything on the acoustic. I can’t I can’t do all of the things I want on the electric. So maybe it’s the acoustic, yeah probably acoustic.
If I had a superpower, it would be… to fly. I don’t want to be invisible. Everybody wants that. I think it’s like super strength or to fly. So like the Hulk, but without the anger. Or Superman. He’s got everything. Yeah.
Summer or winter? Summer! Yeah, I like the long nights. Yeah, I like the light when the sun’s still up at like 9pm.
Cheese or chocolate? Chocolate. Chocolate. Yeah. I like cheese, but it’s absolutely chocolate. Because I don’t love soft cheese. Yeah.
So fondue or raclette is not your thing? Nah, Chocolate all day long. I love it. I do my own little fondue… Wait, I know this sounds disgusting. But I put a piece of chocolate in my mouth. It’s actually not that disgusting. Then I don’t chew it. I leave it on my tongue and then I sip tea. Hot tea.
*insert my disgusted face here*
It’s like my own little mouth fondue. Eewwww….
Nice, quite a decent ending to this interview… Disgusting chocolate fondue in my mouth…
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