Hi everyone! Today I bring such an exciting 1824 press conference with you all. This time including James Bay! I truly am a fan of his work, I am so excited to share with you all, he puts out such good and catchy music. I attended this press conference and learned he was very intriguing and insightful through everything that he does! I am impressed with him and I am excited to share some bits and pieces of this press conference with you all.
You may recognize James’ sound from his hit single, “Let It Go“, which went triple-platinum. As it should, way to go James! It is so good. He also has other hits such as “Hold Back the River” from his debut album, Chaos in the Calm. James Bay is also a three-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated and BRIT Award-winning multi-platinum singer, songwriter, and guitarist, James recently released, Leap with Mercury/Republic Records capturing his amazing lyricism and intelligent instrumentals, his amazing latest single, “Save Your Love” has amazing vocals and was produced by FINNEAS!
Let’s get into it. Let’s jump into some of the questions during this conversation.
Photo Credits by: James Bay Leap Album Artwork
To start off, Erica from Returner Magazine asked “What is something new or surprising that you’ve discovered about yourself either as an artist, a songwriter, or person during the making of this new album?” James responded by explaining that the first thing that comes to mind is that it’s not as scary to be more vulnerable with his lyric writing and his songwriting. “It is not as scary as I thought it was”, James said with an empowering tone. He has gone to a new depth of reality, James said. “With in regards to what I say in my songs. 99% of my songs are written from a very personal experience. I was always writing in kind of a more abstract way. This is in regards of what he says and talks about. His personal experience with writing in more of an abstract way.” he explained passionately while clutching his hands together, I love it! “I was always afraid to kind of just say it. Whatever the thing may have been that I was writing about. I was trying to do that a lot more this time because I wanted to face the fear that I felt I had.” Very inspiring James. I am glad he faced his fears as we all should sometimes too! “So I discovered, it’s not quite as scary.” I love that. I truly do. “And it resonates with people and music is about connecting and you know, that’s what I love about music and I feel like it’s helping do that even more for my music. Already starting out with a great question and answer! I love James Bay. He is so genuine and has a true and an inspiring personality. As others said, very honest!
Victoria from Scrunchie Zine asked, “In a recent interview with Euphoria Zine, you touched on the subjectivity of becoming ‘better as artist’ and the subjectivity of the word better and dealing with imposter syndrome after your immense success with your previous two records. At this stage of your career, how would you define improvement as an artist and how has Leap allowed you to work through those feelings of imposter syndrome?” James responds by explaining how it has something to do with directness. James wants to be direct in what he’s trying to say as a lyricist. He acknowledges delivery in what he says. “There are brilliant songs in existence when lyrics are conversational in a conversation and placed in a song”. James says he does the amount that he can with that and admires that. Some artists he looks up to with this amazing conversational lyricism includes Paul Simon and Carole King. They are classic writers and delivers artistic words so well with their artistic license. The songs are never overly busy, they are beautiful, moving, and to the point. When those stars align in the song and the melodie’s, that’s when he feels like he’s doing some kind of motion and improving, when lyrics moves him. James said he is looking for that movement and looking to do when writing more, that’s his ambition. It is called improving but it is subjective he explains, he’s trying to improve James says. He also talked about how he is a Bruce Springsteen fan, Born To Run was an improvement to put that album out, again subjective he says. He wants to chase heroes and achievements, emotional connection, faster and harder. “Even if it hits you softly, trying to do those things effectively with emotions” is what he calls improvement. Well put, James. Every answer has so much thought put into it, I love it, he truly is very wise and talented.
Portray TS Magazine asked, “In your Spotify playlist, when you talk about each track, you use sensory language, you talk and about and describe songs as sweet and warm. If you could choose three scents or fragrances to describe the essence of the album, what would you choose?” James along with the rest of us loved this question. Very interesting and never know we wanted to know the answer to this, ha! James responded and said that he would choose sandalwood because everyone loves sandalwood. He wants to throw that in because he loves it and it is inviting. “That’s what I want my music to do.” James said. “I want this music to kind of lift your chin. I was trying to lift my own chin. What I’m saying there is rooted in the phrase, ‘keep your chin up’. I have been dealing with some sort of darkness and difficult emotions of times. As I started to write to kind of remedy those difficulties, I was doing my typical thing and writing down into sadness to try and get through it. And I thought ‘No’. I decided to make a stand and start there and then find a way. Like a plane down a runway, I was moving with and then I was taking away off from feelings I didn’t want to feel anymore. So there is a warmth and an inviting sensory experience to that sandalwood smell that seems to have been in so many things in the last 5 to 10 years, or maybe longer.” I like that answer. Very insightful into his mind which I love when artists do. Another scent he describes is light, like dawnlight. “The first light in the morning. That glowy, soft light that is so *inhales* sort of fresh, that’s there in this music for me.” Me too James, I agree! Lastly, and in a good way, he explains, “the sense of lying on the floor and feeling the ground”. He describes it as stability. “There is even some balance involved in sitting on a couch or a chair, but go lower than that to the floor where all your limbs and everything can touch the same level of surface, that sense is there. That security, that sturdiness, and that freedom that comes with that. You can roll around. You know, and you’re probably gonna be okay, you might hit a wall, but you’ll be alright.” Wise words James. I agree. Well put we will all be okay!! Everyone was sharing their scents as well. Such as grass dew, air conditioning when it first turns on, candles, etc.
Katrina from Rising Artists asks, “What is your favorite song from Leap and tell us behind experience rand what makes it special. James responded and said that “Endless Summer Nights” was his favorite. It was his first song written in this album. He said it is about an experience of a moment you never want to end. Such as being in the UK and camping out for a festival for about 3, 4 , or 5 nights. He said it was seemingly almost an endless experience. Euphoria is how he described it. “Final night, headlights coming on, and the sun goes down. There is haziness and glow and don’t want it to end.” James wants to draw in on it in the song. As an artist it’s now or never. Juvenile and brilliant. No limits. “It’s not good to bottle it up and hold on to it.” facts James. Keep the day going. My next point is really interesting. The next paragraph was one of my favorite parts of this press conference because I was able to vividly imagine this scenario and it seems so fun.
There was an endless Summer night in 2019 when he went on tour with Ed Sheeran. They toured around Europe and finished the tour in Iceland. Summer there gets to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s not warm. They did the show and he remembers he was staying in an unbelievable house with a driveway that was 10 minutes long. There was a party there after tour. In the kitchen, Ed stands up in his underwear and says he is getting in the lake. It was so dark out, James was like “What lake?”. It was at the bottom of garden. Along with it being dark, it was also very cold he said, because it was after midnight. Ed says that it’s okay because there’s a hot tub. His guitar tech said to get into the lake as well. He took off most of his clothes and ran into darkness splashing. He immediately ran out and ran to the hot tube and got in. It was such an Icelandic summer night. James Bay stated that “absolutely” an endless Summer night involving some of that and a fire pit would be his choice. His endless Summer night was also involve doing that along with beers and a hot tub, talking about a great tour. He talked about his for love Ed Sheeran and what a wonderful guy and team they were.
All in all, I absolutely loved attending this press conference. I very much enjoyed the way James Bay spoke and talked about everything. He truly is very intelligent and insightful with everything that he was saying. Through his words and music and inspirations, he deserves all of the success he gets and more because of his hard work and dedication that he puts into his music! I want to truly be friends with him, he seems like a cool genuine person as well which we love!
Definitely check out his music if you can and his new album Leap. Also if you are able to, check him out on tour! I highly recommend, I truly enjoyed getting to know him and his music better, and will be listening to him even more now, I want to see him live that would be so awesome and inspiring too, hopefully soon! Thank you so much for reading along with me everyone! I hope you enjoyed it, until next time fam, peace!
– Andie:) ✌️👍🏻
James’ Socials:
Oh Andie 
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