James Bay finds making albums “dark and anxiety-inducing”.
The ‘Hold Back The River’ hitmaker, 34, admits he has a “tricky relationship” with the process but making his upcoming LP, ‘Changes All The Time’, he felt “a new level of musical freedom”.
He told Forbes: “Making a record for me is, in truth, quite a dark and anxiety-inducing stressful experience, that I happen to adore. But me and making records have a tricky relationship.
“There were moments in this record where the storm clouds cleared, and I was able to exhale deeply as well as inhale deeply.
“I do thank Gabe [Simon, producer] and everybody that joined me in the studio for their love and patience.”
He continued: “To say one other thing about something that’s important to me in this new music.
“There were some of the moments where I really felt all right when I was just standing in a room with my guitar plugged in and it turned up loud. I f****** love doing that. Working out how to play a song with a band and then slamming through it. That is freedom.
“I said to a few people, I reached a new height, for me, at least, of a new level of musical freedom that I hadn’t felt before in making this music.
“It comes with that maturity to not give a f***.”
James – who has a three-year-old daughter named Ada with his wife Lucy – is more honest than ever on the new record and admits he is “scared” to talk about his vulnerabilities.
He explained: “I think, to feel emotional freedom has always been a terrifying prospect to me that I would desperately like to feel more of. ‘Dogfight’ is a real moment for me on this album, the last track, and for all the things that I say in that, which I think about the chorus, ‘This time I’m not waiting for another red light. I’m not gonna be someone I don’t like, like I’m used to being.’ There are truths and honesties in those words that I’m even scared to sort of divulge on in a sort of interview because it took so much courage to just say that in a song. But at the end of that song, I revert to my almost sort of infant self when I repeat and repeat and repeat the words, ‘It’s gonna be all right.’ I say those words at that point in that song, more understanding than ever before, that there’s actually no guarantee. Sometimes the thing that gets us through is some hope and some blind confidence that it’s gonna be okay, that it’s gonna be all right. ‘Hope’ is another moment, by the way, as far as songs on the album. That song sort of dropped into my lap from some distant plane as something that I’ve felt like I’ve wanted and needed to say my whole life, and I might need to say and want to say for the rest of my life. So I found these songs very raw to write. But I’m very grateful for them as lessons as I carry on my own quest to be a better human.”