James Bay still has blood marks on his guitar from shredding a little too hard with nerves during his early gigs.
The ‘Let It Go’ hitmaker refuses to clean up his instruments because they are a reminder of his journey as a musician.
Speaking to Guitar.com, he recalled: “The adrenaline was absolutely raging when I was first getting up in front of thousands of people that actually wanted to see me.
“I felt unbelievable but terrified, and I had to put all of that energy somewhere. So yeah, there’s blood on here, too.”
Sharing his “emotional” connection with his guitars, he added: “I’m not interested in cleaning it. I try not to be too careful with guitars. They’re very precious, yes; they’re very expensive. They’re beautiful pieces of art, but I live with them, I fight with them, I get emotional with them, and all that stuff that you do if you write on an instrument. I’m quite happy for it to get bashed up if that’s how it goes on.”
The 34-year-old singer-songwriter has released four albums to date, the most recent being this month’s ‘Changes All the Time’, and he recently confessed he finds making albums “dark and anxiety-inducing”.
The ‘Hold Back The River’ hitmaker has a “tricky relationship” with making albums but working on his latest record gave him “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***.”
Photo: Justin Ng/Retna/Avalon