James Bay had his “first taste of true musical freedom” working on his upcoming album, ‘Changes All The Time’.
The ‘Hold Back The River’ hitmaker recently released the track ‘Up All Night’ featuring Noah Kahan and Lumineers, and now he’s confirmed his follow-up to 2022’s ‘Leap’ will arrive on September 20.
In a message to fans on his mailing list, James said: “I’m very happy to announce that my fourth album ‘Changes All The Time’ will be out on 20th September!
Making this album felt like my first taste of true musical freedom. With the help of Gabe (Simon, my co producer), I found the courage to make what I wanted to make in ways I never have before. That’s a very hard place to get to sometimes, I’m really excited to release this music.”
In 2023, James released the tracks ‘All My Broken Pieces’ and ‘Goodbye Never Felt So Bad’.
James revealed at the start of last year that he was in the early stages of his next album and planned to showcase more of his guitar playing.
The ‘Wild Love’ hitmaker was going back to his roots after enjoying a rawer approach to playing his acoustic guitar as he did on open-mic nights when he was starting out.
He explained: “With all my heroes, a lot of my favourite work of theirs was recorded in the first or second take. It had that sort of carefree [nature], ‘Let’s just do it. Emote and move on to the next thing.’ I’m trying to do that at the moment.”
He continued in an interview with Guitar.com: “[Recording an album] piece by piece by piece? I’ve done that a lot. I totally respect it, it really worked for me in the past. But lately, I’ve been standing in front of a microphone with my acoustic guitar, like I used to do on an open-mic night. I’m just singing the song in. No click. Nothing. Just a performance. And it’s fun! It’s sort of freeing to not have to sort of stress over all the minute details.”
James insisted the lyrics and the song itself are still important to him, but he really wants to hone in on his guitar skills.
He added: “I do see myself moving towards showcasing more guitar playing in my songs. So maybe [fans’ perceptions] will change as time goes by … but it depends on what the songs dictate.
“The songs are still the most important thing to me, what the melody is doing, what the lyrics are saying, the performance and the delivery of the song. But I will always stand up on stage with a guitar in my hand, so I think, in the studio, I’m gonna give myself a little bit more to do with the guitar.”
The musician is also embarking on the ‘Up All Night Tour’ next year.
James will hit up Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Dublin and London, where he’ll his first-ever headline arena show in the UK, at the OVO Arena Wembley on February 13.
Tickets go on general sale at 10am on July 26.
‘Changes All The Time’ tracklist:
‘Up All Night’ (With The Lumineers and Noah Kahan)
‘Everburn’
‘Hope’
‘Easy Distraction’
‘Speed Limit’
‘Talk’
‘Hopeless Heart’
‘Some People’
‘Go On’
‘Crystal Clear’
‘Dogfight’