James Bay

“Growing up in Hitchin was comfortable and easy enough. My parents had some great records - and some not-so-great ones - and that's where I got introduced to Motown and the Stones and Springsteen.”

“It's bad to be labeled just another singer-songwriter.”

“When I was 16, I spent a year pushing trollies around a car park, and that wasn't fun. I didn't love working in a supermarket; it wasn't for me. It is for some people, and that's totally cool.”

“I used to dress up like Michael Jackson. I didn't have the glove, but I had a red jacket like in 'Thriller.'”

“There was a guitar that my uncle owned and never learnt to play. He sold it to my dad, and when I heard 'Layla', that was the tune that really grabbed me. I said to my dad, 'Wait, there's a guitar, right?'”

“Some of my songs are about the feeling you belong somewhere else. But there's also something grounding about coming from a small town.”

“I loved pop music as a little kid. Things like the Black Eyed Peas. If it had a catchy chorus, I was into it.”

“I write about personal experiences. I write about things that have happened to me and the people around me, so you just sort of keep this antenna up and on the lookout for things to say.”

“It's silly to call me the new Ed Sheeran. He can fill stadiums as a solo artist, but I'm not like that.”

“The thing about 'Hold Back The River' that I like is that it's a good starting place, and it was the perfect first single.”

“Being exhausted is all part of the fun. I'm cool with it. I'm not going to wish that it would slow down.”

“I bought a guitar CD-ROM because we had a new computer, but I had no attention span for that. I spent about three hours on it desperate to be brilliant. Eventually, I got some proper lessons.”

“My songwriting process is painful. Songwriting is brilliant. It's a load of fun - when it works. It's really difficult as well.”

“I'm still like an excited kid playing guitar in front of the bedroom mirror.”

“Growing up, when I was at live shows, I was always hoping someone would come out on stage and say, 'The guitarist is sick and couldn't make it... does anybody know how to play all the songs?' That was always my little dream. It was a massively inspiring thing to be in a space with live shows.”

“To drive though the streets of Manhattan to sign a record deal was like a movie. It was crazy - pretty hard to put into words.”

“When I'm writing, I need to amplify my thoughts and feelings on just a conversation that I might have had with somebody - somebody close to me. It's often the case that the people closest to me are the people on my mind the most.”

“I'm going to take each day and each thing and each gig as it comes at me.”

“When I was 15, if anything, I thought I was going to be a Delta bluesman, which is so ridiculous.”

“I hope to have a long career, and I don't want to be defined by things that aren't the music.”