“Lately, I’ve been standing in front of a microphone with my acoustic guitar, like I used to do on an open-mic night” James Bay on why he’s getting back to basics for his next album

Less than a decade since the release of his debut album, Chaos and the Calm, James Bay has already established himself as one of the most enchanting and emotionally-fuelled songwriters of the modern day. Yet, while he may be most widely recognised for his global chart hit Hold Back The River – the Grammy-nominated musician is still surprising people with his guitar chops.

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“Lots of people don’t necessarily expect that I can do anything on a guitar other than a few chords — and that’s fine,” he explains in our call, tucked into a corner of his almost WiFi-free home. “From my first record, very intentionally, I wanted to put myself forward as somebody who was about the songs. But since the age of 11, when I first picked up a guitar, I was inspired by big league guitar players… and I’ve always been a guitar player.”

When it comes to the instruments themselves, then, his tastes have veered more towards vintage as he’s developed as an artist and discovered more of what he’s been missing.

“I started on very new, shiny guitars in my early years of playing [because] I wasn’t able to get my hands on vintage instruments. But vintage guitars, for me, they’ve always been the most desired thing,” he says. “Every time I’ve played a guitar that was made in the 50s, 60s or 70s, you feel the history. It’s not like a big Hollywood moment, but, just quietly, I feel like you can feel the history.”

It’s fitting then, that Bay has been recently appointed as one of the ambassador’s for Fender’s American Vintage II range, given that the whole point of these guitars is to capture some of that faithful vintage mojo in a brand new instrument.

The campaign has also seen him strap on an AVII 1972 Telecaster Thinline – a guitar that sports a pair of bona-fide Wide Range humbuckers. The guitar has helped him to embrace the double-coil life after many years of sticking firmly to soapbars and single-coils.

“I never really emotionally connected with humbuckers,” he states, quick to explain why this attitude has shifted in recent months. “Humbuckers, for me, were always too big and bullish. They were quite a cold, hard sound that just sort of thumped single coils and P90s. [But eventually, I’ve realised] those pickups can have such incredible attack and power, but with a softness at the same time. There’s something a little bit more emotional there.”

As part of the AVII campaign, Bay heads to New York’s Power Station venue to record his own take on the Fleetwood Mac classic, Go Your Own Way – a song that allowed him to really embrace the Thinline’s Wide Range buckers, while also sharing his love of the Mac.

“Fleetwood Mac’s music is romantic, and that’s always been a huge inspiration,” he says. “They’re made up of three, four, five… individual songwriters, so they really write from that personal perspective – emotionally and romantically. And I’m pretty certain [Lindsay Buckingham] was playing a Les Paul with Humbuckers! I wanted to get close to that sound, but, of course, I wanna do something different too.”

While it hasn’t even been a year since the artist released his third studio album, Leap, Bay is already thinking ahead to new projects, and planning on bringing the lessons gleaned from his favourite guitar heroes into the writing for his next record.

“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 explains.

“[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.”

When we can expect to see the end result? The bad news is that the songwriter confirms that it is still early days. However, still whetting fans’ appetites, Bay does hint he is more tempted than ever to put his chops front row and centre this time around.

“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,” he says.

“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.”

Find out more about the American Vintage II range at fender.com.