Born in Hitchin in 1990, James Bay is a singer-songwriter whose music spans indie-pop, blues-rock and soul. He scored a triple-platinum hit in 2014 with his stadium anthem Hold Back the River, taken from his debut album, Chaos and the Calm, which won the coveted Brits critics’ choice award. The album went straight to No 1 in the UK charts and was followed by the R&B-inspired Electric Light; a third album is due out later this year. Bay is currently playing small-capacity gigs in support of Independent Venue Week; the tour ends on 4 February. A former face of Burberry, he lives in London with his partner, Lucy Smith, and their daughter.
This photo was taken when I was 17 and sitting in Lucy’s halls of residence in Brighton. I was getting into the mood of what the next few years would be: riders full of chips and beer. I’d had long hair since I was 12, so chopping it off was quite an outrageous thing for me to do at the time, especially as it ended up looking a bit like a mullet. It might seem like I was that stereotypical guy at the party with the acoustic guitar, but I wasn’t that naff. I was always playing music, though, or at least always trying.
