James Bay Ready for New Music: “The Juices Have Been Flowing”

January 5, 2017 Andrea Dresdale

ABC/ Paula Lobo James Bay has spent the past two years on tour — his final dates were last month — and now he’s taking a break to work on his eagerly awaited sophomore album, the follow-up to his Grammy nominated debut Chaos and the Calm. James says he’s only just begun the process, but he’s pretty happy with what he’s done so far.

“I’ve rolled my sleeves up and I’ve started work,” he told ABC Radio recently. “I’m gonna go get a lot more private, and really get into songs. I’m excited: The juices have been flowing.”

Chaos and the Calm, which produced the hits “Let It Go” and “Hold Back the River,” came out in 2015 and took a while to build worldwide, which is why James ended up touring for two years. But surprisingly, he says he can’t wait to get back out there with his new music.

As he told ABC Radio, “I’ve been working on some ideas; I just wanna kinda get fleshing ’em out and get making new music so I can have it to get back out on tour with.”

No word on when we can expect the new album, but James and OneRepublic‘s Ryan Tedder are trying to coordinate their schedules so they can do some writing together early this year.

James also is taking some time out from working on new music to play a charity gig January 26 in London. Everyone who donates five pounds to the U.K. charity Water Aid now through January 19 will get a chance to win a ticket to that intimate gig. Unfortunately, only fans in Great Britain are eligible to enter.