YouSaid · the spoken record

James Bay

lines on the record: 125
first: 2022-08-04
most recent: 2022-08-04
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Why isn't it your show? Why don't you have your own stadium show? Or, you know, even arena show or whatever it may be. Why are your crowd's not bigger yet, James?”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Again, I was very thankful in that moment that he brought me in front of such big crowds because it was exciting to see that my music was still reaching. It stopped my ambitions and my drive feeling silly”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a little embarrassing because. I'm doing good and I don't want to sort of get ahead of my station or I don't want to seem like big headed, but I tell you I am very ambitious and driven. Everybody is. I understand that. And I am in my way. So, I do want those kind of. Rewards of selling out such an enormous venue, and so many and so often. In the way that he adds an example. And also, I will say that he was kind enough to have me on that tour as the main support actor would go on right before him. There were three of us most of the time, opener, second opener, me, the third opener, and then him. It was pretty wonderful and exciting to find that in almost every stadium, it was a third of that crowd, which rounds out at approximately 20 or 30,000 people singing all the words to my songs, which was just.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I sort of encountered various sort of people, fans or not, or people I work with or people interviewing me or whatever who. And this is ultimately really quite flattering. They think I'm... I don't know how to put it other than bigger than I feel I am as an artist. I don't know if I agree with them. And so I felt like an imposter syndrome, essentially, in that time. On the one hand, I'm being, you know, it's really disproportionate and probably unhealthy when I think, okay, it's sheer and has invited me to open for him in football stadiums around Europe for three months. There's 80,000 people every night. And the bit I hate to admit, and I'm anxious to confess, is that there's a voice in my head saying, why aren't you doing the stadiums? Call myself all sorts of names Why isn't it your show? Come on. I feel ridiculous saying that.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, really, only five, six, maybe seven years ago for me to sort of finally understand that life can take a toll on people. When it's relentless, when work is relentless or when anything in life is sort of relentless and weighing down or bearing heavy, it can take a toll and it's okay to talk about that, to try and relieve some pressure and some strain and some stress. That came as a result of various individuals that I was touring with or that I knew doing their own touring, needing to stop for a bit, maybe speak to a therapist, to help them, and that it was okay. So it only came in the last sort of few years for me.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My dad has been on his own journey with mental health previous to me even being born, he had some struggles and he did talk to some professionals about it. And I really respect that. So actually it wasn't my dad talking. It's funny though. Comes from those kind of attitudes. Both my parents come from those kind of attitudes. You know, it's that stiff upper lip thing again. That kind of brush it all under the rug thing again. I come from that. Know difficult things we don't talk about them then, or we shout about them, no in between. And I didn't want the chaos of the shouting as a kid and as a teenager. I never wanted that. It was always too much to deal with. I joined to sort of brush it under the rug brigade. So it took me until I was into my 20s. It took me until I was touring. Extensively and relentlessly.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As a kid, I thought it meant someone was unhappy and you couldn't help them. Depressed and unable to be helped. And as I grew up I remember struggling with, you know, as a teenager. To be mail and talk about your feelings wasn't. Should never be the sort of first choice. I remember feeling like it was more about can you suck it up though?”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Good question because it, of course, has become so talked about in the last five years. It's suddenly become like. More okay than ever to speak openly about it. My first introduction to mental health.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you see what I'm saying? In ways, it was a reaction to something I needed to do as a reaction to how my first album campaign had gone. I wouldn't have changed the things around, you know, the order of things”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I did. And I also just had, like I say to you as a creative, more than one thing or one set of things inspires me to do what I do. I wanted to celebrate that in the music I created for a second album. So I went deep on David Bowie and Blondie and Prince and LCD sound system, all that list of artists and more I love that music. I don't know that that resonated in the same way with all the fans of the first album. It certainly did with some of them. Maybe it didn't so much with others. I can't control any of that. The only thing I can control is what I create. And that I do, there is so much of a part of what I create that I do for myself, which I think is the same for every artist. So I chose to do that.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, it does, but it was all my choice at the end of the day. And I do stand by, I love electric light, and it came when it came. What's interesting is electric light, I'm so proud of and I adore it. Every song. It was also a reaction to what I felt personally to me was like almost overkill on my first album. I had had enough of who I was when I was roaming around the world. The Chaos and the Calm campaign What I represented and the songs that I was playing, I needed to stop all of that for a minute. For two reasons one, it was exhausting. I keep wanting to throw this in. I was very grateful to have that experience beyond grateful. But I just for my soul and my mental health, I needed to be. Creatively kind of go elsewhere”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I can't, I really cannot complain in the slightest. And when the one above it is a soundtrack to a movie, it was the greatest showman that just reigned supreme for so long in 2018 at the top of the charts. There was various number of other artists who didn't unfortunately sort of beat that soundtrack either. So they all kind of went to number two as well. But it did. It peaked at number two. People loved it. And they're still telling me that they do. And I'm, you know, there's a real sort of a clash between my gratitude towards all of those, that reception and the other part of my brain that I suppose bought into the hype of my first album and wanted the same frenzy.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As I say that, I don't want to sound ungrateful because I had so many people around the world really love my second album. And I'm so grateful for those people.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I appreciate now in the fullness of time with the greatest perspective or with greater perspective years after my second album release. That only I am in my head. Nobody else is. So it was interesting who Received the second album Of all the people that got on board for the release of my first album and followed my music and me as an artist, some of them came for the second album, some of them I guess kind of went, oh, it's not the same thing, so I'll just sort of come back when maybe it's, I don't, I can't sort of speak for people. But my expectation naively was that I could do the same thing again by surprising people with something they hadn't had before because they hadn't had my debut album before. And it didn't quite go. The way I hoped it would”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So many influences and inspirations, different artists, records, songs. I put a handful of those into At the end of the day, I put a handful of those into my first album. What inspired it, you know? And then that created me as an artist. And I arrived, you know, the shock of the new on my debut album and a bunch of people around the world said, yep, I'll buy that. Literally and metaphorically, I'll buy that. I'm into that. And I represented something to them. I can't believe that to this day, I can't believe I represented something to them that they were willing to sort of buy into and want to share and kind of agree with and feel the words and the melodies in their way. And then another album. It's time for another album. Was about showing a different side to myself.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Great expectations follow Difficult. And I thought my duty Was to come with something brand new again, second album, third album. And I'm having a great time. I've just put out my third album and I can't believe I even get to say that. It went in. It was number four. It's a top five album. Not everybody gets to say that about their third album. So I'm so grateful for the reaction. I really am. And yet, there's a part of me that, you know, spent such a long time promoting that first album after it came out that, you know, I would like to create that exact same experience again for different music that I've made. That is easier said than done every single time. The chances of anyone getting a number one album at any time, there's only one number one spot, you know. Me as a lover of so much music.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But you just said to me, Chaos and the Kalm went, you know, debut album went straight to number one. It did. And it was amazing. And I'm still trying to work it out to this day. When I talk about sort of trauma, because it really affects and changes someone's life and changed my life. And I love so much about what happened. And I would love to experience that again But also it changed so much about me and my life. And I'm still trying to work that out. Does any of that make sense?”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She's about to go on a roller coaster ride and it will involve trauma. And it is trauma, he said. And we know all about it. Each one of us three, he was talking to me and Niall, he said, we know what that's like. And he said, we know that nothing could prepare us, could have prepared us for it, and that nobody could have made us understand it was going to be traumatic in a way beforehand. We see it now with Maggie, and we're fans of hers, and we're so excited, and we can't communicate that to someone. And because I use the word trauma, it's good and bad. And again, I wouldn't change a thing. And I don't think Sam would or Niall or Maggie, I don't think any of them would change a thing about their ascents. That they went through”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, wow, the things that that sort of does to. You emotionally and psychologically, and that it's a little bit of a trauma in its way, actually. Not to sort of drop names. That's not really my style, but I was at a show, a great artist called Maggie Rogers, who was just fantastic. I know Maggie, and I'm a big fan at the same time. And I was watching this show with Sam Smith and Niall from one direction. Three of us are watching the show in LA, and it's like her debut album show, and she's had a really great reception, particularly in America, but in various corners of the world as well. And it's a party. It's like a big event. It's really fun. And that she's playing a great show. And Sam said.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't feel a need or a desire to listen to it at all. So it was interesting six, seven years later listening sort of for the first time. And for the first time, listening and going, this is decent. This is okay. Work harder, though, keep trying. That's really the other voice that sort of rings in my ears.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I just played those songs so much and I had the time in my life, but I just didn't. Know it's going to have something to do with the bit of perfectionist in me, and we all have a bit of that, but like. So much sort of pressure Hype felt heaped onto that first release for me, that first big album release. I couldn't listen to it I still don't really. I mean, I don't, I suppose typically I don't spend my time listening to my music once it's out. I have to do so much listening as we're finishing the productions and the mixing. And then once it's out, it's less for me. It's so much for the fans. The frenzy around that music on the first album, in a ways, and I don't resent anything or anyone here, but it stopped me listening to it. I was playing those songs every day somewhere in the world, live.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For what it's worth, just as a sort of maybe an interesting little sort of Side effect, I recorded that album at the end of 2013 and at the beginning of 2014. It came out in 2015, but I finished recording in January 2014. September 2020 was the first time I listened to it after I finished recording it.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At a time on a plane is like not what ever before. Well, it's all sort of cracked up to be. You can't get your guitar out and start writing. I guess it's like emergency rest time in a way. Try and get your head down on a plane, which is as we all know, kind of tough. Yeah, idle time starts to sort of disappear a little bit. And it felt like writing a song in a hotel room on tour felt like such a heavy cliche to me that I was never very good at that either. I've got better at it now. We had a lot of time in hotels and I was crap at using that idle time to write more songs.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I said, thanks. And I sort of went on my way. But that was a real moment where everyone recognized that there was hold back the river and there was let it go as well and let it go might be able to carry this album as well. So that was things moved faster again. I remember actually as far as things moving fast. Got on a plane after that show in San Francisco at that festival. We flew down to LA, we crossed the airport, we got on a plane to Australia, we flew for 15 hours, we did a show in Sydney. And then we got on a plane and we flew back to LA and carried on the tour. So we went to Sydney to do a show for about, we went to Sydney for about barely 36 hours. Thirty of them were on a plane.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I got on stage in this sort of valley type shaped bit of land throughout this sort of outdoors festival because there were sort of banks of grass at the sides. Quite a big stage. And it felt like quite a lot of people, sort of three, 4,000 people. I was like, wow, this is exciting. And they all sang the words to let it go, every single word, particularly the choruses. And we filmed it as well on my phone or whatever. And it was amazing. And I came off stage and the promoter said I hadn't met him. I was like one of the newer artists on the festival. He said, that was incredible. He said, you were in front of 20,000 people there. I was like, no way. I said they were all, yeah, they were all singing the words. He said, yeah, 20,000 people. Singing the words. He said, we'll have you back.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tried, but it's not really sort of my calling to be able to do that. I write the songs and I remember writing Holdback the River and everybody at the label and my managers and everyone sort of jumping for joy and thinking that they had a hit on their hands, which is very exciting to be a part of. And I think at the time I thought, really, how do you know that? And then they worked, they did their thing. They went to work and they got that song around the world. And I got that song around the world, I suppose, as well. And it kind of took off, but let it go was an interesting moment because I remember doing lots of different festivals in America and all around the world. I remember a place, there's a festival called Outside Lands, which is in San Francisco or near San Francisco.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So same six months. It was 2014 into 2015, and let it go. Had come out towards the end of the summer before and then the album in 2015. I remember Let It Go as a song. I loved the song. I've never known really I can't write a song and say, that's a hit, guys. That's just not, I can't, I don't do that. I've tried”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't feel fully ready for it, and I'm kind of glad I don't think you're supposed to ever be completely ready for any of these things.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Kind of, yeah, but it wasn't even band camp. I mean, I don't know, I wasn't there yet. So I had those songs and they were like, let's record, there was like a couple of months between signing, recording that EP and releasing it. It felt very fast. And it was exciting. But yeah, I'd been in this training mentality, which I was doing kind of at my own pace. I was trying to do it all the time. I was constantly training, as I say. But I didn't appreciate there would kind of be an end to that in a way in another respect I'm sort of still training. But at that time, with what was going on, it was like, no, we're going to step up a gear now. And there's a few more people involved. And they're going to push you onto bigger stages literally and metaphorically.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and you know, on the one hand, yes, on the other hand, it was rooms full of sort of 50 to 100 people, but they were all there to see me. For the first time ever they'd all bought a ticket because somehow they'd found my music, they'd found the EP, which again, like, because of where streaming was at, it didn't go straight onto Spotify and Apple and all that stuff. There was some SoundCloud like thing. It wasn't even SoundCloud that it went onto where people had to go and find it. And I think they had a choice maybe to pay if they wanted to. It's kind of sweet.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Learning to swim And then they basically looked at me having visited New York a couple of times and played them some songs and gone, oh, you're ready to be in the sea. You're not like surfing a big wave yet, but we're going to put you in the sea now. And I was like, whoa. So it was fast”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There was a change. It all felt too fast. I think once I signed a record deal as exciting as the initial sort of part of the ride was, everything started to move quite fast. And in hindsight, what I realized is I was nervous about the pace of things, but I had this. Huge, I don't know what to call it. It's a record label, obviously. This huge backing, this body of people who wholeheartedly believed in me and wanted to sort of throw me kind of in at the deep end, but really just sort of throw me in the ocean where it's all really going on. I've been like on the shore training, open mic nights, little shows, solo acoustic stuff, whatever, writing, trying to get better, staying up all night, writing, using all that idle time.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, there were two visits to New York, so it was probably more like sort of a couple of months, two or three. Let's go six It was 98 days”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When me and my brother and Tom, we were in a band as 13, 14 year olds, and then we were in another one as 15, 16 year olds and 16, 17 and 218 and to 19. Then I left. The bands kept changing. I just said another one and another one. Often I was moving it on. Because Something wasn't quite good enough, and so I thought, well, let's change it into this, and let's change it into this thing. And let's tweak that bit and that bit. And let's make that bit better. And we'll change the band name and we'll be this, and it'll be fresh for people. And then we'll keep them. I don't know why I was thinking about that back then in such a sort of like AR kind of Mindset Was and I still sort of do.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Be on any of the stages that I'd seen my heroes on. Now, when I was a kid at home and I was being affected by all that stuff I saw on TV, on VH1, pop-up video, or even music and movies or any live stuff that I got to see on TV that was broadcast on TV, I dreamt about being on those stages in front of all the people that my heroes were in front of. So many people singing their words back. And I was never going to get there if I just stubbornly took around the same song that I wrote when I was 17 that I might have thought in my heart of hearts was so incredible. That doesn't matter. I have to open my mind up to what other people think and accept it. I was trying to understand and learn that as a sixteen year old, seventeen year old before I got to Brighton.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And if across a two week period I didn't get round to changing some stuff and I still played the same song, then it just wasn't every time it wasn't working. Every time I was getting them for the same minute in the song, maybe it was the second chorus or something. So yeah, you have to adapt. If you just keep taking the same thing and ultimately flogging a dead horse. I was never if I kept doing that, I was never going to”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All listen to a good song But you know, people forget the ones that aren't good enough. That's quite a sort of brutal sort of comment in itself because I can't guarantee that every song I've ever written will hold every room in the world every time. But I still love it enough to try again and try harder. So yeah, it does change for me. It absolutely changes the music because until I changed those things, I was just playing something that wasn't, because I was often going back to the same rooms. Not always. And it always eventually changed, but I would go back to the same place because that's just another place that I knew I could go and play a few songs.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I remember yeah a couple of like really busy rooms full of people who had no idea who I was. And I remember you catch some eyes of people going, oh, here he is, you know, another guy plugging in a guitar. Let's all sort of speak up a bit when he sort of pipes up. I remember thinking I'm going to get”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Been so excited I remember thinking, I'm going to get them I don't know that it worked every single time, but I remember winning over at rooms and leaving. So these weren't open my nights, actually. I remember in between the open mic nights, there'd be some individual who'd seen me and say, will you come and play at my pub? Which felt like a real win. You come and play at my pub on Thursday night on Saturday night, whatever it might be, Sunday night. I say, yeah, all right, and half the time they'd say there's 20 quid in it for you. And I say, oh, absolutely. Play for an hour sure. You pay me nothing to play for two hours at that time, and I'd have done it. I just wanted the opportunity, the stage, the microphone, the opportunity.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But give it some to try and catch some people. Anyway All of that, those times, they are vital. It's about learning about what doesn't work. It's about sometimes, you know, there's people who are like hell-bent on talking over you. And they've every right to. Every right If they haven't come to see you intentionally or it's not a private actual sort of venue where people buy tickets to come, then they've every right to. And it's, it was always about how I managed in those situations. I remember going into noisy pubs that wanted to hold an open mic night at the same time. Someone plugged him into a PA saying, Go on, and me thinking this place is rammed, and they're all just having the greatest night of their lives, just having a big old chat and they're drinking their pints and all this. And I've got sing into this. And I remember.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Somehow, I think it probably is. Everything that might follow that or that does, or everything that followed that for me has been so important. But there are moments in the very beginning for anybody, whatever they're doing, that are vital to what happens next. 10,000 hours is the right description and reference. All those open mic nights, and I was busking when I was in Brighton as well, was just kind of wild. You just walking down the street with a guitar on your shoulder and then you stopped. Amongst all the other people you're walking next to, and you have the balls, the confidence, somehow, the courage. To start singing at people in the middle of the street. It was always terrifying until I was sort of getting into the first chorus of a song. And then I could almost sort of blend in.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Difference, I suppose, for my generation at that time is I put them on my computer and stick them on my MP3, and I could walk around without a stack of CDs in my pocket or in my bag. Anyway. I was soaking up as much as I possibly could. Just trying to get better, trying to create a more Enjoyable experience for anybody who was in front of me. Because that's all I love about music. And that's why I want to do it. Because for some reason, I want to be able to create that for other people.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then I'd do an original, and I'd play the verse and they just talk in a way and I'd play the chorus and they're still talking. Then I play the bridge. And a few heads would turn. And I think I'd go home that night thinking, the bridge has got something, but the other bits need work. Clearly the other bits need work because I didn't have them in the verse and I didn't have them in the chorus. I had them in the bridge. And that's why it was all training. And so I go home. This was when I'd moved to Brighton actually particularly. A lot of idle time between lessons and the course that I was doing, and I filled it with just trying to be better, just soaking up. I was going to a record shop. This is just right before streaming sort of exploded. It wasn't like a thing, so I was buying records still.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They don't know who I am, and they haven't paid to see me or anything. And I want their attention. And I don't just want their attention. I want the thing that I've written to be good enough to effortlessly turn their head. That's how it has to go. And I had a lot of time to fill with those. It was all trials. It's all training. So I did. And I remember earlier than when that thing was, when that guy filled me in that bar, I remember years before that when, for example, I was taking... Couple of originals and a couple of covers to an open mic night, and people really enjoyed my delivery of the covers, which was really encouraging.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I guess it's taught me to use the idle time. Idle time in those years was Long empty evenings that I filled with finding open mic nights, to hone my craft sounds a bit pretentious again, but it's exactly what I was doing. It's exactly what I was doing and it's exactly what I'm doing at every gig I do today. The only difference is that there seems to be some people today who are actually there to see me and they've done a bit of homework. They say they like my songs and that's so flattering. But every single show I do to this day, I just want to be a bit better. I just want to deliver a slightly more effortless every time, more effortless, hopefully more moving, an enjoyable experience for the people standing in front of me. Back then it was seven or eight, maybe eleven or twelve people smattered around a bar. Privately trying to have a drink, probably after work, trying to catch up. And I'm in the corner Barking.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Can we fly you to New York? Which was a sort of that's where they were based the record label, it was just a very whirlwind exciting experience just to go and meet these guys, they just wanted me to come and sit and sort of play for them like in the flesh. And so I did. And they went on to be the label that I sort of signed to after a second visit. And it was all very exciting, given that it feels like, you know, that was one of a million open mic nights that I was performing at at that time. Just rolling up, putting my name down, playing three songs, moving on to the next one.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I will say it was at a time when there were YouTube sensations popping into the charts, getting signed by big record labels. Very exciting because they got 500,000 views overnight. They put the video up at 7 p.m. And by 7 a.m. at a million views, had two million views. That video that went online with me, it was there for six weeks or more. 25 views, maybe? 26 view I hadn't thought about it. I met the guy because he filmed me and he said, he'll put it online. You know, he'll do like a little sort of filter on it, a little edit. Thanks, man. Great. I'm just glad you liked my song. I didn't hear about it until this record label found it with its 25 views, and they called up my manager. I had a manager at the time. Still same manager I got today. Him up and said, We love this. We'd love to meet you, meet James.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They were very straight faced about it. I think it excited them. And obviously they had no idea if it was actually going to happen. They did encourage it. So my very long-winded answer to that. Yeah, I think they would have believed or hoped that I'd have sort of got close. Even half as close as I've come.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What's funny is he was one of 10 of us who were all starting to play the guitar at the same time. We all looked at Jimi Hendrix or the Reddock Chilippers or any of our rock heroes in the same way and we wanted it. We wanted that because you do when you're 14. Yeah, I want to do that. And I remember this burning desire. And I can't tell you even to this day whether it was the same or less or more than any of the other guys. But in the moment, I was dead certain that I wanted it more than everyone. And I did sit with my parents some nights with some music on the TV or on the radio or coming off the record player. And almost get emotional about how badly I wanted to do that kind of thing, make that kind of sound. Like when I grow up was the sort of thing I was saying. Didn't take the piss out of me.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we were sharing the pressures of what we're supposed to do after our GCSEs, after our A levels that we're going to do uni. Oh my God, who are we going to be? What are we going to do? And he said, man, one thing's for sure, I don't think you'll ever have an office job. And I knew how he meant it. And I really appreciated it. And I've never forgotten it. And I think I've brought it back to him. I've brought it up with him again And in a strange way, it felt like he was a guy, you know. You asked what my parents would say. Well, he. Was someone who was very close to me at the time as well who I felt believed in me.”
2022-08-04 · The Diary of a CEO · James Bay: Imposter Syndrome, Trauma & Controlling The Voice In Your Head · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT