James Bay has revealed the follow-up to his double platinum debut Chaos And The Calm is likely to be released in 2018.
The 26-year-old is currently working on new material following two years of extensive touring - and is making the most of his time off the road.
“We toured [Chaos And The Calm] for a very long time and I really enjoyed it," Bay told Music Week. "The only thing that made me feel a bit negative about it towards the end was that I love those songs, but I really wanted to pepper them with new material. So that’s what I’m doing now and I’m having a pretty fantastic time doing it.
"I miss touring. It’s an amazing experience, an amazing adventure. Every day, everything is new. You’re playing to new people win a venue you’ve never seen, in a new town – and every time you wake up, things outside the window are different from how they were before. I do miss it a lot.
"But right now is an equally exciting new journey, making new music. Every time I make new music I always think, I’m going to make a live set out of these new songs soon, and I can’t wait to get on the stage and perform them."
Released via Virgin EMI in March 2015, Chaos And The Calm has sold 788,095 copies in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company. Asked about a release date for his second LP, Bay said: "Realistically, probably next year. But we’ll see! Anything could happen.
“I want the next album to eclipse everything the first album did. I’m really excited about the music that I’m making."
Bay, who is managed by Closer Artists, was full of praise for for label, promoter and publisher Communion Music, having worked with the company since his early shows. He attended the firm's 10th anniversary at House Of Vans last year and played a special intimate concert at The Slaughtered Lamb pub in Clerkenwell as part of the celebrations.
"Communion mean so much to me - they put on the first gig that I ever sold out, which was in the basement of The Slaughtered Lamb [in 2013] - and we’ve stuck together ever since," he said. We sold out three shows at the O2 Academy Brixton with Communion, which happened at the end of 2015, and then four nights at Hammersmith Apollo last year. We’ve done lots of great things together, and I continue to love and support them."
Click here to read the full Music Week interview with James Bay.
