Sept. 15 marked the 10th anniversary of James Bay‘s “Let It Go,” which reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped earn him multiple Grammy nominations. It’s his most-streamed song and remains his biggest U.S. hit. James describes what it’s like for him to play the song live, more than a decade after he wrote it.
“I will go back to where I was when I wrote it, which was a very sort of vulnerable place where I was trying to sort of stay strong in the face of, ultimately, impending … fame … which was wild,” he explains. He laughs, “I will also perform that song … and I’ll be thinking a little bit about, like, what I might have for dinner.” However, he insists, “I’m never not tuned in to the audience.”
“I’m grateful for that song,” he adds, “At times … in my career, it’s carried me … sometimes I need it.” He notes, “I’m very proud of it, because writing it was such a deeply personal and vivid and … chaotic experience. You have to really kind of get into the sort of trenches of yourself and, y’know, dare to say the things.”
Describing his current relationship to the song — which he most recently performed in the U.S. while opening for his friend Noah Kahan at Madison Square Garden and Fenway Park — James says, “We’re really good friends … I guess we’re like siblings, me and that song, and we’ve done a lot of growing together.”
“I can’t believe I’m here with that song at my side … and the connection it has with all these people, and the connection I therefore get to have with all these people around the world,” he adds. “I pinch myself about that all the time.”
James’ new album Changes All the Time will be out Oct. 4.
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