James Bay quotes:

I'm very close in age to my older brother, and we had a field at the end of the road where we could run around, climb trees, play football.

I spent two years playing open mic nights in Brighton, and I heard more and more people saying, 'You should give it a go in London.'

Up until the last minute, it was art and drawing for me. That was the first real and natural thing I thought I was good at and loved to do. But I developed a similar kind of love for music.

My family quite innocently don't understand the ins and outs of it all, but they see things like the Burberry show and the Live Lounge, so they understand the gravity of those things, but they're proud - it's cool.

Some of my songs are about the feeling you belong somewhere else. But there's also something grounding about coming from a small town.

As a little kid, I was obsessed with Michael Jackson.

The thing about 'Hold Back The River' that I like is that it's a good starting place, and it was the perfect first single.

The Internet is the Wild West of the world, where anybody can throw anything down. Everything can be as relevant as the next thing; it doesn't matter who posts it. In that environment, the Critics' Choice is still very important.

To drive though the streets of Manhattan to sign a record deal was like a movie. It was crazy - pretty hard to put into words.

There was a guitar that my uncle owned and never learnt to play. He sold it to my dad, and when I heard 'Layla', that was the tune that really grabbed me. I said to my dad, 'Wait, there's a guitar, right?'

Being exhausted is all part of the fun. I'm cool with it. I'm not going to wish that it would slow down.

I spent two years playing open mic nights in Brighton, and I heard more and more people saying, You should give it a go in London.

I love the intimate, single spotlight, troubadour-y quiet, delicate moments. But I also love Springsteen and screaming and shouting.

When I was 15, if anything, I thought I was going to be a Delta bluesman, which is so ridiculous.

I loved pop music as a little kid. Things like the Black Eyed Peas. If it had a catchy chorus, I was into it.

As a singer-songwriter, a solo artist with a guitar, I can only write so many weepie little bedroom songs.

I like it when things crescendo to a huge moment like 'Hold Back the River.'

It's silly to call me the new Ed Sheeran. He can fill stadiums as a solo artist, but I'm not like that.

I do some solo, acoustic stuff, but I also like plugging in my electric guitar and playing loud with a band.

I write about personal experiences. I write about things that have happened to me and the people around me, so you just sort of keep this antenna up and on the lookout for things to say.

My songwriting process, and maybe loads of other people's, is just this sort of smashing together of emotions and stuff to make some music. It's kind of simple and really complex at the same time and, as you can see, incredibly hard to explain.

I bought a guitar CD-ROM because we had a new computer, but I had no attention span for that. I spent about three hours on it desperate to be brilliant. Eventually, I got some proper lessons.

Growing up, when I was at live shows, I was always hoping someone would come out on stage and say, 'The guitarist is sick and couldn't make it... does anybody know how to play all the songs?' That was always my little dream. It was a massively inspiring thing to be in a space with live shows.

When I'm writing, I need to amplify my thoughts and feelings on just a conversation that I might have had with somebody - somebody close to me. It's often the case that the people closest to me are the people on my mind the most.

And you don't have to care, so don't pretend. Nobody needs a best fake friend.

I hope to have a long career, and I don't want to be defined by things that aren't the music.

I'm going to take each day and each thing and each gig as it comes at me.

It's bad to be labeled just another singer-songwriter.

Both Springsteen and Michael Jackson, who had these huge productions, could always scale them back down to just a song and a melody. All of that influences me. I also try to be a fictional writer, and sometimes I get close, but the things that resonate the most with me - and with everyone else - is what's real.

I'm not waiting, but I'm willing if you called me up. If you ever wanna be in love, I'll come around