James Bay to play Dublin's 3Olympia Theatre this November

BRIT Award-winning musician James Bay is returning to Ireland for a winter headline tour, landing at Dublin's 3Olympia Theatre on November 29th, 2022.

The English multi-platinum singer, songwriter, producer, and guitarist is gearing up to release his highly anticipated third full-length album, Leap, on July 8 via EMI Records/Republic Records.

Leap is described as "an open-hearted and hopeful collection of songs dedicated to the people closest to him", and finds Bay taking bold creative risks, pushing emotional boundaries, and embracing the unknown.

To bring the album to life, Bay worked with some of the industry’s most renowned producers and songwriters in a mixture of in person and remote sessions in Nashville & London, including Finneas (Billie Eilish, The Knocks), Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Lady Gaga), Ian Fitchuk (Kacey Musgraves, Brett Eldredge), Foy Vance (Ed Sheeran), and Joel Little (Lorde, Taylor Swift).

In 2014, he released his single 'Hold Back the River', which was certified platinum, before releasing his debut studio album Chaos and the Calm. The album went to number one in the UK and number 15 in the US.

His previous LP, Electric Light, arrived in 2018.

"Nearly four years isn’t the kind of gap I’d ever envisioned; I’d have loved to have been putting music out more often than that," he said in a press release. "The album has taken so many twists and turns, brilliant ones, since the first time I thought I’d finished it in 2020."

Explaining how his 'struggles' informed the record, James says: "It evolved a lot. I always appreciate and understand that a lot of my music leans into sadder themes; heartbreak and struggle. It had come from all sorts of different places on the first and second albums.

"In truth, when I went into writing a third album, I felt a bit lost. I struggled with various anxieties, throughout 2019 for example; pre-pandemic. I was so busy touring, I’d started the year touring for six weeks in America, three months opening for Ed Sheeran in football stadiums through Europe. It was incredible, lots in the calendar.

"It was so exciting, but I had this anxiety – a stress and struggle - that I couldn’t shake. I had a sort of imposter syndrome, which I’m sure other performers and creatives go through. Struggling with that, my writing went in that direction. It was pretty down," he confesses.

"On one hand that’s my wheelhouse, but there’s still a joy to be found in my music."

Tickets from €33.50 including booking fees are on sale Friday 27th May at 9am.

Revisit our 2015 interview with James Bay here.