continued from page 20
– between January and May of 2017.”
And Bay feels unchained, off the gentle-
manly leash on "Electric Light" which was
polished to perfection by top-flight UK
producer Paul Epworth. For starters,
there’s "Just For Tonight," an E Street Band-
rousing anthem with handclap percussion
and a huge crescendo chorus.
Then there’s the piano-based
soul stirrer "In My Head,"
underpinned by a huge Gospel
chorus; the surly keyboard
dirge "Slide" and its lyrical
commentary on the "Pandora’s
Box" of fame ("Nobody teaches
you how to win big"); and the
swaying Sunday-morning ser-
mon
"Us,"
with
more
Jordanaires-school backing
vocals, reflecting Bay’s long-
time fascination with vintage
wah-oohed Aretha Franklin
and Ray Charles albums. “I
love the sound of group
vocals, and those records are
my church,” he sighs, swearing
he never regularly attended
services himself as a kid.
An accomplished visual
artist on the side who always
carries a sketchbook, Bay was
just asked by English clothier Topman to
design a 13-item fashion line. He penciled
them all out on paper, and – naturally –
they’re all in black. “They had been asking
me for a couple of years, but I was just
touring and touring,” he explains. “But
26 illinoisentertainer.com april 2018
Topman is one of the first places I went to
as a 15-year-old kid, not knowing what to
wear – onstage or in life. So it was kind of
serendipitous and fun that ten years later
they were calling me up, asking me if I’d
do this. And I finally had the time to do it
after all that touring.”
But don’t get him wrong, Bay concludes.
“I love my first record,” he admits, “But to
me, it sounds quite polite. So I just wanted
to bottle some of that magic, that fire from
the stage on the Chaos tour and put it into
new songs, new recordings. And I think
I’ve done that with Electric Light because
these songs are definitely their own
beasts.”
Appearing 3/31 at Metro Chicago.