1. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I'm Eric Bay, a 25 year-old singer/songwriter. My parents are Danish but I was born and raised in England. I currently live in Surrey, just outside of London, and whenever I'm not working or hanging out with friends or family I'm usually involved in something creative like writing or playing music.
2. How did you get started in music?
My parents bought me my first keyboard when I was 10, and almost immediately I started writing songs, although they were just tunes at that point - I didn't start writing lyrics until I was about 17, by which time I had almost a hundred wordless tune ideas sitting around! I had 8 years of piano lessons, during which time I tried to teach myself guitar as well, and somewhere along the way I realised that this was something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. So I started recording demos on my keyboard and keeping notebook after notebook of song ideas – some of which I've recorded properly, but most are still ideas waiting to come to life!
3. When did you realize you wanted to pursue music as a career?
For a while, after I had a decent amount of finished songs, I considered trying to find somebody who might be interested in singing them, because apart from participating in school choirs etc. I never really had much ambition to be a singer. But the more songs I wrote, the more I became attached to how I thought they should sound, and I became wary of handing them over to someone else. So, in 2010, I decided to sing them myself, which is what led to the recording of my debut EP 'Pair Shaped'. I don't think I'm a particularly outstanding musician or singer – I'm a good pianist and I can carry a tune, but I think my main strength is being able to write catchy, well-structured songs. In the future I'd also love to try collaborating with/writing songs for other artists.
4. Growing up who were some of your musical influences? Are they the same today?
When I was very young I was a huge fan of Michael Jackson and The Beatles, and I still am. As I grew up I discovered artists like Bryan Adams, Elton John, Oasis and Meat Loaf, and they were all very influential to me when I started writing songs. There are also more modern bands that I'm very influenced by, like Coldplay, Five For Fighting, Fool's Garden and The Killers.
5. Who would you love to tour with?
Elton John – he's one of my favourite artists of all time, and although his piano-playing would put mine to shame, I'd love to share the stage with him and hear about how all his classic songs and albums were recorded.
6. Who would you love to record a duet with?
Even though she's known more as an actress than a singer, Amanda Seyfried. She has a beautiful voice, and I'd love to record an acoustic ballad with her - something like the duets Damien Rice has done with Lisa Hannigan.
7. Describe your music in 5 words
Varied, Unique, Sweet, Sincere, Witty
8. I read on your website you write scripts for TV and movies, is that what you would be doing if you weren't pursing a music career? Are you still pursing that too?
I am. Apart from music, movies and comedy are my other big passions. I've made a couple of short films which have played at film festivals, and I've written material for friends of mine who are comedians. At this point, they're all just things I enjoy doing, but in an ideal world I'd be earning a living doing one of them! And if I did, I'm sure I would keep up the others as hobbies, simply because I'm passionate about all of them.
9. You have an album coming out this winter, right? Can you tell me about that?
It's called 'The World Through A Mirror' – 13 songs, all written by me (some more recently, some up to 10 years ago!) The album is a very varied mix of ballads, upbeat songs, epic sound-scapes, intimate acoustic numbers and good old-fashioned pop/rock tunes. The title stems from the fact that most of the songs are told from an introverted point of view, and deal with very personal feelings and opinions. I currently have four tracks left to record, but it's coming along very well. It's being produced by Joe Lonsdale of Joe Public Studios, who also produced by EP 'Pair Shaped'. He's a great producer and musician (he plays all the guitar and bass parts on my songs), and we have a great laugh whenever we're in the studio.
I've been keeping video diaries of the making of the album, which you can see here...
10. You write your own music, do you have one favorite song that you've written? Or do they all mean about the same to you?
Songs that are about personal experiences (happy or painful) always tend to mean more to me because I have more of an emotional connection to them. The song I've written that means the most to me is a ballad from my upcoming album called 'You Knew', which was the first song I wrote a full set of lyrics for. However, sometimes those personal songs can be hard for me to listen to, as they can transport me back to a difficult time. 'Crazy Like Me' (from my EP 'Pair Shaped') is probably the song I've recorded so far that I can listen to the most often, simply because it's fun to sing along to and I love how it turned out.
11. Are you a pessimist or an optimist?
An optimist (most of the time!)
12. Can you list out five of your all-time favorite albums?
In no particular order...
'Dark Side of the Moon' by Pink Floyd
'Abbey Road' by The Beatles
'Bat Out of Hell' by Meat Loaf
'(What's The Story) Morning Glory?' by Oasis
'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' by Elton John
13. What are 5 things you can't live without?
My family
My friends
Music
Movies
My laptop
14. If you could have any super power what would it be?
The ability to see 24 hours into the future would be very handy when making certain decisions. But any more than that would take all the mystery out of life!
15. Which artist, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be?
Paul McCartney – he is, in my opinion, the greatest songwriter of all time, and he's achieved unbelievable wealth, success and acclaim without self-destructing like so many artists do. I greatly respect him as both an artist and a person.
16. Where do you get your inspiration from when writing your music?
Tunes generally come from sitting down at the piano and just playing around – sometimes a song arrives fully formed, and sometimes it takes a while to 'find' it. If I sit down trying to write a certain type of song, I usually end up with something completely different! With lyrics, I try and find a 'hook' – a feeling, a story, a topic I have a strong opinion about, or even just a clever idea for a title - and build the song around that.
17. What is your biggest fear?
My biggest fear as an artist is that I'll sink into a rut where my songs all start sounding tired and unoriginal and I won't notice it (hopefully my fans will point it out to me if that ever starts to happen!), and my biggest fear as a person is my family or friends suffering any kind of harm or unhappiness. But if we're talking phobias, it would have to be wasps – I got stung three times in one night when I was a kid, and ever since then I've been terrified of them!
18. What advice would you give to others wanting to pursue a music career?
Make sure you're doing it for the right reasons (i.e. because you love the feeling of playing to a live audience, or because writing songs satisfies you creatively) and write those reasons down, almost like a reminder to your future-self about why you loved playing/making music in the first place. Having a successful career in music is not easy – it requires perseverance, talent and luck, and since luck is kind of out of your hands, all you can do is be persistent and work on building/developing your talent. Music that is played with passion, soul and integrity will always find some kind of audience.
19. What are your tour plans?
Apart from the odd karaoke and open mic night, I've actually never played a proper solo gig, and I currently don't have the money or the time to get a band together and build up my performing confidence, what with having a full-time job. If I had backing from a label and a good band, I'd love to perform my songs live, but for the moment all my promotion and fan-interaction is web-based.
20. What can we expect from you in the future?
Ideally I would like to get signed to a label so I could make music for a living. But whether that happens or not, I'm going to continue writing and recording songs because I love doing it. The plan is to release either an EP or an album a year, so assuming 'The World Through A Mirror' is finished and released on schedule, you can all look forward to an EP next year!
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