James Bay teams up with Jon Batiste for the euphoric and dazzling “Sunshine in the Room,” a bright, bold, and beautiful anthem that channels the rhapsody of love into a cinematic, soul-stirring, and irresistibly catchy celebration.
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Stream: “Sunshine in the Room” – James Bay ft. Jon Batiste
How do you show someone just how much you love them?
With music, sweet music: James Bay’s latest single is pure love and light manifest in song. Featuring the inimitable Jon Batiste, “Sunshine in the Room” is a bright, bold, and beautiful love song sung from cloud nine. For Bay, it’s a joyous, golden ode to his wife, Lucy – the subject of many a James Bay anthem and ballad over the years. For all of us, it’s an instant reminder of that singular person who lights up our lives – that special someone who makes us happy when skies are grey, and who can “turn grey skies into blue.”
With a sprightly, spirited beat and buoyant, soaring melodies, Bay and Batiste channel the warm euphoria and rhapsody of love into a cinematic, soul-stirring, and irresistibly catchy celebration.
You’re the reason, you’re the feeling
Make me wanna get up in the morning
Nothing better, am I dreaming
When I see you at the start of my day?
(That’s right)
I don’t remember any feeling
Worth believing that came before you
There’s no other way I know how to tell you
I don’t know how
I don’t know why
You turn grey skies into blue
You’re the best high
You burn so bright
You’re like sunshine in the room
“Working with Jon Batiste for ‘Sunshine in the Room’ is an experience I will never ever forget,” Bay tells Atwood Magazine. “He literally burst into the studio like a ray of sunshine and brought so much joy to the sound of the record and the work. He’s a total inspiration, and I hope we can work together again. The song is about having someone in your life who truly lights up the room as soon as they walk in.”
Released in January, “Sunshine in the Room” arrives on the heels of Bay’s fourth studio album Changes All the Time, a captivating record he described as his first taste of “true musical freedom,” and one that found him collaborating with several big names – including The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, The Lumineers, and singer/songwriters Noah Kahan and Holly Humberstone – for the first time.
“Writing with Brandon Flowers, writing with Holly Humberstone, these types of experiences, it’s a privilege to be able to interact with them in that capacity as a fan and as a disciple and as a student,” Bay told Atwood Magazine in our feature published last fall.
“I’m definitely a student of Brandon, but absolutely a student of Holly. It doesn’t matter that she’s however much younger and newer to all of this than I am, she’s profound in her own way. I say that as a fan and as a contemporary, and therefore there’s so much for me to learn… Making this record was such a fluid and live and in the moment experience.”
A 5x-GRAMMY Award winner, EMMY Award winner, and Academy Award winner (not to mention his seven-plus acclaimed studio albums and a trove of soundtracks, EPs, live records, and one-off collabs), Jon Batiste is yet another extra-special musical collaborator; it feels only fitting that these two decorated artists would combine their talents to make a sweet, soulful, and sun-soaked revelry – finding common ground in that one thing that, at the end of the day, binds each and every one of us.
“Jon felt so right and exciting for this song,” Bay smiles. “There was no guarantee, we absolutely had to ask him (and hope he would say yes!) after we’d dreamed up that he could be a great feature on the song. He brought so much joy, literally so much sunshine to the session and the track. I make no exaggeration when I say that everything about his playing is everything I love in any kind of instrumentalist. It’s so inspiring! And his voice! Wow, he hit some notes I could never dream of reaching!”
I go in and out of talkin’ ’bout
The specialness you bring into my life
I could shout it from the top of any mountain
Any time of the day
You know how to make me better
Doesn’t matter how you do, I adore you
There’s only one way that I know how to tell you
‘Cause I don’t know how
I don’t know why
You turn grey skies into blue
You’re the best high
You burn so bright
You’re like sunshine in the room
As for the inspiration behind the song, Bay says that came naturally and instantaneously. While he’s written his fair share of love songs before, this one admittedly feels extra special – and it is.
“I feel very lucky that I have that person in my life,” he says. “And I’ve witnessed it in other relationships around me and close to me. It’s an experience that is just pure joy and the imagery of sunshine streaming through a window, into a room, just felt like a beautiful visual metaphor to represent that feeling. No songwriting is necessarily easy, but there was an effortlessness to the way that came about lyrically. I wrote it with my great friend Jon Green, who I probably share my best and strongest writing relationship with. Always a privilege to spend time writing with or just being around Jon.”
Many of Bay’s other love songs are painted with both lighter and darker hues, and he’s previously discussed a tendency to mix shades and emotions together, rather than skew all the way to one side. “Sunshine in the Room” is notable, in part, due to its unapologetic one-sidedness: It’s a true expression of pure euphoria and joy, and something ‘new’ as far as the James Bay catalog is concerned.
Bay explains how he made a conscious choice to go all-in on joy this time around, emulating his favorite artists from the golden age of soul.
“Songwriting and being an artist can be very consciously contrary work,” he admits. “Artistic license and listening to the concept of ‘devil’s advocate’ are often fun directions to explore. If my usual move is to write something more emotionally heavy or sad, then on this occasion, something in me was just very inspired to write with more joy. Personally, I enjoyed referencing details in my favourite Motown records. They always felt so joyous even if the lyric was heavier at times.”
Hold me, hold me
I don’t want this night to end
Don’t let go
Feel the moonlight flooding in
I won’t ever be lonely
Just let me fall in love with you
Over and over again…
“Sunshine in the Room” might call to mind such classic numbers like Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely,” The Isley Brothers’ “Shout,” and even Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”: All of these songs come with their own special serotonin boost, thanks to the artists’ decisions to pour their heart and soul, and all the love and light they could muster, into their art. In that vein, this is just the latest in a long, legendary line of smile-inducing love songs.
And if that’s going to be a part of James Bay’s legacy, then it’s a legacy bathed in warmth, light, and the timeless power of love – one that’s sure to brighten hearts for generations to come.
As for me, I’ll be dancing and singing away the days to this intoxicating, sun-soaked single.
I don’t know how
I don’t know why
You turn grey skies into blue
You’re the best high
You burn so bright
You’re like sunshine
Like sunshine
Sunshine in the room
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Stream: “Sunshine in the Room” – James Bay ft. Jon Batiste
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© David O'Donohue
© David O'Donohue
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