POWER LINES Singer- songwriter Banks is back with a new album, more confidence and a mighty rule to live by.
American singer-songwriter Banks is back with a new album, more confidence and a mighty rule to live by.
Hi, I’m Jillian,” says a young brunette woman, sticking her hand out. She looks younger than 28, and different in person – softer, less angled than the images promoting her album and tour. She’s Jillian Banks, better known as her stage name Banks, the American singer whose breakout album Goddess propelled her to the top of must-watch lists in 2014, with her darkened dreamy vocals and self-penned lyrics.
The first tracks from her upcoming album The Altar, including Fuck With Myself and This is Not About Us, are more playful and confident than usual, she explains. “There’s a new form of power that I feel now that I think came into my music.” She hesitates when speaking about her work. “It’s in my songs. I say everything in my songs, and I write because I don’t know how to say what I’m feeling.”
The confessional aspect of her music has attracted fans and comparisons to singer-songwriters such as Fiona Apple or Tracy Chapman, the latter of which she’s cited as an inf luence for her androgynous voice. “I’m tired of being compared to other women,” she says plaintively. “If you compare me to someone, you can compare me to a man if you want. That would be a change.” I ask if she feels she’s written about differently as a female musician. “Yes, definitely,” she says. “You don’t want to let yourself be frustrated because you can’t control it … I can control how I respond, but I can’t really control how they write about me, which is something I’ve had to come to terms with.”
As a teenager, Banks grew up writing stories; an ongoing series involves a fictional character called Sans Peau, “which means ‘ no skin’ in French, because she’s inside out. She leaves little bloody footprints everywhere she goes – I have a hundred stories of her that I’ve written.” Banks already knew she wanted a career in music and would prepare for it by performing at open mics, in a bid to overcome her stage fright. Initially, she’d sing with her back to the crowd. “Even though I wasn’t ready to put my music out till years later, I knew I’d eventually want to,” she recalls. “[In the beginning] I just couldn’t sing, nothing would come out, so I had to get over it.”
Her start in the professional space has become one of urban legend. Unbeknown to her, a friend had sent her music to DJ and producer Yung Skeeter, who offered to manage her and ended up producing her first album, Goddess. That friend was Lily Collins, actress and daughter of legendary Phil. Both of them are friends of Chanel, attending their shows and events. “Chanel has been so supportive of me since I started,” she says. On set, she revelled in the characters aided by the clothes, enjoying playing a part. She sees fashion as a way to reveal her personality, especially on stage. “Fashion is such a creative way to express yourself. Especially being a musician, with dressing yourself for a performance.”
I ask her if there’s a poem that’s been a recent favourite and she spends the next few minutes carefully looking through the notes on her phone before reciting to me Wild Geese by award-winning American poet Mary Oliver. “Someone I love sent it to me,” she says mischievously, before straightening up again. The first line, ‘You do not have to be good’, resonates with her, and she repeats it again. “It’s such a powerful line,” Banks says. “You just have to be you, you don’t have to be good. You don’t have to be what other people think is good. It’s so freeing.”