The music of BANKS is incredibly evocative, weaving brooding tales of poignant darkness into an overload of thick, eerie textural layers that capture the heart strings for a sensually heightened musical rush.
From darkly insightful lyrics (‘Waiting Game’ and ‘Poltergeist’) showcased by her signature vocal layers (‘Beggin For Thread’ and ‘Godless’) and hypnotic beats (‘Before I Ever Met You’, ‘Contaminated’), cast within a dazzling matrix of indie, pop and R&B (‘This Is What It Feels Like’, ‘Underdog’), BANKS globally streams the frame of an enigmatic musical goddess across stages and the internet, all the while accompanied by illusory video clips overflowing with movement (‘Drowning’ or ‘Gimme’).Some may hear BANKS as the ultimate lovechild between the The Weeknd and Lana Del Rey, while she perpetually trips the light fantastic between indie-electro and R&B.
But Californian-born and bred Jillian Banks as the artist within is, quite frankly, without boundaries. Cleverly, she has managed to produce arty musical levels that balance the spheres of mania with the light of elation and darkness of reflection. Sounds deep? That’s BANKS.
David Bowie, Brian Eno and Yes would be proud to claim her as the poster child for contemporary arthouse music. BANKS embodies arthouse with music and movement that infiltrates at first subtly, to then emphatically arrest mind, heart and soul.
BANKS is not some boardroom-created commercial pop diva. There hasn’t been the ease of falling onto a record label and churning out the pop hits.
She has had to tread lightly with each step as a tortured artist; a dark, musical goddess embracing the strengths of an earthy keys player to blithely tread the realms of licentious and nerd among chordal textures; all sensuously writhing within movement.
BANKS is raw and fearless. Her music captures the ideal point between strength and vulnerability – this in itself in life is an art form, let alone in a chosen craft. “I am shaped by what happens around me,” she states.
“I am inspired by what happens in my life. So if something is really affecting me, it ends up in my songs.”
BANKS has all the currency to be a cosmopolitan child of the world. When you’ve got substantial credits like Jamie Woon, BJ Burton and Hudson Hawke underpinning your production efforts, the world is indeed your oyster.
But as BANKS says: “It’s about learning to find the balance; it’s therapy.” For, in her music, BANKS is “learning about wisdom, and having faith in myself”.
Now onto her third album 'III', following the skittishly subtle triumphs of 'Goddess' in 2014 and 'The Altar' in 2016, there have been many lessons in the making. “It’s about learning to find that balance between the stage and homesickness so it becomes therapy.”
BANKS is an emotional artist, given to wearing her heart on her sleeve while demonstrating the ultimate beauty of strength in vulnerability.
“I don’t know what my greatest fears are, but I’ve sat in the recording studio when I didn’t want to record a particular song that was really painful to me. It took me seven hours of getting it out, and the next day I was really unwell, as though I was purging the last of it from my body.”
This is what drives her from studio to stage. And it will bring her 'III' tour down under with her Australia-only shows at Falls Festival. “I’m so looking forward to seeing Australia again,” BANKS declares.
“Australia has always been so kind to me. So expect a BANKS show with plenty of music and movement.”
Falls Festival 2019-2020 Dates
28-31 Dec - Lorne29-31 Dec - Marion Bay
31 Dec-2 Jan - Byron Bay
4-5 Jan - Fremantle
