Meet Jacob Banks

15JACOB BANKS

Born in Nigeria, British artist Jacob Banks wasn’t exactly planning to go professional, until his family and friends pushed him towards the light. And we thank them for that ! After taking a step in different genres of arts and sports, the 26 year-old singer-songwriter eventually found in music everything he needed to express the experiences that shaped him -from happy to painful. Through his EPs « The Monologue » (2013) and « The Paradox » (2015) until the dazzling « The Boy Who Cried Freedom » (2017), Jacob Banks tells his story with a roughness in the voice and a delicacy on the pen. The same contrast defining his personality : uncomprising and elegant.

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n The Move : Hi Jacob ! Thanks for having us ! You’ve been writing for quite a long time, through poetry but you took the plunge in music relatively recently. What triggered this step ?

Jacob Banks : I specifically heard a John Mayer album called «Continuum» and I’ve always loved music among a lot of different things I’ve done. I played basketball a lot, I was a dancer for a bit. Music has always been a part of my life but I never really wanted to be a part of it. I just enjoyed listening but after listening to that John Mayer album, I just really wanted to be able to sing something to someone the way he sang it. So, I bought a guitar and I played and I just kept singing the songs that I loved. And after a while, naturally, I just wanted to write my own songs just to see. I made music for like a year without really wanting to be an artist, just to sing to myself. I just enjoyed having a way to finally express myself. I was like 21 and I had so much to say to myself. It made me okay with being alone. I was okay just being in my room with my guitar, it was really nice.

« Music has always been a part of my life but I never really wanted to be a part of it »

On The Move : So, going for music didn’t have anything to do with the need to share your experiences and emotions with others ? Because it somehow reaches a wider audience than poetry...

Jacob Banks : Even when I wrote poetry, I wrote it for myself, not really to share it. When I started, it was genuinely just for me. I honestly started to perform because my friends made me to. I was more than happy just to do it for myself, my friends were the ones pushing me to do it professionally. And going towards music, I just used the words I used to wrote as poems, stole some other people’s melodies and it all worked.

On The Move : And now, do you still approach a track through words or through melodies ?

Jacob Banks : Ninety percent of the time, it’s melodies first but as soon as I hit a melody, I hit the words as well. They come almost at the same time. Melodies are maybe just a little bit quicker but once I hear the melody, I hear the words because to me, writing songs feels more like remembering something. I don’t feel

like I’m creating from thin air, I feel like when I play the music, it triggers something like a memory, a projection of my mind. It’s just there and it keeps speaking and speaking and speaking until it makes sense. That’s always very personal. I’ve had to have been there to write about it. It could be a story that someone has told me but in one way or another, I’d have to have been there, to feel. When I hear something, I think about what colour the music is, what it makes me feel, what it reminds me of. When you hear a song that you love, and then you hear it again like three years after, you can say what the room smelled like. It’s like that when I hear music, it reminds me of something. It just triggers something that has happened before. I think musicians don’t forget anything. Everything is just hidden away inconciously and when music comes along, that comes forward. That’s kind of how it happens to me really.

On The Move : Though we believe you lived in Nigeria only in your youngest years, do you feel like the Nigerian culture influences your sound in any way ?

Jacob Banks : Culturally, we are proud people but in the sense of : «Make sure whatever you say makes sense. Make sure that’s actually something that you’re proud of.» So, I think the culture influences me in the respect of what I choose to talk about. I can’t just say any random shit because I know my mom is gonna listen (laughs) So pull me up on it if I’m talking rubbish. The Nigerian culture influences me in this way, don’t ruin your family’s name type of stuff. So, I will always make sure I’m talking about something that’s true, that’s meaningful.

On The Move : We read in another interview that you define yourself as a storyteller. You also do that very much through your visuals. So what relation do you establish between visuals and music ?

Jacob Banks : One of my earliest memories of music was listening to music on VHS tapes, on Disney. So, music and visuals are very much the same thing for me. When I grew up, there was MTV and you always watched the music as opposed to listen to it. Plus, I think when I started out, no one would direct my video so I just ended up doing it myself. And I think music is driven by perspectives so I could write a song about one thing and you could hear it in ten different ways. When I make my videos, I like to show people a different way to hear it. You might think the song is about one thing but... Music is such a wonderful thing because you can pour a thousand emotions into one song. But when the video, it’s like I’m arriving with another one :

11what about this? You know, just to fuck with people. It is another way to hear the song. Songs can mean so much. It’s good to really pull out every possible option for a song and allow that song to live in many different worlds.

On The Move : Can you tell us a bit more about the process of making these videos? Do you always team up with the same people?

Jacob Banks : I just do it with my friends, actually. A friend of mine called Anthony Williams. That’s just me, him and we just make it work. The music videos come to me pretty much while I’m writing the song. I am a very visual person. I feel like music should be seen, not heard. While I am writing, I am already like «I could see the scene» etc. Sometimes, I pull up like a scene from a movie, from an ad, and I always kind of write from the visuals. I feel the whole thing. Once I’ve had that down, once I am happy with a song, we just make a video.

« I AM A VERY VISUAL PERSON. I feel like music should be seen, not heard »

On The Move : Among your influences are Kanye West, John Mayer or d’Angelo but do you get inspired by other forms of art ?

Jacob Banks : I love animators. I love poets a lot. Poets are my biggest inspiration. A guy called Anis Mojgani. Miles Hodges also. He is another massive one. I love Leonardo Di Caprio. He’s my favourite actor. I am

super inspired by his passion, how committed he is to everything, every role. The power of his performances. He truly embodies these roles. I apply that to music because for me , people always say «Wow, you can sing!» but I think singing is not a skill. Delivery is. I think there is a lot of people that can sing but not so many can sing so that, when people hear, they believe in you. It’s different from being able to sing. Leo is a great actor, and there are so many great actors, but every film I see with Leonardo, I believe that he is not Leo. He is whoever he is saying he is at that time. I think there is a lot you can learn from that.

On The Move : At the beginning of your career, you performed quite a lot in bars and small venues. What did you learn from these experiences, when the public isn’t necessarily yours ?

Jacob Banks : I learned that «Less is more». People are just trying to find something to connect to. They don’t really want all the fancy stuff. Every now and then, they can. But at the base of everything, everyone is just trying to escape. Music is an escape. They try to find a little bit of themselves in you and they’re hoping you can remind them of something. I always try to create an atmosphere where it is just you and me, you know. Two old friends, sharing music over a drink.

On The Move : You said before that the voice wasn’t necessarily the most important thing for you but still through time and EPs, your voice have evolved impressively. How did you work on it?

Jacob Banks : I think it is mostly repetition. If you do anything long enough, you should get better, I hope. I think I just understood my voice more. I just got older also. I went through so much bullshit. I think I focus

Capture of the very cinematic video of «Unholy War» written by Jacob Banks with director Cody Laplant, 2017

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on different things as time went on. I think over the last couple of years, I really focused on delivery. More like I record, record, record over and over again until I believe me. Because I know if I believe it. Then most people will. Until I believe me. If I don’t believe what I say or, if I don’t say it with enough conviction… it won’t work. I was just taught a lot, I think, that the only way to get better is just to do. You learn quicker just performing, surrounding yourself with musicians who are better than you. I don’t know, I just kind of threw myself at the wind and I just kept going.

On The Move : That’s why you re-recorded “Unknown” for your latest EP?

Jacob Banks : Yes, very much. Because I played “Unknown” for like two years after the first version and everytime I played it, I just liked what it sounded like live. I was in a different label at the time and I asked if I could re-record it but everyone was like “I don’t know, this version is fine.” I felt like I was holding back. I just wanted to not hold back anymore.

« If someone is telling the truth and it comes from passion, it automatically has soul IN IT »

On The Move : There is also a remix by Timbaland. How did that happen ?

as funky or musically enclined as “The Boy Who Cried Freedom” it is just honest, honest shit. Talking about how fucked up things have happened. And also all the wonderful things that have happened. What I love about that phrase : “It takes a village to raise a child” is that it doesn’t say “It takes a good village”, it doesn’t say “It takes a bad village”, it just says “a village”. So it’s everything . It celebrates all the things that have happened and I can’t wait. It’s different again. I always try to be different because I don’t believe in doing the same thing twice. But I can’t wait to share it !

On The Move : In an interview we made with Alex Who? [on On The Move Magazine - October 2017], she said there was only two types of music to her : soul music and money music. We think that applies a lot to your philosophy. What do you think about it?

Jacob Banks : People always make the mistake to think “soul music” is a genre but it’s not. There is no soul as genre of music. Soul is the truth. Soul isn’t quantified to singers you can have. Kanye West ‘s “The College Dropout” was a soul album. If someone is telling the truth, and it comes from passion, it automatically has soul in it. It doesn’t necessarily mean the person has to sing a particular way or have a particular sound. For me, soul means telling the truth... or not.

INTERVIEW BY CORALINE BLAISE PHOTOS BY JOHNNY FONSECA

Jacob Banks : It was very simple and natural. He just reached out to me actually. He said he loved the song and wanted to do a remix. And I was like : “Okay” (laughs)

On The Move : And do you have any dream collab ?Jacob Banks : I’d love to work with Kanye West !

On The Move : What can we expect from your upcoming album ? Is it called “Village”, so does it have anything to do with coming back to some kind of roots ?

Jacob Banks : It is based on a quote that says “It takes a village to raise a child”. I am just really pulling on all the sides of me, I love many things, many genres of music, and I just wanted to use as many things as possible that make me me. Good, bad, dark, ugly… It is very honest. It is not

Jacob Banks’ third EP «The Boy Who Cried Freedom», April 2017