PAUSE Meets: Jacob Banks

We last spoke back in 2014, and time has gone so fast. I guess for you so much has happened since then, tell me what have you gained as an artist so far, up until today, is there like one thing that you would say you have gained through your journey?

My biggest lesson as an artist is… nobody can care as much as you, they just won’t. I am the only person who can be Jacob 24/7, you’re the only person that can be you 24/7. Even the people who love you the most, at some point will have to check out and look after themselves and their interests, and you can’t use that against them in the same way. I mean understanding it is one thing but you have to understand that you can’t use it against them. At some point, they have to do their own thing and for that reason, you have to become self-sufficient, you have to be your own team. When people come and help they’re just a bonus but the ship will go on without them. It will leave, I’d prefer to be on-board but you know, they will leave anyway.

You’ve come a long way with your music as well, what amazes me is how unique you are, a UK black artist, from 4 years ago up until today, has anything changed in your music?

Massively! The sounds are different, I mean obviously I’m still the same human being but I think for me I don’t believe in releasing the same project twice. I think everyone should try to push, whether you’re a journalist or whatever you are, like a photographer, we’re all trying to push the taste level and introduce new things, for me it’s the same with music, with every project that I do, I’m trying to push the music forward, asking the people what they think they like and just contribute to the music.

How would you describe your sound?

My sound is that I’m a storyteller. Which doesn’t quantify me to any particular sound, it just means that if I was telling a story and I needed to be loud then I’d be loud, if I need to be softer I’d be softer, so I’m more trying to paint energies rather than trying to be sound specific. I go with the sound that helps tell the story the best. So yeah, that’s how I define myself, I try not to be genre specific.

I figure out the energy, I use colours a lot so I would write and I would pick a colour and I tell whoever I’m with at the studio that I want you to play something in the colour of red, and I deliver my vocals or whatever I think red is, or the lyrics that I write will come from the colour red. For me it’s more about delivery than what you’re actually doing, anybody can do 5 things but it’s about how you deliver those 5 things with as much conviction as you can, that’s what gets people.

For me, your music reminds me of Emilie Sande, Sam Smith… I get that kind of vibe from your music, is there any artists that you’ve looked up to in your journey?

I really really admire Amy Winehouse, that’s a special one for me, D’Angelo and John Mayer is another one and Kanye West.

Was music around your family?

No, I don’t come from a musical family at all, like we’d listen to music as stuff.

So where did it come from?

I think for me it was my friends that kinda pushed me to make music, I fell in love with the guitar and singing in my bathroom, and my friends would hear these songs that I wrote and would ask me to record them so they could play it in their cars.

How old were you when you were doing this?

I was like 20, 21? And you do 7 of those on SoundCloud and you make an EP, and my friends just kept asking me and I put it on SoundCloud so my friends could download them and that’s just kinda how it happened and when I was using SoundCloud nobody was using SoundCloud, it wasn’t a thing. So, I just started because I was always making music to impress my friends and that’s what it was for me.

And then gradually more people gravitated?

Yeah yeah, more friends kept coming and I just kept making more friends.

You started out at a young age, did you feel that ‘this is my passion, this is what I wanna do’, when did you start to work that out?

I still don’t think I’ve worked that out, for me it was, and it still is… this is what I need to do. Like I grew up in a very like creatively oppressed environment where I wasn’t allowed to express myself too much so for me I need to create each thing. its bigger than music for me, like I, direct all my own music videos and I do all these things, I need to get all this stuff out my system, it makes me feel more centred, like in that process if I can keep people company that’s a bonus for me and the purpose, I put out music to keep people company overall that’s all I really care about.

Tell us about your latest release, ‘Unknown To You’?

Yeah, it’s a song about moments where we don’t really say how we really feel because we’re trying to save face and we’re trying to save something from whatever’s happening and it’s about those moments and it’s a really special song for me and I’m glad we did this.

How important is presentation is in music today? I feel like it’s changed so much now some people that came from musical backgrounds are now also diverting more onto the fashion field. Today, artists are presenting themselves in both fields, how important would you say that is?

The world is a very visual place now, everybody wants to see everything, you are seen before you’re heard now which is really interesting but it wasn’t always like that, like you used to hear the artist on the radio then you’d go and see what they look like but now its people see you before they hear you.

Yeah, that’s very true, these days people see someone that looks really cool, then they tune into their music from that.

Yeah, because there are so many artists that’ their brands surpass their music like A$AP Rocky, for example, he’s a great musician but like his brand is way higher than his musical things, I mean when was the last time he put out a record? But it doesn’t matter because he’s still so relevant because of his branding. So, it’s still so important but it’s something that I had to learn, I was never really keen on it, but we just have to get to people I think if you get this far you get to see it and have these conversations. The issue is getting in front of people and letting them make up their own minds, so do what you can do as long as you’re not hurting anybody then you’re still credible to get in front of people, visually it’s a massive one right now.

What have you got planned for the rest of the year?

We’re doing a world tour, we’re starting in Amsterdam and we’re touring until December. I’ve been on tour since February, so we get off. That’s kind of me man, just being on the road and shit.

How does it feel to be touring?

I love touring, like I said, for me every city I go to I have 500 friends who come out to see me, that’s how I see it, I have friends everywhere, I spend time everywhere, we have drinks after it’s. It’s just one long ass holiday.