Banks has joined George Ezra and Sampha on the BBC Sound of 2014 list. It was announced this morning on the Radio 1 breakfast show with Nick Grimshaw that Banks would take the number three spot in BBC’s countdown of the sound of 2014 artists.
Banks is a LA born London based singer-songwriter, who combines electronic riffs with R&B. She was given a piano at the age of 15 by a friend to help cope during “a really dark time”. Talking to the BBC she said, “I felt very alone and helpless. I didn’t know how to express what I was feeling or who to talk to…Then somebody gave me this toy keyboard as a gift…It was like five pounds of gravity was lifted off me.”
She’s now worked with some of the best in British producers, like Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, SOHN and Lil Silva & Jamie Woon, toured with The Weeknd as the opening act of his 2013 tour and had her song ‘Waiting Game’ featured in the Victoria’s Secret holiday advert.
Her own brand of dark, crunchy R&B combined with jittering electronic beats and her powerful voice commands the listener. Her intense emotional content and unapologetic honesty within her lyrics allows listener to relate to her music, and shows the up and comer being totally unafraid to write about such gritty content.
Banks was included in The Edge’s list of acts for 2014, THE LIST 2014, as well as iTunes ‘New Artists for 2014’ list and MTV’s ‘Brand New for 2014’.
#2 in the countdown will be announced tomorrow, and the winner on Friday, both during Nick Grimshaw’s breakfast show on Radio 1.
