Banks

“Music is the most private place in my life, but it's become the most public part of who I am.”

“I got a psychology degree from USC, but music is just my whole life.”

“I have a really feminine voice, but I also feel quite powerful when I write. So my songs feel heavy, and that's how Banks sounds. It's a really short, powerful sound. It almost sounds masculine, and I like having that dichotomy.”

“When you broaden the little box that you've been living in for so long, it can be very uncomfortable at first.”

“I feel like my dream animal would be a mermaid that could fly and also live in the trees. She has a nest, almost like a bird. She feeds her babies like a bird, like, chews the food first and then feeds it to them through her mouth.”

“My parents are divorced, and seeing that was really painful for me. Really painful for me. But that's also a big part of why I'm intrigued by the dynamics between people - because I was close to something that fell apart.”

“I like rap. I like anything with soul. I like anything you can feel, anything that makes you think that the artist had to make that song, or they were going to go crazy.”

“People think I'm going to be this really dark human when they meet me.”

“It's a big theme throughout my music to just embrace everything about your own mind and to always feel powerful. It's not just a feminine thing, but for men, too, whether they feel weak, or strong or crazy or reclusive. I want everyone to feel powerful no matter what little beasts they have in their head.”

“It's a powerful thing to be able to write a song. Even the least powerful feeling - like insecurity - that makes you feel weak when you experience it, when you write about it, you are powerful.”

“I'm from L.A., but everyone thinks that I'm British.”

“I've felt real pain, and sometimes I channel the exhale coming out of that to write, and those are the songs that give me the most power and the most strength.”

“My music is inspired by my life: the people in my life, the people I have relationships with, the people I love, the people that make me feel something.”

“I found music because I felt different.”

“Me in my music and onstage - that's me without any fears of judgement; that's me when I'm shining.”

“I never judge my own songwriting. It's just my heart. What's there to judge about your own heart?”

“'Before I Ever Met You' was the first one to come out and that just dives into the grit, and it's pretty graphic about a relationship. For my first song, it was very special the way it happened, because I didn't really hold anything back, and people responded to it.”

“One of my favorite things is to try delicious different fruits from different places, in Japan or other places that have different fruits you can't get in the States.”

“I like a kind of dark, bronze-y brown smoky eye with maybe some mascara, some contouring and stuff, but I don't like wearing black or pinks. I like it more tonal.”

“My approach to beauty is all about moods. If you want to feel sexy, if you want to feel feminine or, I don't know, boyish - it's all about how you feel at that point in time. My mood changes.”