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BANKS sits down with the Zach Sang Show on Amazon ahead of the release of her new album ‘Off With Her Head’. She talks about writing about her boyfriends ex on ‘I Hate Your Ex-Girlfriend’ featuring Doechii, the meaning behind the album title, and how she feels about moving out of Los Angeles.
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BANKS talks about how her new album’s title ‘Off With Her Head’ is not that serious…
“It sounds really heavy and dark, obviously, but it’s actually a really positive sentiment. It kind of means a few things. Number one, living in the past, going over things from the past, rehashing things in your head. Sometimes it’s really hard to just like, shut that down. Even negative voices. It’s really hard to think your way out of those. You can’t think your way around negative, toxic cycles in your head. You have to just cut it off. Off. And so for me, like, Off With Her Head is kind of just like something’s head is severed. If you cut it off, you can’t think anymore. So for me, that was something I kind of said to myself if I’m trying to overcome some sort of negative thought process, just “off with their head,” like, cut it off. And then it also means, like, get out of your head and into your body…..A lot of it is about just being present. And it’s really joyful. And I think that you can’t be present and joyful unless you get out of your head, because you’re just not there if you if you’re living in here.”
BANKS talks about writing ‘I Hate Your Ex-Girlfriend’ about her boyfriend’s ex
“That song started from kind of a joke. We were in the studio, and we were just telling horror stories about just experiences with our exes’ exes, and there were some people with some horror stories. We were all just cracking up at the demented shit we’ve all been through. And we all just, like, took turns with the mic, and somebody like, thought of a really sick bass riff, and I don’t know, sometimes the best hooks are so straightforward and in your face. And I just was like, “I hate your ex girlfriend.” And then we were all like, “that’s kind of a fire hook.” It’s just like, in your face. It’s kind of like that Big Sean song, like, “I don’t fuck with you.” Like, I love that song because it’s like, people say that, like, “I just don’t fuck with you.” It’s nice when there’s a song that’s so simple. A lot of my lyrics are so metaphorical and again, like, I’m not thinking when I’m writing, so maybe after the fact, I’m like, “Oh, wow. Like, that is exactly what I meant.” But for songs like, “I Hate Your Ex,” it can be really fun just to be, like, really cunty.”
BANKS talks about how ‘Make It Up’ (featuring Sampha) was originally started in 2013
‘Make It Up’ with Sampha and Lil Silva started in 2013. I have photos of being in the studio while making that song in 2013 and then we just didn’t finish it. And then when Silva and I reconnected, I was like, “We need to finish this.” It’s cool too, because we wrote the lyrics of that in like 2013. We wrote the chorus and the first verse and the lyrics of the chorus are “Making up for lost time. Make it up with me. We didn’t quite make it last time, but this time, you and me”, and then we didn’t finish it, and then we came back we’re like, whoa. This is about us, it’s saying what has happened, you know. So, that was really cool.”
BANKS talks moving out of Los Angeles and getting engaged
But the culture in Los Angeles is pretty intense. You know, when you’re young and you grew up here, most people who I meet haven’t grown up here, but like when you grow up here, you don’t notice all that stuff. You’re playing soccer, you’re going to your friend’s house, you’re having sleepovers, you know, your mom’s picking you up from school. And I grew up in the valley too. It’s like, a little bit more suburban. But I think just being in this business and living in Los Angeles, and then when you’re in this business, the culture you experience within Los Angeles is a lot of, like, money, looks and fame. That’s like, you know, when you walk in a restaurant, everyone’s like, “Who’s that?” Like, turning their head to see, like, who’s there, you know? And I just got really drained of that and uninspired. That was the main thing. I felt really uninspired by it. I started feeling like I didn’t want to go places, because I felt that energy so much. It’s like when you’re when you’re sensitive to something, it’s like an open wound, and then any little piece of salt that you put in it is like out, whereas, like, if you’re not as sensitive to it. You can go to those places and not notice everyone looking at you, or whatever, you know. But I got to that place where I was just feeling really isolated and not wanting to do anything.
And now I live in Seattle. I really love it. I got engaged and he is from Seattle. And you know, the first few years we were together, we lived in Los Angeles together, but we would go to Seattle. So this was the first time that I was in another place, and I, like, really experienced what it was like to actually live there. Like, where would I go to the market, you know, what would our coffee spot be like, whatever. And I just found myself, every time I was there for like, two weeks or more, I would feel like, just calmer, like I felt like my nervous system was healthier and like I wasn’t like, like in my body didn’t have as much like, inflammation or something like, I just feel like I was less stressed and I was happier. I just felt like, happier. So, then I was like, let’s get out of here. Let’s go move there. And it’s been like, just, I’m so happy that I did it.
