Getting to know Kota Banks
Pop prodigy Kota Banks has recently released her new EP. We asked her to tell us about herself:
I am… currently obsessed with Robert De Niro (…movies). I watched Goodfellas twice the other day, just to study and admire all of Robert’s intricate little face expressions and the way he talks. He’s not even the main main character, he just mesmerizes me in that movie. And watching it twice is a good 6 hour chunk of time… that’s intense. I just think he’s the most brilliant sexy man. I wrote a song about him recently, it might come out on the next project.
SWEET & THE SPICE is… your new favourite EP!! It’s a fun eclectic mix of my favourite types of music. I feel like there’s an angel and a devil on each of my shoulders, and they whisper the melodies into my ears that end up becoming my songs. The angel is responsible for songs like Let U Leave and Yes and the little devil gives me wild ideas like Snip Snip and Never Sleep. On this project, especially as it was kind of a reaction to the unpredictability of the future given COVID lockdown, I just wanted to be free and creative and celebrate flavours in music and personality.
Home is… a complex idea; everchanging. I’m a gypsy at heart – I love change, I feel at home in strange / new places every day. There’s a piece of home in any place I’ve ever felt happy or comfortable, or in any person I’ve ever connected with, which sounds really ethereal and artsy I know, but it’s true. And as I experience more places and different people, the idea of “home” and its meaning splits into tinier pieces. I want to make a visual representation of it one day, like an epic collage mural. It’ll be really pretty and international and eclectic.
I spend too much time… playing MarioKart at the studio when I should be making music. It’s getting a little out of hand but I feel like bossing MarioKart is actually sort of a studio etiquette must, so I’m putting that work in.
I’ve never… seen The Lion King. I know it doesn’t sound that wild but apparently it is? People freak out over this fact for some reason, it’s almost like a party trick. And obviously now I’m really curious to watch it but I don’t want to deprive myself of a fun fact / great ice-breaker. I feel like a therapist could really psychoanalyze that choice… maybe I need to re-prioritize. Lol.
It might surprise people to learn that… I’m allergic to strong-scented candles; I have my own star; I eat ice cream for breakfast quite often; I’m quite scared of fire; I hate 4/7 of my tattoos; when I feel shy I channel Cameron Diaz; I’ve written a book of poetry I hope to release next year.
In the future… we will look back on 2020 with a lot of sadness but also some gratitude, because although we’re enduring a lot of suffering I really believe it’s the year that’s been the catalyst for many different types of change. So many things have been brought to global attention that were overlooked / perpetuated for years. Although George Floyd was among the millions of black lives brutally taken, it’s documentation brought police brutality and racial injustice to the forefront of social conversation. Sexual abuse incidents in recent times in this country are giving rise to new strategies that will help make the Australian music industry a safer place for women. The Australian bushfires and the improvements we’ve witnessed as a result of the COVID-19 travel-bans elucidates how prevalent the environmental crisis is and that we have the power to fix it. This is the tip of the iceberg in terms of our pain and hopefully our learning from it this year, but I’m pretty optimistic that we’ll learn… humans are an intelligent species.
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Keep up to date with Kota on Insta.
Interview by Bobby Townsend.
