Jillian Rose Banks, also known as Banks, is an American singer, songwriter, and poet who unreleased song “Birds By The Sea” repotedly leaked online off her forthcoming album SERPENTINA.
It took a pandemic lockdown filled with “the finest kind of isolation conceivable” for Banks to lose her old skin and learn to live in the present now. Serpentina was produced during that phase, when the vocalist finally gained complete control of her music and skills. The singer’s new album, which is due out on April 8, is now available for presale.
“I feel like nothing can affect me,” Banks says in an interview with Rolling Stone. “Like a serpent queen, once you shed your skin, you have to keep moving and be present in your new skin.” “That’s what happened to me,” she continues. Banks refers to the months-long period in which she closed the blinds and locked the doors to the financial side of music, instead focusing on composing lyrics, co-producing, and “falling in love” with the whole song-building process. Instead of submitting songs to her management for permission and suggestions, she says this time “I was simply like, ‘This is what it’s going to be.'”
She claims that after “breaking through” some of the demons she had to confront during the epidemic, she discovered a new power in herself and her work that she had never felt before. “There have been periods in my life when I’ve been less certain of myself,” she admits. “I discovered this new confidence in my own inventiveness, gut sense, and ideas.”
The singer released the album’s third single, “Holding Back,” at midnight on Thursday, claiming that it had “intensity that is so huge it could take up the whole room.” With the pandemic’s negativity, she was eager to elevate people via her music, adding a twist to her often-dark compositions on the LPs Goddess and The Altar. According to her, the new song “makes me feel ready to take the world.” The new song follows last year’s LP hits “Skinnydipped” and “The Devil.”
Serpentina, according to Banks, has both an ethereal brightness fresh to her sound and a weighty “beast underlying it.”
“Gospel melodies and that soul: that sensation that there’s something larger than you,” she explains. “That’s where the music is coming from.” She cites the album opening “Misunderstood” and the vocally-driven “Spirit” as instances of this almost-religious contradiction. “It’s vulnerable in a self-accepting, powerful manner,” she continues. “My vocals are riding higher than ever before on top of everything.” When people hear it, I want them to feel like they’re sitting right next to me, whether it’s a banger or a ballad.”
What’s new for Banks this time is that she now owns the masters of her music, something she’s never owned previously. “It’s been a very fantastic feeling,” she adds of her new AWAL contract. “I control my own career and every choice.” “I depended on other people less than I ever had on this record,” she continues.
More About Banks:
Banks, a singer/songwriter who creates dark, alternative pop with hints of modern R&B, first rose to prominence in the early 2010s with a handful of downtempo, alt-R&B singles that helped establish a cross-genre following.
Banks’ first album, Goddess, charted just outside the Top Ten in 2014, but her follow-up, The Altar, remained in the chart’s high echelons.
With her third album, III, released in 2019, Banks broadened her musical range. Jillian Rose Banks began writing as a youngster when a friend gave her a piano in her hometown of Tarzana, California. She composed and performed as a personal release for years, but in early 2013, she released “Before I Ever Met You,” a slick, low-key piece that sounded like it was written by someone who grew up listening to Fiona Apple and Massive Attack.
The Los Angeles native began releasing songs for Good Years (in the UK) and the revitalized Harvest (in the US) in a matter of months, including “Warm Water” (produced by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs) and “Fall Over.” As she was opening for the Weeknd on a North American tour in September, she released London, a four-track EP.
Goddess, Banks’ full-length debut, was released in September 2014 and debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200 list. It includes collaborations with producers Justin Parker and Shlohmo, as well as more work with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
In 2015, Harvest released a digital download of a vast array of remixes. The Altar, her highly awaited sophomore full-length, was released the following year, with the hits “Fuck with Myself,” “Gemini Feed,” and “Mind Games.” On the Billboard 200, the album reached number 17 for the first time. In 2017, a fourth single, “Underdog,” was released.
Banks made a comeback in early 2019 with Hudson Mohawke’s synth-heavy tune “Gimme.” That song appeared on her third studio album, III, which was released in July. Francis and the Lights contributed to “Look What You’re Doing to Me,” while producer Paul Epworth (Adele, Rihanna) worked on the beautiful “Hawaiian Mazes.”
Quotable Lyrics:
- This song’s lyrics have yet to be revealed. Please return once the music is available.
