美国国家公共电台 NPR BANKS On What Happens When You Give Your Fans Your Phone Number

BANKS On What Happens When You Give Your Fans Your Phone Number

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0004:21repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser 1 to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

Jillian Banks, better known simply as Banks, writes atmospheric 2, confessional songs that mix pop, electronic and R&B. She started making music as a teenager, using songs as a kind of diary where she could explore her heart and trace the emotional world around her.

JILLIAN BANKS: When I first discovered music, I was probably 14. And I was going through a lot - stuff with my family and learning how to view social situations and feeling kind of lonely.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GEMINI FEED")

BANKS: (Singing) Open up your eyes. There's nothing on my body left to see.

I had asked for a keyboard in the past or something. And I found it in my closet. And I just kind of started playing with the keys. And it fulfilled something in me that I had never really felt before. And it was where I was the most honest. It was where I felt the most hurt. It's like my therapy, almost.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GEMINI FEED")

BANKS: (Singing) If you would've let me grow, you could've kept my love.

As that was happening, college came. And I wanted to study psychology 3 because I'm interested in how relationships develop, how the brain develops, how people communicate. And it's funny 'cause a lot of people ask me if studying psychology has affected 4 my music at all.

And you would think that maybe it had to do with my music just because my music - it's pretty graphic 5, especially at describing different dynamics 6 and emotions and stuff. But I think that's just how I think. I don't think it's about studying psychology.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MIND GAMES")

BANKS: (Singing) I don't understand. You claim that I'm a handful when you show up all empty-handed. The way you say you love me like you've just been reprimanded. 'Cause I know you like mind games.

Initially 7, when my music was coming out, I didn't have a Facebook. I didn't have an Instagram. I didn't have a Twitter. It just doesn't seem natural to the type of human that I am. And so we kind of, like, thought of a way to connect to fans that felt more genuine and authentic 8 and natural for me.

And that was just putting my number up and, you know, having people text me if it's safe. You know, if you connect to my music, let me know.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MIND GAMES")

BANKS: People definitely text me really intimate things. And something that I am still learning and I've had to learn is, like, how to, like, put boundaries up when, you know, you're putting yourself out there so much and you're putting what matters most to you out.

It's like my diary entries. That's what my music is to me. And when you're putting that part of yourself out there for so many people to touch and judge and talk about and talk to you about, it, like - I needed to learn how to kind of protect myself.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TO THE HILT")

BANKS: (Singing) Hated you for leaving me. You were my muse 9 for so long. Now I'm drained creatively. I miss you on my team.

Sometimes when I write, it's like a voice that I need to hear myself. It's like I write from the perspective of the most nurturing 10, empowering, lifting-you-up-type voice. And that's what's so great about making music - is you could give that to yourself. And I feel like if I need that song, then maybe other people need that song 'cause I'm just, like, a human trying to live in this strange world.

And it's not like I try to write something so I could give it to other people. I write it for myself. And I think that me just being like other people - then maybe it's good for them, as well.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TO THE HILT")

BANKS: (Singing) We backed each other to the hilt.

SIMON: Thanks. Her album - "The Altar."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TO THE HILT")

BANKS: (Singing) Now I live in the house we built.