Quotes from Banks

I like Australia, but every time I'm there, I feel like everybody's being sarcastic because everyone's so nice.

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 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.

Growing up, I listened to a lot of everything - I fell in love with music, when I discovered people like Lauryn Hill and Tracy Chapman, people whose voices I could really feel, people with a lot of soul. That's what I'm drawn to as a musician: Anybody that has their own voice and their own point of view.

Sometimes I see through things when people are talking. I'm really sensitive to other people, so I can tell if somebody's putting on a front.

On tour, there's dry shampoo - I use the one by Bed Head.

I'm very passionate, very emotional, very sensitive. I've always been like that.

James Blake, Jai Paul, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Sohn, Kwabs, Sampha, Lil Silva, and Brandy, always. They all have soul. Deep soul.

Making music is an emotional thing. And when you're on a video shoot with 50 people there, you have to somehow, in a non-emotional way, say what you want and not feel guilty for it. And that takes growing up and that takes... not caring how people perceive you as much. And it just takes experience, I think.

Human emotion is more interesting than anything. Everything that is so overtly sexual is not real. Real emotion is sexy. It's vulnerable and raw.

My music is 100-percent me, so it's just who I developed into as a woman. I feel really grateful that I waited until I did because I feel like I really found who I was by doing that.

Fashion is a huge part of music and of who you are. It really sets the mood for a show, and it's fun to play around with it. You can get really creative in photo shoots as well. You know, just having fun with it.

There are definitely a lot of creative people I want to work with. I wanna work with Drake!

When I do things that don't feel pure or make any moves that I don't feel like represent me or who I am, it makes me feel like I wanna throw up. So I just do me, and I guess people just take that how they do.

I don't think of anyone as a 'groupie.' People who connect with my music are just inspiring and amazing.

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.

A lot of times, people are ashamed of feeling weak and being rejected - so it's liberating to be able to sing about those things. And it's amazing when other people don't feel alone because they hear it.

Nothing I do is thought out or planned or premeditated. It's just that I'm breathing and living! You just have to breathe and live.

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.

It feels really good that people are connecting to my music so much.

I used to swallow people's energies, and then I learned, as I got older, that I'm too sensitive, and I had to stop doing that. Now I don't take as much in.

It's that beautiful thing to love your weaknesses, your insecurities, and then put them all on blast. That's why I started writing, and that's why it was so hard to do it in public.

I like wearing oils. Perfume makes me nauseous sometimes. It's too strong.