A Little Sit Down: Alex Banin

A chance to meet a rising star, and she's cool as hell!

Welcome to Max’s Music Mondays. A nice bonus newsletter this week, an interview/profile of the incredible, Alex Banin. MMM is a reader supported, music discovery newsletter. If you enjoy this profile, please subscribe! Even a free subscription goes such a long way for the newsletter and for the musicians I write about. <3

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When we met for coffee a few weeks back, I told Alex Banin the same thing. I’ve put off interviews for a long time. Blame it on my social anxiety, my perfectionist streak, my refusal to do something that every one else is doing. I’ve always wanted to. To get to know the people that make the music I love. I feel lucky that I even have the chance, so I took the leap.

Leapt to the finish line before I knew where that was. I’m grateful Banin met me there. I’m really excited for her new project, Since Winona, which just dropped yesterday. Why not give it a listen while you read on?

I’ve written about her music many times before - her single, Doc Whiler, is still such a favorite. Since then dropping FIFTEEN HUNDRED JACKSON and the most recent, …(CONT’D). All three songs a part of the upcoming release, the first project that really breathes this new sound of Banin’s.

When I found Doc Whiler, it was all-consuming. To me, it was “the biggest song in the world right now” is what I told Alex, that’s really what it felt like. All over my tiktok, and all over my playlists.

“When I showed people, especially industry people out here, no one liked it” Banin recalled. “Everyone liked [the]… pop & R&B stuff that I now pitch to other people. And then Doc Whiler, which is the only song I loved out of all of that...” Knowing that the other demos were good too, but didn’t hold the same weight emotionally as Doc Whiler did.

It sounds like, more than anything, people just didn’t understand it. Which to me, is maybe the most exciting thing you can say about music. “Once I started contextualizing it in this space of Bon Iver and Dijon, even though it’s not exactly like that, it found its audience better”.

And thank god it did. Because that is my sweet spot. I agreed, it is hard to define which, in The Industry, makes it hard for folks to latch on to. People like things they can understand, otherwise they don’t know what to do with it. But what would you call Banin’s genre? She has a history of these R&B songs, pop songs, influences from everywhere, but this new music feels uniquely her’s.

Since Winona opens with the aforementioned FIFTEEN HUNDRED JACKSON. And to be somebody’s someone / to feel like I was something, for once. Fuck that is such a perfect opening lyric. But sound wise, we hear acoustic guitars, percussion from some bongos and drums and claps lighting the path, sparkling synths, a bass that steps in moments later. Her sound is, sure, ~indie r&b~ but it’s so much more than that. Weaving these instruments and these sounds together in ever-evolving ways. Take the second track, IN FEAR, ETC. which opens with big sampled drums over expansive keys, it feels like ripe territory for someone like Banin’s 2021 collaborator, Saba. But instead, the song blossoms into a dreamy scene. Gentle nylon string guitar, along side a bouncy bass and plucked strings. A complete new vision for the sound, when the drums return they sound like they were meant for this moment, but I’ve never heard it before now.

It makes sense that when we start talking about these genre labels, Banin turns to the spotify playlists that have started to shift these conversations for listeners. “I just got added to Fresh Finds Indie. My genre is indie now. I still do say R&B adjacent, alternative R&B, alternative pop, that whole space”. Joking that really, “it’s like the pollen or lorem playlist… Like Pollen is my genre”

Which again, I adore. It’s how I think of music too, these ever shifting lists. Whether Pollen or Lorem or even Max’s Music Mondays. I know the sound of it in a way that I can never quite articulate meaningfully.

Banin moved out to LA a few years ago now, working with a publisher that encouraged the move. But it’s here that she’s surprised herself, building a community of similarly unique and inspiring artists. “All my friends, Tommy Richman, Trevor Spitta, Alé Araya, REHMA, Sara Kawai, Amaria McGee… Everyone’s doing fun things. greek, Oranje Space, he’s sick.” Big love for Oranje Space always, but damn what a list of peers. A list full of artists redefining “genre” and creating their own distinct sounds. What do you call any of their genres? Good luck feeling sure about a clean fit. So of course, surrounded by people pushing the same boundaries, Banin has found something singular, and the confidence to lean into it.

But to reach such a specific and authentic sound takes time and takes trusted collaborators. This project the start of building that sonic world. “ I feel like it's the only way. It's the only way I want to do music. I want make music with my friends and that's always been the fun part to me.” It was fun to learn that Doc Whiler came so early in the process, a year before they made anything else. Banin noting that they tried not to recreate it, “not to overdo things that were uniquely the Doc Whiler universe” but instead to expand that sound.

“That was the starting point… And then I have this whole project that’s now like ‘what does this world look like?’” Which is something she’s only continued to develop. Sonically, of course, the EP is so beautiful and really does feel like a cohesive work, in a way most EPs don’t. Employing these same “sonic tools”, sounds, styles, her vocals and storytelling at the center of it all. Tying it all seamlessly. Visually too, the art, the videos, all of it building towards something larger, sum greater than its parts. Different scenes of the same movie. It’s a stunning collection of songs and visuals.

And beyond the traditional elements, she’s also created a digital archive of the project here.

PLEASE CLICK THIS LINK AND PLAY AROUND!!!

Continuing to build the world digitally, opening windows into the process in ways fans will devour. This site is everything I dream of. In this vintage Windows 95 style, she’s collected some ingenious artifacts. There are files for each song, lyrics, old demos, pictures, and more.

“I found an old audio of me and Vlush making one of the songs, and you can hear when it starts to become the song. It’s just me muttering over and over and trying to figure out the words and you can hear when those words start to form… It’s like a 40 minute audio file”

14 year old Max, digging through every single youtube clip and interview of his favs would’ve EATEN this up. Who am I kidding, today me is eating it up all the same. I’ll be spending all afternoon clicking around. It’s all the mystery and the lore available for anyone to uncover.

There’s a ‘AGGY Chat’ section, which - besides making me miss AIM so much - has chats between her and all of her collaborators. Full of genuine conversations and memories between them all. It’s so juicy, really you gotta get in there.

As listeners and fans there’s so much to savor with the music, but really with any release, we’re seeing the final step in a long, meaningful, special creative process. So to get a chance to feel like we’re there, to witness some of this process, it’s incredible.

When we first sat down to start this conversation, Banin mentioned that she doesn’t really do interviews (ok I am so flattered!!). We agreed, they can be hard, especially when you see an answer get regurgitated elsewhere for years. But in my mind, it’s a time capsule, it’s the same way I feel about tattoos. I look at my first tattoo and think about how much it meant to me when I got it, and now I see it and think ‘aww little max, what a sweetie’. This conversation hopefully can be the same for both of us one day. But this site, I think, creates this same effect masterfully. Such rich and deep context to the music we’re hearing, a chance to connect that much more. A chance to remember how special it’s creation was, how much it meant to everyone involved.

It could be her fans today, wanting to know the lore. It could be fans that discover her in ten, twenty years. It could be people who find a collaborator’s next work, following this digital trail back, to fall in love with this project too. But above all else, it’s an effort to capture this moment, this process, which feels like it’s been especially important for Banin.

If you read this newsletter, you will not be surprised to hear me saying this with my whole heart. But, here I go. In a culture that is so fleeting, so surface level, it’s just amazing to get to sit and dig and dive deep into a world like this.

But even just after a coffee together, I can say it seems natural for Banin. She’s incredibly thoughtful and introspective. A lot of this project stemming from a breakup, now able to feel and share and articulate from that time.

on FKA PASSAT she crushes me with the vulnerable finale, I used to want you / sometimes I still do. It’s a project full of moments like this. Clear, honest, heartbreak. To share just the end result feels like an empty conclusion for such hard earned wisdom. So of course, we’ve gotten a digital space like this. To really, fully understand the importance of the songs we love.

As Banin put it, she’s more of a show don’t tell type of artist, offering up all the pieces and letting us sift through them however we like. Didn’t surprise me to hear, it creates time and space for reflection. As we kept talking, we covered other hobbies beyond this project that have been a part of her time in LA. Climbing, hiking, cooking, all things that can be shared communally but really are deep, individual experiences. Chances to focus, to breathe, to grow and push ourselves.

That’s kind of been the Banin experience - living in London, Chicago, NY, LA. Evolving musically and personally. She’s someone who is ever changing, moving closer and closer to the fullest version of herself. And the music feels like an encapsulation of all of that too.

We finished our coffees and headed our separate ways. Banin off to keep working on the archive. Me back home, eager to listen to this EP again. I hope you’ll give it a spin soon. If you like the stuff I often write about - the Oranje Space’s, the Seylu’s, you’re gonna love it.

Since Winona dropped on May 23rd, follow Alex Banin here for more.