Born in London and raised in Manhattan, Alex Banin has adopted a Chicago sound through the curation of her surroundings.
From her beginnings in various dorm rooms at Northwestern University to a rented studio space in London where she taught herself to produce, Banin has spent the last two years honing her craft, fashioning a sound she describes as “pop-ish, RnB-ish, [and] indie-ish”. It wasn’t until a year and a half ago that the self-taught artist set about pursuing music seriously.
Despite this, Banin has remained diligent, releasing four singles, picking up a feature on Kota The Friend’s latest album ‘EVERYTHING’, and winning ‘The Co-sign Live with Jacques Morel’ on Rapgenius. Her hustle is embodied by the fact that she balanced the launch of her career with being a Big Ten athlete and working two jobs.
On November 30th, Alex Banin dropped ‘Hawthorne’, a lustrous mix-ish of pop & RnB that flaunts the singer’s honeyed vocals. Produced by Minneapolis-based Vlush, the sound is glossy and upbeat, providing a disparate backdrop to the vulnerability exhibited by Banin in her lyrics. Art, fashion, and fencing coalesce to carve out the visual, directed by Michael del Rosario, accompanying the single.
I got the chance to have a conversation with her regarding this latest project, her artistic journey, productivity in a pandemic, and fencing amongst other things. Stream Hawthorne on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you get your tunes. Check out the visual here.
Last time we talked, you mentioned how you’re a recent graduate of Northwestern. How has everything been for you this past year with graduating into a pandemic and also trying to navigate this new music industry that it’s created?
Right when I was graduating, it was definitely stressfuI. I was waitressing and coaching and was planning on doing that while making music since they’re all pretty flexible but that fell through. I didn’t know what to do but had two months left on my lease. Grateful for that because it gave me time to find a job to stay in Chicago and find another place.
It was tough because I couldn’t get a lease because I couldn’t get a job but I couldn’t get a job because there was a pandemic. Everything worked out which I’m thankful for. I’m lucky because I could have moved back home but I also could not imagine living [in New York] right now. I just didn’t want to be there and also in an apartment with my entire family for who knows how long. Once I found a place and a job and started to do virtual studio sessions, it felt good. It feels good to settle.
What kind of coping mechanisms have you adopted over these past few months to stay calm and productive?
I’ve changed what productive means to me, I think. It used to be making a song in a studio or writing this many songs a day or going to ‘x’ events and meeting whoever.
Now is a really good time for me to figure out, do I love music as much as I think?
I’ve never had this much time to do music, ever. It’s showing me that I can do way more than I thought I could. Productive is doing one thing a day or when I’m hitting writer’s block, just to keep going. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of stuff online which I never used to do. I used to be really against it before it was a mainstream thing. I would only work with people in Chicago because I love the energy of being in a room. I’m proud that I’m open to that now and can make music over FaceTime.
What kind of obstacles are there when you do something virtually instead of in-person at a studio?
First, it’s only two people which isn’t even my ideal set-up in a studio. I haven’t worked with too many writers but I would love to have a writer in the session with me. I love to have instrumentalists in there and also just people who I like and whose feedback I trust. I’m working on being a lot more decisive about things. I’ll throw out a ton of melodies and I don't necessarily know which ones I like or how to put it together.
It’s just a lot when there’s just two people. You don’t read energies the same way. There’s no excitement that’s building in a setting. It’s physically a little difficult because I have to send files over email and they have to put it in Logic and … it just takes more time and energy. It’s different.
Not a good ‘different’?
No, but it’s manageable. The fact that I’ve adapted to it is cool because it was something I’d always hated. I know people who exclusively work online but I don’t like that.
Is there any music or specific songs that you’ve been listening to these past few months that bring you comfort?
So much Frank Ocean. I feel like I always go back to him. He was one of the first artists I was obsessed with. Recently I got into Rex Orange County, I know I’m really late on that but really into him. Dominic Fike, I’ve been listening to. I feel like a lot of people haven’t been dropping full albums. I haven’t really had an urge to go out and find new stuff. If it’s new stuff, it’s more people I already like putting out new stuff.
When you were at school, you were a business major. At what point did you decide that you didn’t want to pursue that and wanted to follow a path towards music instead?
I actually came to school for history because I really liked it, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it. As I took more classes I realized there was something about it that I didn’t really love. At the end of sophomore year, I had to choose a major and at the time, I was an athlete so I just picked one that fit with my schedule.
I eventually quit fencing January [of my senior year] and everyone was telling me “you could have just rode it out for two more months and graduated with everything and all the benefits” but I was so glad I did because two months later we were in a pandemic.
Those two months that I didn’t spend fencing, I was just working and grinding towards music and I’m so grateful I did that — it felt right. I found music at the end of my sophomore year but it was nothing serious, I was just messing around with it. It was kind of a whole process that I ended up here.
Do you recall any specific events leading up to that moment?
Not really, sophomore year was literally when I started making music with people. I was not serious about it. I’d always written in my room alone, like I picked up guitar when I was little. Whenever I had a bad fencing time, I’d always go to music.
I sprained my ankle when I was getting recruited for college and that’s when I picked up my guitar. These aren’t things that I think I recognized, looking back on it, I’d only do it when I had free time. I would do something like that to pass time while I was rehabbing. End of sophomore year, the [fencing] season dipped so I had a little bit of time to link up with some kids on campus who made music. I started by just fucking around in dorm rooms and bouncing around to little dorm studios and making stuff. It was really, really, really fun.
That summer, I was really bummed because everyone was going to NY or staying in Chicago and I wasn’t going to make music because I didn’t know how to make it on my own. My dad was living in London at the time so I went there and studied and worked.
One night, I ended up at this studio in London because I met this person while I was clubbing and he looked pretty interesting so we started talking and he was like “you should go to this studio”. He hooked me up with this studio and I ended up going there every single day after work. I didn’t talk to anyone at all, I was really scared.
Did you learn a lot through silent observation?
I rented out a room for insanely cheap through this youth program for the arts. I would just use one of the rooms, take out my laptop, put on my headphones, and teach myself how to produce. I’m still bad at producing but that gave me the time to just sit in a room for hours and explore it for myself in a way that I hadn’t done before. Going back I would totally do it differently but still glad I did that.
So you’re from New York, what borough?
Manhattan.
New York is a multicultural place, your dad is from Yemen so you come from a multicultural household, and you had a stint in London. Do you think this diverse exposure in your upbringing has translated into your sound?
Probably. My dad’s dad was born in Yemen, my dad was born in Israel. My family is kind of from all over the place. We moved around a lot and I’ve never really been in the same apartment for a long time. I was born in London, lived there until I was seven, moved to New York, grew up there for my formative years, and then came to Chicago for school. It gives me an attitude that I’ll be able to adapt anywhere and be really comfortable where I am more than anything.
Do you think you have a flexible sound, if you were asked to experiment with different genres?
I’ve definitely tried a lot of different genres out, I try not to box myself in a lot. I’m more comfortable with doing whatever and going with the flow. I’m open to doing a lot. I don’t even know what kind of music I make, honestly. My genre is pop-ish, RnB-ish, indie-ish. Everyone now is very flexible I think.
Whenever I talk to artists or people wanting to go into the industry, the majority of them always want to be in NY or LA. You actually have a hometown advantage, why Chicago?
I grew up in New York and it will always be my home but I didn’t do music until I came to Chicago. Creatively, my network and everything I know about music is here. I definitely feel like I’m more of a Chicago artist than a New York artist. All my influences and everyone I work with are here. Now, as my network gets bigger in general, it is expanding to LA and NY just because that’s where the industry takes you but in terms of creating, I’m based in Chicago.
Also, I would want to get my own place and I could not afford NY or LA nor would I want to hustle in a pandemic to afford rent. Living there is not worth exerting that much energy. I would have no time to do music. Chicago is a good place to be right now. I definitely want to do music seriously so I feel like I have to give myself enough time to do that. Somehow I was doing it before the pandemic with school and two jobs. Now it’s more calm, which I appreciate.
What’s your usual process for creating music?
It’s changed a lot in the past year. I never really had a set process because I didn’t really start taking this seriously until last year and then the last eight months, we’ve been in a pandemic. I’ve never had a normal routine.
I used to hate writing on my phone but now I like it because whenever I have an idea I can just type it out and then search for it later, keeping it a little more organized. I’ll type out lyrics that I think of throughout the day and record melodies that come to my head. My phone has been a key tool for me.
I like the sessions where I go in and have no expectations and we’re just going in and making stuff. It’s usually a producer or an instrumentalist who just starts making something and I start writing and we feed off that energy and build a song together.
Can you tell me more about this single and visual you’re dropping on November 30th?
I’m so excited. I’ve wanted to do this visual for forever. It’s my sister, who also fences, and I fencing for half of it. I think fencing is a really beautiful sport and it’s easy to intersect it with fashion and art. There are a lot of people who are able to make it look really cool in an artistic way. I’m excited to show that and I’m also excited my sister’s in it. My friend, Michael del Rosario, shot and directed it and he’s very talented.
The song was a video that I put up on Instagram in March, literally before I even set up my home studio or anything. For a while, I just had my guitar so I’d just make voice memos and put them on Instagram. I got a lot of good feedback and it’s one of my favorite songs that I wrote on guitar.
I went to Minneapolis to get it produced by Vlush a few months ago and then we waited to put it out with the visual so I’m excited for it to finally come out. It’s a good song, it’s a good video.
The song is called ‘Hawthorne’. It was the name of the session file.
How did you and your sister get into fencing? That’s not something you hear a lot.
Yeah, it’s weird here. In New York, it’s way more common. When I was younger, I did it once a week and I ended up really liking it. I started competing and I started winning and got to college with it. My sister saw me do it and wanted to do it.
How long have you been sitting on the song for?
The song I made in March even though it wasn’t produced out. I just feel like this song is old feelings, I’m done, I don’t really care, it feels irrelevant to me now. We produced it out in August. It was mixed and mastered a month or two ago.
Does the song have any significance to you?
Just a relationship that I recently got out of and just reflecting on how that went. I’m really bad at processing emotions so a lot of times, they come out in my music and it’s like “oh, there it is”.
On your instagram story the other day, there was a silver, bedazzled fencing mask. What was that?
I wanted to stylize every aspect of fencing so I had this idea. I showed it to someone and they were like ‘Oh it looks like the Yeezy mask’ and I was like “Fuck… you’re right it does”. I wanted it to look less like a bulky fencing mask. I ordered them off Amazon and spent two days, literally pulled two all-nighters before we shot, making these masks.
Did you bedazzle that?
No, it was weird. So, I couldn’t use a mannequin because the head was too small so I literally lined my face with mesh and hot-glued these studs on.
Did you get any hot-glue burns?
Yes. I would do anything though for this. I have been relatively quiet about this despite it being done for a long time and I’m really proud of myself because I hate not sharing music. Proud for being quiet about it but once we get to a week out I’m done, I’m telling the world.
If you could collaborate with any upcoming artists from Chicago right now, who would it be?
Oh, that’s a really good question. I’m not sure if he counts as up and coming but Femdot, I really like him.
I love Serena Isioma. I worked on her music video a little bit. I love her songs.
There’s a ton of Chicago talent. I feel like I’ve actually worked with a lot of Chicago people though.
That’s why you have that Chicago sound.
I really feel like I do, I don’t know, people can fight me on it. Definitely everything I know and do is from Chicago in terms of music. I appreciate that people accept it or at least, don’t tell me if they don't, which is fine, it’s fair I’ve only been here for four years.
Listen to Alex Banin's Quarantine Playlist:
Listen to 'Hawthorne':
'Hawthorne' Music Video:
what a beautiful piece of writing