Episode # 50 - Getting to Know Los Angeles Based Singer/Songwriter Darrin Banks

<p>Join my conversation with Darrin Banks. Like many contemporary R&B artist, he started singing in his church choir at the age of 7. It was there he realized the overwhelming power of music and its capacity to emotionally affect the audience and performer alike. Banks continued singing throughout grade school and began taking private singing and piano lessons to hone his craft. During those formative years, he was fortunate to work professionally (acting, singing and dancing) in musicals and concerts at the Raleigh Memorial Theater (regional) and in various cabarets in the southeast as a soloist. He was selected for the State (4 times), Regional (4 times) and National (1 time) Honors Choruses of North Carolina.</p> <p>Singing choral music helped Banks fall in love with vocal harmonizing—a technique he prominently features in his current music, which allows him to simulate a multi-part choir across a wide octave-range with his own voice. Banks holds degrees from North Carolina School of the Arts, Marymount Manhattan College (BA) and recently completed the Independent Artists program at The Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA. With a strong appreciation for jazz, funk and classic R&B, his music sits most comfortably in the contemporary R&B and electro-soul genres. Drawing inspiration from a wide spectrum of musical genres that include rock and folk, Banks’ music colors outside the lines of genre-boxes and pushing the boundaries of conventionality. Poetry that came out of the Harlem Renaissance written by Langston Hughes and the literary works of James Baldwin have greatly influenced Banks’ exploration of sexuality and cultural identity politics found in his music. A lover of contemporary dance, he credits studying it as being an invaluable teacher for understanding phraseology and movement in music. He names Erykah Badu and Joni Mitchell as his two biggest musical influences and ultimately approaches making music as a storyteller. Banks is due to release an EP in late 2021. Thematically, this new work will explo