BANKS has crafted a niche in modern music with her darkly cinematic pop, emotive lyricism, and confessional delivery, now powerfully distilled in her most recent record, Off with Her Head. With a European tour on the horizon, she sits down with writer and actor Cazzie David, whose sharp humor and unflinching self-awareness make her an ideal conversational foil. Together, the two explore vulnerability, creativity, and the unexpected lightness that comes with growth.

Cazzie David: The last time we talked, I was asking you about your latest album release, which would have been Serpentina.

BANKS: The weirdest thing is that you’re always so excited leading up to it, but nothing can live up to how much work and time and heart you put into something. And I don’t want to say the word stress, but just thinking and feeling so deeply about something, and then it just goes out into the ether, and it’s such a strange feeling.

Cazzie David: I want to hear more about how you feel when your work is criticized, how you respond to that, and how you make yourself feel better based on what people misunderstand or what people take away.

BANKS: The thing about the internet is that everyone feels big when you don't see them. When you see a screen name or a handle, people start reviewing or criticizing. I feel like it's natural for any human to insert into their mind whatever person would affect them, or whatever type of energy would affect them, whether that's someone who bullied you, or someone who you felt excluded by, or somebody, or just anything, that would trigger you in any way.

What helps me is actually seeing the person who's saying it, because you realize that even if it’s a big outlet like Rolling Stone, it’s written by one person. And then if you look at that one person, it's not this all-consuming force of bigness, it's just a person.

Cazzie David: I hear you’re getting married this upcoming weekend, and I'd love to know what kind of bride you’ve been.

BANKS: I think I'm the chillest bride that ever was.

Cazzie David: You're as chill of a bride as you are being interviewed. For anyone wondering she is currently naked in a bed.

BANKS: That is exactly how I am as a bride, just naked in bed. I never really connected to that whole bridezilla, or freaking out about the dress, or the people who are, like, “The flowers need to go there,” and like, “The swan needs to open its wings the second I walk by this like statue.” I never connected to that because, I mean, obviously it sounds so cliché, but it really is just about you and the person you're marrying.

Cazzie David: As a pop star, I’d have thought you are capable of that kind of attention, but maybe it's because you get it in so many other places.

BANKS: I do. I’ve thought about it and I don't really need the eyes on me. I think that could be part of it too. I've thought about that because every show that I have feels almost like it's my own wedding.

Cazzie David: would you say your new music reflects this new adult stage for you?

BANKS: Yeah, completely, and I feel like my life has changed. I moved. You know that's the exact example of my life changing. I grew up in LA and I've lived there my whole life. When I would tour, I would have LA to be my home base. Even changing that has been really interesting. And I think being with somebody who's not in the music business, not in the industry, has been really refreshing. It’s been like, I don't know, getting a little older, like when you suffer from, certain anxieties for so long and you get a breath from those. Not to make this whole interview about anxiety, but it just tends to happen when you speak with me.

I think that there's a lot more joy and lightness in my life now than there ever has been.

Cazzie David: Do you think that's kind of changed your creative process?

BANKS: I have been scared. I think I've been a little bit scared in my life to just be happy and healthy, because I'm like, “Oh no, am I gonna make music still?”

But you do. Some songs are so joyful and so meaningful and human, just as deep. But I think when you're younger, it's so much easier to be inspired by pain and write about pain.

For me, art was a necessity. It never came out of like, “Oh, this is going to be something fun I can do.” No, I only made art my whole life when I needed to make art. It's like therapy.

Cazzie David: Do you still ever get anxious that you've written about someone and they're gonna listen and know it was them?

BANKS: Obviously I’m still vulnerable because 100% it's all from my life. Even with someone asking what a song's about in an interview, I feel like I need to find ways to respond that are honest, but also not honest enough for the person to be hurt. So then you end up talking in the most annoying vague way. That can sometimes leave the journalist unsatisfied and asking for a repeat interview.

It’s weird having to dissect your own life when really writing about it is how you get through it, then having to dissect the words you used to write about it.

Cazzie Davis: When you listen to your old work, do you really feel like you've evolved as as an artist in any way?

BANKS: Oh my God, so much. I mean, yes and no. I actually don't know the answer to that question.

Okay, well, I think yes, I'm so much more confident now as an artist, and I also produce now, which I didn't before, and so that has given me the luxury of being able to complete the work.

Before, I would write the song on a piano, and then I would go into a studio with another producer, and have to bring that song to life and kind of executive produce. I’d have to say what kind of sound I wanted, but not knowing how to make it or what instrument it would be.

Now, knowing how to produce, I can literally just do everything and even if you end up wanting to collaborate with someone else, you can get it to a place where it has its own life. When you really see the vision, then you can bring someone else in, you know what I mean?

I think if you evolve as a person, your art evolves.

Cazzie David: The main thing across all your music is, first of all, it's super-visual and cinematic. And I don't know how you do that.

BANKS: Thank you.

Cazzie David: The other thing is that it's so sexy. Is that a conscious thing? And do people tell you that all the time?

BANKS: Yeah, they do. Adam Lambert once told me that he had sex all the time to my music.

Cazzie David: It makes sense that people would have.

BANKS: Yeah, people say that to me all the time. But I just liked that Adam Lambert said that to me, and maybe that should be on the back of the album. But I do remember my ex-boyfriend told me that when he was dating me his friends would always be like, “Is she a freak?” I think it's because my music is creepy, sexy. Like, she might do something weird, “Off with her head” type of thing.

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ON NEWSSTANDS NOVEMBER 9, 2025
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