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17th July 2018
05:18pm BST
Yannick started off wanting to be an illustrator like a friend of his but admits he wasn’t that good and then when he got into music his friend who drew wanted to do music. “But he couldn’t do it, which was good,” Yannick says. “Because it meant he could do all the illustrating for the music.”
His crowning glory came when he dropped a 76-track mixtape, which he produced and mixed himself, that compiled music from Guadeloupe’s biggest underground acts in 2004.
For Banx & Ranx it’s always been about doing something creative, whether together or individually. So whether it was illustrating or making music they knew they just had to create something, anything.
Fast forward to now and they’ve certainly achieved this. Having collaborated with the likes of Sean Paul, Lady Leshurr, Fuse ODG, Gorillaz, Stylo G, Jess Glynne and Kiko Bun, to name but a few, as well as putting out their own music, their creative juices have well and truly been flowing as of late.
So how would they describe this sound that everyone keeps coming to them for?
“It’s modern world music,” the pair say almost exactly at the same time - there’s that unity again. “We used to call it ECM, electronic Caribbean music but the box is too small,” Zach explains while the eyebrows on the duo’s PR who is present perk up as she’s never heard them call it modern world music before.”
“I’ll have to add this to the next press release we put out,” she says laughing.
https://youtu.be/l1EbL6yquhU
But like every musician there’s always a string of artists before them that ignited the passion for music deep within their being and also influenced their own creative process. For Banx & Ranx it was a series of different artists from varying backgrounds.
“Sean Paul definitely,” says Yannick. “I remember when we met him for the first time I told him that if it wasn’t for listening to his music I probably wouldn’t be sat here now.
A fan of some of the talent from his home island of Guadeloupe, he was also heavily influenced by Jamiroquai.
“Oh yeah, and you know you’re always influenced by whatever weird stuff your parents would play around the house? Well my parents always played Boney M., so they can be considered an influence.” Laughing his way through an incorrect lyrical rendition of “Sunny”, he explains he had no clue what the lyrics were growing up because his English only got better a few years ago.
Zach’s influences included Infected Mushroom. “My parents thought I was going mad when I was listening to that,” he says then adding:
“Bob Marley from day one, from super young. Actually when I was young I couldn’t differentiate between Bob and UB40." It's at this point I look at him funny and snigger, at which point he says, "Give me a break I was like 4-years-old.”
Also naming Daft Punk and a few others, it’s at this point that Zach brings up Michael Jackson. Of course the King of Pop has influenced everyone, and if you were to ask every artist on the planet if they were influenced by Michael Jackson I’d say at least 90% of them would answer yes, but for Zach MJ had healing powers and inspired a mini miracle - even if he won’t say it was a miracle.
https://youtu.be/f-3WDCyfio8
“When I was three or four I discovered Michael Jackson,” he begins. “I was very ill at the time and I couldn’t walk, I was in a wheelchair. So one time they put on Michael Jackson in the hospital room and I just got up and started dancing. I was going crazy.
“I’ve had a lot of darkness in my life but I graduated from the darkness and I now have two beautiful daughters who are my inspiration.”
Currently riding high off of the success of their latest single featuring Ella Eyre and Yxng Bane, “Answerphone” climbed up the UK singles chart peaking at number five and has gone on to be a summer 2018 anthem following its release earlier this year.
Prior to “Answerphone” the guys were content with making good music and doing what they loved to do with no eye on business really, it was just about having fun. Not looking for a record deal it was only a matter of time before a record deal found them.
https://youtu.be/ayzAJ9yjnX8
“We came in this game just as producer/writers,” explains Zach with Yannick adding: “We were doing the artist thing on the side just for fun. We were doing remixes and a few original songs and putting them on Soundcloud.
“We just enjoy being in the studio vibing with people and spending time getting to know them and getting to know different cultures.
“But how our deal came was through doing a session with Tinie Tempah, who is signed to Parlophone. We did a song “Sex 4 Breakfast”, which was originally meant to be for him but it ended up going to K Stewart, and at this time I think the track was being played in different offices in at the label and they were continually hearing the Banx & Ranx tag at the beginning of the track and they were like: ‘Who the fuck are they?’”
After that a couple of A&Rs came to see us, one in particular, Elias Christidis, we struck up a vibe with and we were like, ‘Okay, let’s do this’ and they came and partied with us in Montreal for 48 hours and the rest is history.”
"Answerphone" by Banx & Ranx Feat. Ella Eyre and Yxng Bane is out now.
