Banks Arcade To Raise The Game In 2024

‘I’ve always been staunch on the idea that if anyone ever tells me about the art I’m making and the outcome it will receive is just to tell people to fuck off cause we know, when it comes to expressing yourself as an artist, you know what you need to do. All these people, big name people who say ‘do this and more people will like this’ I don’t give a fuck!‘

Joshua O’Donnell of Banks Arcade vehemently stands his ground on his creative output. A man who proclaims ‘find the thing that you love, and do the fuck out of it’ lives and breathes that mantra.

‘At the end of the day you have to make the stuff you like and you can’t because someone is influencing it – and I’m not saying they are wrong – but you gotta stick to your guns. You’ve gotta go with your gut, trust yourself and if it becomes successful and we all become millionaires that would be amazing but it’s more about giving it our best shot about genuinely expressing ourselves.’

Since the last time we spoke – at the release of debut album Future Lovers – the band has taken in multiple national tours around Australia, Unify, America with the Plot In You and most recently arenas back in New Zealand with Highly Suspect. Do the fuck out of it indeed. Next up is a a new EP Death 2 and a national tour with Northlane. The band have raised the game since last here.

‘It’s crazy to think of pre America Banks Arcade as a solidified thing because once we did that was when we went holy shit! That was a massive step up and we’ve gone from here to here where we were playing no shows for six months just grinding and grinding, then build the new version and change everything. Then we did these big shows with Highly Suspect and I think you’ll see that step up again.’

Touring life is always a challenging lifestyle and one of the changes is new guitarist Benny Canham

‘It’s been really good, I think it’s definitely one of those things that when we’re on the road we feel very comfortable, it’s the dealing with the getting back home and in between period that is rough!

There’s been change that we have a different member, different guitarist in Benny and that’s been amazing. He’s incredible and added a whole new dynamic to the band that is really exciting. We’ve had a period to write and it’s definitely been hectic but it’s been enjoyable which is what we wanna do.’

The new EP Death 2 sees a more streamlined and aggressive Banks Arcade, one facet of the bands multiple layered personality being let loose for a longer duration.

‘’Death 2’, it is heavy but it’s more dark and chaotic. It’s not Thy Art Is Murder or anything like that. It is emotions that come through the songs that are real. It was very chaotic and a lot of it is singing about real experiences – literally and metaphorically – negative cycles of thinking, irrational cycles of thinking that can occur when in those states and exploring the darker parts of the mind. I think a lot of times with this art it is an outlet, it is a commentary that people shouldn’t consume all the time cause I am aware you not always adding positivity to it. Take a song like ‘Roulette’ and if you break it down it’s got some pretty fucked up shit on there!‘

With Future Lovers, the band recorded all tracks and videos within ten days, this EP was different and teases something bigger.

‘Some of these songs were written prior to ‘Future Lovers’, the newest one out ‘More Want’, I wrote that song before ‘Future Lovers’ was finished. We went through so many iterations, we recorded everything and then we weren’t happy with how it came together so we went back in and went some through some really tedious processes to get it to land. So it wasn’t necessarily the most enjoyable process. I enjoyed writing the songs at inception but the process is very difficult. But I’m very happy with the result we have, we’ve tried to do some stuff that is different and we’ve ended in a good place.

This EP is the first in a series of projects that people will hear over the next little bit and people will see when more comes into the open. All I can say is that we are leaning into the specific aspects of the band 100%. While ‘Future Lovers’ was combined more together and a mish mash of ourselves, these are more solidified corners of the band. You’ll see the different aspects of the band across the next series of releases that we have. I find it exciting to explore one specific side of the band and lean into it and this is definitely the more chaotic side of the band.’

Before the Northlane tour there is some unique activity too if you’re around the Melbourne area.

‘We’ve got a pop up show in Melbourne on January 19, with a listening party and exclusive merch. People have the chance to listen to deconstructed versions of the songs. We will also do a live performance. We’ve some more announcements I can’t talk about yet, post Northlane’

Interview By Iain McCallum

Death 2 is out on Friday 2 February 2024 via UNFD. Pre-order HERE…

Banks Arcade Listening Party…

On tour with Northlane on the following dates…