In this interview spotlight, I chat with Bannack about their latest project, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We all go to USC currently but we come from different places in the Midwest (Kansas, Montana and Chicago). That’s definitely the origin of our folk influence. We all grew up with parents who played folk and classic rock for us, so we owe a lot of our band to where we came from. We love adding banjo, fiddle, and harmonica to pop music…adds some delicious twang.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
We all come from musical families, but got to college and decided we wanted to make it a way bigger part of our lives. We’re studying different things but Bannack has become the biggest part of all of our spheres. Benny studies GeoDesign, Jamison Music Production and Anna Music Industry, so together we make a pretty good team in terms of keeping things running and promoting the band. Jamison produced our debut album, Compendium, completely on his own so his skills definitely came into play and continue to do so as a producer. We’re all genuinely best friends, which makes being in a band that much easier and fun. We just wanna make music that honors where we came from, while putting our own twist on it. To keep growing as musicians and curating our sound as a collective group.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Compendium is a full length album, and also our first release, which is a little unusual, but we wanted to collect our music and put it out in a way that was a solid representation of our originals. Compendium is a collection of the experiences, mistakes, trials and errors and misadventures in love that we have all felt thus far in life, hence the name. We wanted to make people feel something deeper than surface level, while also keeping it light and even funny at some points. Every track is super different, but we love them all the same.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
The process of writing, recording and releasing an album has given us so much more appreciation for other artists than we already had. Turns out, it’s really hard! It’s tough getting songs out of your body and out into the world, especially when you’re trying to do that with 13 of them at once. Submithub definitely proved both helpful and tough to swallow at times–we kept getting the comment that we were ‘too traditional.’ Honestly, this is what we think sets us apart in an oversaturated market; we all sing, we have a folky vibe and our sound alludes to more traditional music that we all heard growing up. But yeah, technology in terms of social media has been really helpful for promoting shows and connecting with other bands. (Btw hit us up if you ever wanna jump on a ticket together, we love meeting and playing with new bands)
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Follow us on instagram @bannackmusic ! That’s where we post updates and show announcements, as well as insights into projects we’re currently working on. We’re on Facebook, Spotify, Twitter and Apple Music as well.
Anything else before we sign off?
Stay tuned for new music soon;)
https://open.spotify.com/album/4zwZ95zAV7CvOGrAZKfCkS?si=IplLyasgRE20JsRQoaMmSQ
