With 5, Genesis’ Tony Banks shows his other side
Legend. Hero. Hall of Famer. Founder.
Those are just four of the adjectives that come up in a Google search of Tony Banks, and such praise comes as a surprise to the humble Brit.
“It sounds like I should be Googling myself,” he laughs. “I didn’t know I was described in that manner. I have no illusions about myself, I don’t think. Some people like what I do and that’s fantastic. As you go further and further back in time — and someone told me the other day that our first single was actually released 50 years ago — that’s a long time, so in the midst of time, we start to seem more interesting perhaps than we did at the time when we were actually doing it. I think there’s a few key Genesis songs from various eras we’ve done that I think do touch people and I’m very grateful for that. I think it’s fantastic.”
Call Banks the most unlikely rock star, and he would agree if he didn’t think he was in competition with Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, saying, “Every time I meet him, I think, ‘This guy does not look like a rock musician.’”
Yet Banks’ credentials are impeccable and he’s got a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to prove it. But there’s always been more to the 67-year-old than Genesis, with solo work a key part of his resume from the time the members of the band decided that it was a good thing to have that outlet.
“Basically, I feel that I’m a writer more than I’m anything else,” Banks said. “And with the Genesis music we did over the years, particularly when we had five of us, then four of us, then three of us in the group, there was a lot of material to try and fit on to every album, and we would do an album every one or two years and later on, longer than that. So there was always plenty of material I wanted to do, and I also wanted to be able to follow through with my ideas without having to kind of compromise with the other guys. I love doing that as well, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes you want to follow a thing all the way through, so I think with all of us in Genesis, we had this point in time in the late 70s when we thought, well, we can do both, give it a go. So Mike (Rutherford) and I did solo albums first of all and Phil (Collins) did a solo album which became rather more successful than either of ours. (Laughs) But once we started doing that, we realized we all enjoyed doing it, and yet we could come back together as Genesis and enjoy doing that. And that’s what we did.”
Last week, the latest salvo from Mr. Banks was released, with 5 representing his third foray into the world of classical music. If you only know Banks from his later Genesis work, this is a different path for sure, but it’s a good different if you give it a chance. Banks hopes listeners will give it a shot, but admits that may not be the case, especially for the instant gratification generation.
“It’s not gonna be everybody’s thing,” he said. “If you’re one of those people that sort of dips into things and you listen to a couple of seconds and say, ‘Well, I don’t like that,’ you’re not going to get anything out of this record. Unfortunately, it’s also a record that probably is better if you listen to it two or three times. So it’s not for everybody, but I think people who’ve liked what I’ve done in the past, particularly back in the early days when Genesis were doing quite elaborate stuff, this is for them, as much as anyone else, and it’s also, hopefully, for a different sort of audience who like the sound of an orchestra playing nice things.”
Banks is being humble again, as the tracks on 5 are complex, yet accessible, with the performances top notch throughout. And yes, the tracks won’t find their way to pop radio, but for those who like to put on a pair of headphones after a long day or go on a drive and take a complete piece of art in, Banks is your man.
“I’m a long winded person, I suppose,” he laughs. “Everyone tells me people’s attention span is getting shorter and shorter, but I think there are people out there like me who actually like things that are longer. I always like long books and I like things that give you a bit of time to unwind. There’s an awful lot of music out there at three or four minutes and a lot of it’s very nice, but it has one idea that it does close to death (Laughs) and then it’s over. Whereas I’m trying to go much further to try and see what else you can do. One idea leads to another, and you try and carry an audience with you through that. And I think there are still a lot of people who like that.”
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