For the second time in their career, the duo Banx & Ranx will be featured at the ÎleSoniq festival, having instead chosen to make their bed in the shadow of the studios and pop stars for whom they intend their songs and rhythms. . La Zarra, Dua Lipa (Kiss and Make Upduet with the K-pop group Blackpink), Alessia Cara, Shenseea and Sean Paul, to name a few, all have enjoyed success thanks to the talent of Montrealers.
On Scorchathe most recent album by Sean Paul — also in concert at ÎleSoniq on Saturday —, released a few months ago, is the song How We Do It, one of the six to which the Montreal duo put their signature. In the intro, the Jamaican announces “ Yeah Banx and Ranx! as he is used to doing on each song he records with his collaborators Zacharie “Soké” Raymond and Yannick “KNY Factory” Rastogi.
” Which is cool, is that at the very beginning of our project, our agent asked us which artist we would like to work with, says Zacharie Raymond. Our first choice was Sean Paul, a nostalgic choice, the sound of our adolescence. And even today he is more active than ever, it is inspiring to see him working. »
Yannick Rastogi not only highlights his presence on commercial radio waves in several European and South American countries today, “but he keeps active, if he’s not in the studio, he’s on tour, and he likes to work with the youngest, after thirty years of career”.
These days, Banx & Ranx is more talked about thanks to the success of the song Flowers Need Rain, a pop song, almost house, sung by Torontonian Preston Pablo. “Our model, confides Rastogi, and for a very long time has been Max Martin”, an influential Swedish composer and director, collaborator of the biggest stars, from Adele to The Weeknd, via Taylor Swift, Lizzo, Ariana Grande and P!nk.
We’ve done a lot of pop in the last few years, so we want to reorient ourselves. Do side projects without thinking too much, instinctive.
“We have analyzed his way of working music a lot”, and it is producing results: at the top of the charts in English Canada, Flowers Need Rain barely beginning to break through on American radio, and God knows where that will lead the duo, who, for the past ten years, have been accumulating prestigious collaborations without denying their reggae, rap and dancehall origins.
Since the group’s first participation in the festival four years ago, its danceable electronic pop flavor with Caribbean influences has continued to gain followers.
“These days, we’re releasing more radio and pop-oriented singles, but here – and reggae and dancehall fans will like it – we’re launching a song at the beginning of September with the voices of Demarco and Konshens”, two veterans of the Jamaican dancehall scene, reveals Rastogi. “We have done a lot of pop in recent years, so we want to reorient ourselves. Do side projects without thinking too much, instinctively”, a creative freedom made possible by the recent signing with the Montreal office of the multinational Universal. “We have reached a decisive point in our career”, specifies his colleague Soké, adding that he is toying with the project of launching a first real album in early 2023.
At ÎleSoniq, “we prepare a dj set tailored for the event audience, more focused on electronic, festival music,” stuffed with remixes, unique edits, with a helping hand from collaborators, says Soké. Preston Pablo will be there, Karma Atchykah will officiate as master of ceremonies, two dancers will add character. “We want to take people on a trip,” concludes Yannick Rastogi.