Banks: Hello?

Zane Lowe: Hey, Banks?

Banks: Hi!

Lowe: Hi, how are you?

Banks: I'm good, how are you?

Lowe: I'm doing good, it's nice to hear your voice. How are you?

Banks: Oh my God, I'm actually in Lake Cuomo in Italy

Lowe: [Laughs] What are you doing in Lake Cuomo?

Banks: I haven't vacationed with my family in like 5 or 6 years, so we decided to come and stay two weeks out here, before... 'cause you know stuff's gonna get crazy again, so it would be a nice little time out to get some juicy time with each other

Lowe: We have exciting news, we have music to play. This is all happening very fast, as tends to be the case with you, Banks, as well as you put a lot of time and effort into your crowd, and then it's like, "Okay, I'm ready. Everyone can have it."

Banks: Yeah, definitely, that's kinda how it goes for me, you know. I need to feel completely ready with the music that I make, and of course everything, you know, visually... It's a whole world, you know, it just needs to have a bow on top before I set it free into the universe

Lowe: I could imagine that that's a very consuming experience, you know, in a good way, but also at times in a challenging way. to kind of imerse yourself into a world and prepare a project of this nature i can imagine it takes a lot out of you

Banks: Oh my gosh, yes, definitely does. I feel like a deflated balloon once I'm done even with one day in the studio. I feel like my skin turns grey because all of the color thats inside my body was just, like, put into the song. But for me, these last few years have been so crazy, and it all came out in my music and it all came out in this album for me. So I was a studio hermit, especially after I finished the last tour with The Weeknd in December, I was just living in the studio all day and all night. It was so much fun and really intense, and really special
Lowe: You know, very keen-eared fans would've heard a very special word in and amongst that answer, which begins with the letter "A" which would be album

Banks: [Laughs]

Lowe: Which is not something that was a given, you know. We had "Better," which we thrashed on Beats 1 and we loved, and I guess that was, in some respects, a gift for fans who were patiently waiting for something deeper to dive into. But it sounds like you've finished one, and this is one of the bits in news that we wanna talk to you about. But first, before that, we wanna play that song: "Fuck With Myself."

Lowe: You know, when I was growing up, the term "fuck with myself" might have meant I was actually kind of messing with myself. But I think in this day and age, the way it's thrown around, it's like, "I fuck with myself way more than anybody else does 'cause I know I'm the shit." And I'm wondering, depending on which side of the bed you wake up everyday, Banks, whether this can mean either or

Banks: It's funny. This was the last song that I wrote on the record, and I went in the studio. I was completely drained, I didn't think I had any more in me, and I was just planning on working on a song that I had already kind of almost finished. And I kind of was diving into my fear of, "What should I put out first?" You know, I've changed a lot, I've developed a lot. And you know, sometimes people just dive into overthinking... and I guess I was just venting. My dear friend and collaborator Tim Anderson was in the studio with me and after I was done on my little rant, he was like, “Do you want me to read you some of the statements that you just said?" I was like, "No, I don't. I don't wanna hear it." Then he said, “You said, ‘I fuck with myself more than anybody else.’” It felt so perfect for that day and I needed it so bad, and it's funny that I needed it and I gave it to myself. That's how the song was kind of birthed

Lowe: It's a great statement

Banks: Yeah, there's so many meanings to it. It could be like, "I fuck with myself" like, I mess with myself, and "I fuck with myself" kind of like, I'm feeling myself

Lowe: Exactly

Banks: You can be your own lover, your own ... it means a lot of different things that I think everybody can relate to

Lowe: What's cool is that it brings a certain kind of character out in you, and certainly vocally in this track, which I love, too. And you know, I'm sure that you've been trying different things on this new album that you weren't trying on your first one, that comes with confidence and experience. But in this one, you know, the way that you kind of say it at times in the song almost feels like you're sort of going into character, or you're almost acting it out, in some respects. So it must've been fun to record too, especially at the end of the album, when the pressures kinds of off, in some respects

Banks: Oh my gosh, yeah. I think music is so much fun because ti could really be every part of yourself in each song. You can be one way in one song, and you can dive into another part of yourself in another song. And this song is like the anthem of bad-assery to me