Tony Banks - Solo Career Story - Interview by Mark Powell - 2015 

It’s the interviews with Tony that I always find most informative and insightful as compared to other members of Genesis. He tends to go into detail and it comes off as what actually occurred, and he’s not afraid to be self-deprecating when necessary.

Tony Banks is the most important member of genesis ,great composer, music & lyrics and with very interesting solo albuns.

I love Tony's chords!😊

I’ve always thought Tony was the most talented member of Genesis. I’m a big fan of Marillion too so to hear Fish and Tony together was fanboy heaven.

An amazing musician and incredible human being!

Different people liked Genesis for different reasons. As a Genesis fan who raved about Trick of the Tail I listened to 'A Curious Feeling' and shared it with a friend who was very keen on Abacab. He listened once then gave it back to me with the blunt assessment: "Complete Rubbish". Each to their own I suppose. I still listen to Curious Feeling 30 years later.

Fanatstic interview. As an amateur songwriter, I love listening to maestros like Tony discuss their process. Thank you!

Curious Feeling For me brings memories I bought this great album a very touching album for me

Big 70's Genesis fan, particularly the 1973-1977 period (the last two PG albums, the first two PC albums - bookended by the first two live albums). Genesis truly shined because of the contributions of everyone (the "classic 5 piece" and the short-lived 4 piece as well)...the epitome of the definition of "the sum is greater than its parts". Not a big fan of anyone's individual solo output; although Peter, in my opinion, was far and away the better solo artist. But even he benefited from the contributions of his former bandmates. Tony's stuff is okay, but with Phil, Tony, Peter, and Steve around him he was brilliant.

I love Strictly Inc and I remember buying it the day it came out! There are those of us with genuine love for what Tony does. Would love it if Tony would do another song album.

I often think of Tony as the one who was most "married" to Genesis by accident or design.

Tony is a genious.

It's quite hard to pinpoint exactly what has prevented Tony from having the reach that would've given him more solo success, but I do believe that had he stuck to the Fugitive vibe, it would've happened.. after he gave up on himself, it all started to feel a bit 'deliberate' and in some ways unnatural as good as some of the material was/is. People need to feel they're investing in something that's going to take them somewhere; sadly in Tony's case, people just weren't prepared to get on board. A true inspiration to me in so many ways, I wish him the best of success with his new orchestral pursuits..

You can really tell how happy he was to be there for this. One gets the impression that he enjoys promoting the release almost as much as he does making the music.

Revisiting this again. Love Tony's solo music, one of the best writers in music history.

Fugitive is one of the best Genesis solo albums ever!

Found Fugitive in a bargain bin in the early 80s has since become one of my favorites,great melodies and atmosphere.

Colony of slippermen is brilliant piece of classic influences like JS Bach or something - thank you Tony for creating it! And rest of your works of course...

Tony is also a great composer! I like his solo music Edit: I like the automatic chapter creation - "Be strictly inc", "Sequence" 😊

No Banks, no Genesis period.

least successful of all genesis solo artists but really the driving force behind the band.

Tony's stuff takes a few listens to get into, but once you do it's very rewarding.

Yep, Tony...the driving force behind Genesis music, from A to Z, which Mike on his side. Maybe he needs a good arranger for his music, just what Phil or Peter did on the band, and sometimes Steve. Beyond this his solo stuff has high points, as Waters of Lethe, Charm, Thursday the twelve, That night, Still it takes me by surprise, Similing Jack Casey, Lion of Simetry, the majestic An island in the darkness, and many more. Without you man, Genesis would not exist.

I Love Tony's albums

Tony is great like waukeman.

His cyinth in mama is haunting

Tony is a brilliant artist!

Mr Tony is the architec.❤

Very interesting interview, I love to hear Tony discuss his entire solo story like this! I'm glad to hear that he's happy with how his career's turned out in general, certainly he has a large body of work he can be extremely proud of!

The amount of comments here that say "Tony Banks is good but..." grime me, but who cares really, you people look too much into things and your opinion is worthless, just like me, must be the way of the internet i suppose. For me, i love his solo output, can't wait for the next album >:)

Bankstatement has a really catchy and beautiful pieces.

Come to think of it, I heard the songs Tony did with John Potter the other day. Gorgeous stuff. Someone at Cherry Red really should push these two to make a whole album like that together. Combining the classical side of Tony with his songwriting abilities, that would really be enormously rewarding.

"Still" lineup was the best, if Tony were continueing the same group on "Strictly Inc.", I think his career can be more successfull and not so underrated, imho. I wish I could said this to him directly :)

Tony Banks, your album *Still* - still rates my fave of your solos. You write so well with both Nik Kershaw and Derek (Fish) Dick. All four of those songs are most remarkable. And these two singers/co-writers' vocals are phenomenal fits. 'Still' baffled over there not being a hit single from the album. I'd like to see the three of you in a new group, perhaps with Janey Klimek. (Toyah?). Would love to see you get back into prog/pop, and keyboards, lovely as your orchestral work is.

Among the top 3 prog keys man from the 70s golden age.

A great collection from a fantastic musician! I love his music!

I loved that he worked with Fish!

Tony has been my favorite composer since my teenage years, that is 45 years by now. Foxtrot knocked me down in 1976. Back in a day I was thinking what could beat Relayer or Brain salad surgery, but that album got carried me away completely with Tony chords having mesmerized me like nothing else. I wish Mr. Banks would go back to prog and cooperate with Steve Hackett to create another masterpiece.

Ironically after this, I got one more atony Banks interview and two Steve Hackett intrviews!

Tony Parabens pela sua carreira maravilhosa ❤Genesis 🎹

Tony Banks IS Genesis , Genesis IS his solo work.the others are genius too..

Tony never gives up lol

I happen to like Quicksilver, Tony! :p Fugitive is my fav solo album and he is hands down my fav member of Genesis.

The GREAT Tony Banks.

Maybe with his amazing efforts in movies he never realized that the best movies are in your mind. My favourite movie happens to be “ Suppers ready “

That mixing desk behind Mark is right now listed on That Auction Site for 175 000 GBP.. has been on there quite a while actually.. can't believe no-one has yet snapped up such a bargain!! 😂

I think Tony would find a kindred spirit in Gilbert O'Sullivan, they both like making quite different music and have a combination of extraordinary success and enduring disappointment and both also have devoted fans who love everything they do!

I love Tony, he's brilliant, but still feels so bad about the commercial success of his solo material. I really totally enjoy it from stem to stern.

I had a cassette tape of Soundtracks back in the day and I thought it was brilliant. I hate that it is no longer available even on download.

Bank's ou Genesis, c'est la même musique, il a vraiment son style avec des sons très particuliers, tout est joué ou presque. Un très grand compositeur.

Tony Banks est le plus créatif des membres de Genesis, avec Peter Gabriel, même si les autres ont fait des morceaux magnifiques ! C'est lui qui fournissait le plus en termes de compositions, alors comment, après avoir donné autant de pièces magnifiques à Genesis, aurait-il pu avoir de la réserve pour une carrière solo ? Phil Collins a bénéficié de la double médiatisation Genesis-Carrière solo, mais si l'on regarde seulement ces morceaux en solo, il n'y en a pas tant que ça de bons. Ce n'est donc pas comme si Banks avait besoin des autres pour bien composer, mais plutôt qu'il fournissait déjà une grosse partie du matériel Genesis. Pas étonnant qu'il y ait eu des frictions avec Gabriel, puisque celui ci joue à égalité en terme de créativité. Il était légitime pour tous deux de vouloir la faire passer et je pense que la séparation était la seule solution, qui nous a permis d'avoir à la fois du Genesis Banksien, et les albums de Gabriel, même si l'on aurait aimé de nouvelles collaborations de ces grands créateurs.

Main man. Period.

Tony Banks is the mind of Genesis, Steve Hacket was the heart, Collins the rhythm/pop master, Rutherford a poppy guy too and Peter Gabriel was the schizo one ;-) I think Banks was just too complicated to create only pop. I love his first solo "A Curious Feeling" it's one I constantly go back to (once I got over the unusual vocals, which are very good, but require some getting used to), together with Rutherford's Smallcreep's Day, Collins "Face Value" and Hackett's "Please Don't Touch" / "Spectral Mornings" was a wonderfully creative period for all music and especially Genesis.

Certainly a brilliant musician -- but so obviously hard to work with -- "I let Gabriel play flute because I had to keep him off the keyboards," "Steve was a junior member, back then, so he didn't get as much writing input," "I had hundreds of little musical bits written up ready to insert into an album," "By [Trick of Tail] [Wuthering], they let me put a few of my own pieces in, because by then they figured, if we don't use his stuff, he's going to get irritable and impossible to work with" -- very much the stylistic core of the trio, but also the core of its friction.

I have to agree with most of the comments, the paradox of such a huge part of Genesis who wrote most of our favourite songs (E.G. Afterglow ) to be unable to carry on with a successful career alone is strange to put it mildly. I bought all of his albums each with the hope that this new one will be 'the one' but no they don't date very well, particularly eighties power chords they just don't age well. The vocalists wouldn't get a gig backing up a touring tribute band never mind front an album. I'm glad he has settled into making ochestral music in this he does excell.

Tony is a legend, but hid greatness developed in a team where he was critiqued and simply put right ! That is why the great recent music is produced as a team, Stones, Floyd , Ruttles, ELP, Tull, even Gen. these are team events , often with a leader, but , a team event

I became less enamored with Genesis after DUKE. However "Curious Feeling" is an exceptional album!

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One thing the Old School Prog bands lacked was Women’s’ vocals in spite of the ladies on “ voyage ..” or ant Phillips’ first album . Girls like Sally Oldfield , Bush , Nicks , the girl from Renaissance, could’ve given material by them all another dimension in my humble opinion. ❤️from Wilverley Witches

"Thanks for sharing a room."

Try listening to the soundtrack album "The Wicked Lady" by/with Tony Banks. - It is quite good.

Yeah it's weird with his solo records cause TONY BANKS IS the MAIN sound of Genesis, yet his solo records EHHHH.......... LOL. I own a few. I'll jam em once and awhile just cause it's Tony Banks....... If any of you wanna hear some GOOD GOOD stuff Check out Anthony Phillips Geese and Ghost. It features Phil Collins on vocals, and Steve Hackett's Ace of Wands.

“A Curious Feeling” is a great album, “The Fugitive” is a fun album and “Still” is a great mixture of songs, “Still Takes Me By Surprise” is a beautiful song and “Bankstatement” is underrated.

Tony is brilliant in Genesis, but his early solo work I find rather obscure, although enjoyable all the same. Perhaps I was trying to hear Genesis in all his solo work, maybe thats the problem, instead of hearing it as simply Tony Banks. Ive got a couple of his albums, so if Tony read this at least he knows that someone has bought them !

Whatever, will always be famous for keys in Genesis.

My younger brother can make his voice sound like Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. If Tony Banks heard my brother, he would have him sing his solos.

Some Banksian material is best heard through an early solid state or tubular hi-fi cabinet. Lots of elements in those tunes that don't render accurately on a smart speaker or MP3.

He could have been the new Aha, or competition for a number of shiny new wave 20 + crooners

Bankstatement is my favorite.

Steve Hackett hasn’t had a ‘ hit single ‘ so Tony isn’t the odd one out ❤️

What i'd like to know is why he never toured and played his solo music live. That would have been a great way to reach an audience, and would have helped the music mature a bit

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I've felt that Tony might have had better luck if he'd worked with the other Genesis members individually. Specifically, if he had worked with Anthony Phillips that it may have created an interesting result. Their personalities seem as though they would mesh well together even in their more mature years of their lives. My basis for this belief comes from The Geese and The Ghost, Voyage Of The Acolyte and Smallcreep's Day sounding as though they were Genesis albums because of Phil and Mike on Ant and Steve's albums and Ant playing on Mike's album.

The reason why they didn't get a hearing the first time around, is because Tony's solo stuff communicates really badly... He needs the others....simple really, and Genesis needed him, but he needs reigns...

You must try or you'll NEVER know.

One of the most prolific groups with solos. Phil wins on the commercial, Hackett wins with Voyage, with Mike in second with Smallcreep. Hah sorry Tony and Mike, who doesn’t like this masterpiece

Funny his next album was called “5” after all. I think we need to separate commercial success from musical success. A number of classical composers whose music holds up well today fared badly commercially during their lifetime. But the music was good. At this point I’d love to hear Tony Banks do another orchestral album, but with shorter pieces, like Wicked Lady had ... or, long pieces with more structure ... something close to the sonata form would give the long pieces more of a framework.

The amount of likes used to be 69. I saved it... I saved it....

Bank statement, sort of, obviously, tended to be, a really nice little theme, is it time for tea, cucumber sandwiches!

According to Steve Hackett's statements, a member of Genesis (he gave no name) blocked the reunion of the old Genesis members from the Gabriel era in 2007. Watching some recent interviews, it seems that there is no a good relationship between Hackett and the rest of the band. But maybe I am wrong. Tony Banks is an excellent keyboardist.

Whatever happened to these amazing remasterings? Are we going to get the rest of them at some point?

I bought Curious feeling because I expected it to be good, right in the obsessive phase of my teens and belief that everything Genesis produced would be excellent. Hacketts Voyage of the Acolyte fit that bill perfect, and although some vocals didnt sit well with me, Phil did sing, and Mike and Phil were on the album. I followed Hacket like I followed Genesis. I saw him on the Spectral Mornings tour early 80's. Stopped after that album. I never liked Curious Feeling. I knew I didnt like the tracks after 10 seconds of dropping the needle on them. I even dug it out 10 years later, thinking "come on, you will see something in it now you are older, surely"......NOPE I didnt bother after that album, but have listened to his stuff later in life. I didnt like that either. weird isnt it? I will say though, even though I find The Fugitive as uninspiring as the rest, I thought his vocal was really good. Reminded me of some famous singer, but I never got to the bottom of who it was.

Nik Kershaws voice worked well on Tony's songs..

Tony Banks is the best Keyboards,I am a keyboardist. appailalis

Banks should take a job in a coalmine, a steel mill, or on a fishing boat for 5 or 10 years and write a symphony about that. I'm sure he would adapt to the conditions, key of A flat minor.

Yes Tony, it’s the fans. Your sales have been predominately Genesis fans, get over it

48:19 welp he did it anyways

Shame his solo career didn’t take off. His stuff is way better than Mike and the Mechanics.

No Hackett, no Genesis. No Hackett without Genesis

Tony Banks solo albums have good moments but the atmosphere is off.. each has an odd aesthetic. Sort of an ugly stepchild mix of progressive and pop. For one thing, he uses a hodge podge of vocalists and so there is no continuity within each record as there is on truly great records. The best I would say is that each record has some very good tracks. For another, his choice of vocalists is questionable. They have great voices, technically speaking, but rather generic in terms of the face of personality of the voice - most are of a character one might expect to hear in X Factor finalists. And although his voice is not great, the tracks he himself sings on are probably most compatible with the feeling of Genesis.

MOST BANDS' SOLO ALBUMS are awful, because there's no Quality Control: GREAT BANDS are the CHEMISTRY of the members COMBINED. Split the 4 Zeppelin members apart and they are a LOT worse than just 25% each! YOU NEED PEOPLE THERE TO SAY "THAT STINKS".

There you have it, Tony really thinks his output for "Bankstatement" etc, is of the quality even of his own ACF. But he also gives a clue, with his envy of Phil and Mike's success, I'm guessing he wanted so much to have pop hits. They say you can't hurry love, and apparently not pop hits. His solo career is, apologies, Boring. Flat. Alas.

Is the interwiever trying to grow a beard, the way he is grooming all the time. Lolz.

his stuff would be a lot better without using cheesy singers.

He would have been part of Mike , but he was a prat

I would NOT EVEN FUKIN call coliins/ gabriel cheesey singers ...........Glickin who , Lead singer of million seller band ?!?What? But I will say and agree that without BANKS equals NO prog ................. POOR TONY NOTHING , Because Genesis is or was Banks solo to begin with ............... his band !

Still was his only good solo work.

Tony would have been better off writing songs for other people. He's just not a performer.

He hates his solo career lol

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