Interview and Photos by Jordan Edwards
Last week, Asha Banks released the single “Too Busy Missing You.” It’s her second new track this year following her debut EP How Real Was It? this past November.
Although she’s been making music since childhood, recording and releasing songs is relatively new. Her debut single “So Green,” was released in 2024.
Born and raised outside of London, Banks has put together an impressive acting career on screen and on stage. She landed her first TV roles at age 8. Soon after, she appeared as Young Eponine in a West End production of Les Misérables. Netflix subscribers may know her from the recent projects My Fault: London or A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
On a recent trip to Los Angeles, we talked to Banks about her recording How Real Was It?, her acting career, and collaborating with Holly Humberstone.
What was your experience putting together a full EP?
It was so much fun! I feel like I love telling a story and finding the cohesion throughout the tracks and figuring out how they all link. And even sonically, it was such a dream. I think putting out one song is one thing, but a full EP just scratched every itch that I had.
You recorded a a duet version of “Dive” with Holly Humberstone. Did you do you know her beforehand?
Well I’ve been a massive fan of Holly for years. I think she’s amazing and is somebody that I’ve always looked up to. And her song “Dive” was in the credits of a film I did called My Fault London. I put “Dive” on my story whilst we were making the film. The editor saw it, and was like that would be an amazing song for the credits. So sort of that crazy thing happened, and then I ended up in a songwriting session with her. She’s so amazing and just as lovely as I hoped she’d be. She ended up asking if I wanted to do this collab version of “Dive” with her which was so special, both because I love her, and because it was in the film that I was in.
Did your acting and singing interest happen simultaneously as a kid, or were you into one or the other first?
It was definitely always simultaneous for me. I think when I was a kid, I just loved both acting and music, and they’ve always coexisted for me. So yeah, I’m just trying to keep on doing that, and have my cake and eat it.
I really love your production. It’s very like organic, kind of reminds me like Nick Drake or something. Why did you pick that direction versus a big splashy pop sound?
It’s so much down to taste and down to what I love listening to. And I think that for me, emotion is the thing that always just wins me over. I don’t know what it is about an acoustic guitar that sort of sounds a bit jangly and out of tune, or a double bass instead of a regular bass. And my producer, Josh Bruce Williams, whom I worked with on this EP, feels the same way as me.
What do you miss about theater that you can’t get in TV, movies, and music videos?
Oh I mean I love theater so much. There’s just such an adrenaline into doing something live that I guess you don’t get when you’re filming something. And I also love being able to do a full show one night and then come back and do it the next night and kind of be able to improve or change something. I guess when you’re filming something, it’s all very much immediate. But I kind of get to do that with live shows as a musical artist.
Do you enjoy touring?
I mean I just did four shows in North America, and that was my first taste of tour. I think that was something that I absolutely loved— each day feeling a different energy and being able to play a slightly different show than the one the night before.
Last one. This is for my mom, who’s a big fan of the show. One of your earliest roles was a bit part on Call the Midwife. I know you were young, but what do you remember about that experience?
Oh my goodness. I mean, that was one of my first filming experiences ever. I feel like I went in so determined. I was like, ‘I’m going to be a star after this three and a half seconds.’ I was just yawning, and I think I was genuinely just tired. And they put in a little clip of me yawning. I have loads of footage from the day of filming on a Nintendo DS that I had when I was a kid. I filmed everything on that little Nintendo DS. So I probably need to figure out how to download that.
