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29 October 2014
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Music Features

Ollie Banks

Doomed to be plagued by comparisons to Jack Johnson, Scarborough's answer to the Hawaiian songster is also a surfing film maker. Spooky. Ollie Banks popped into the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio York studios to play a cracking session and have a chat with More Raw.

You're based in Scarborough now, but not from there originally...

Surfer

No I'm from London originally. I moved to Scarborough when I was about 19 to do a degree, it was part of the University of York back then. I moved up to do an English degree and just ended up staying really. I started surfing when I moved to Scarborough and I haven't looked back.

When did you start playing guitar?

I've kind of played guitar pretty much all my life but I played electric guitar before I played acoustic guitar. I've only been playing acoustic properly for about four years but I've never had any proper tuition.

What do your songs tend to be about?

Probably just the things that influence me in life: surfing, early mornings. I like to get up as early in the morning as possible and go surfing. I like quiet times when there's no too many people around. I just write about the things I see.

How did you come to record your EP The Wintering Grounds?

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I ended up playing at the Beached Festival a couple of years ago and they had a stand there to sell CDs so I thought it would be interesting just to put some songs down to sell. It was during my busiest time at work but I managed to get a couple of long lunch breaks in the studios over the road so we just rushed it through. It was literally a four day job, I think we got them pressed up the night before Beached.

I've always had arrangements in mind for these songs but going and recording them on my own meant they didn't come out as I intended. I'm still happy with the results but I'd like to re-record them and have time to work on the arrangements. But I don't want it to go on too long. I'm starting to make slightly different music now and I wanted to capture this point in my life.

Has your style changed a lot while you've been writing?

I haven't been writing all that long, probably about two years. But it's started to change now a bit. I use open tuning a lot on the guitar and I've started to get into bluesy stuff. The songs on the CD are quite upbeat, the stuff I'm writing now is a little more, not depressing but certainly more reflective.

We've referred to you being a film maker, tell us a bit about that.

I've been making a surfing film in Scarborough for the last two years or so. That's really where the songs came from, I was trying to write the sound track myself, but they're not there now because I want it to be instrumental. So I've got all these songs that aren't going to go on the soundtrack.

last updated: 27/06/06
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