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Formed by producers, songwriters, and remixers Zacharie “Soké” Raymond and Yannick “KNY Factory” Rastogi, the duo Banx & Ranx has unveiled its new track “Balenciaga,” on Friday, October 21st. And why should we write about a combo that releases a single song? Well, read on!
They have more than three billion online streams, all platforms combined. However, they’re mostly unknown to the public. The two men have been working in the shadows for nearly seven years. They have been responsible for many international hits such as Kiss and Make Up with Dua Lipa and Contra La Pared with Sean Paul and J Balvin. Under license from Universal Music, they recently worked as musical directors for the Cirque du Soleil show MÜV.
With Balanciaga, Banx & Ranx brings its listeners back to the middle of July. This collaboration with the artists Demarco and Konshens is tinged with dancehall and reggaeton. In fact, it was Demarco who established contact with the duo. “He wrote to us on Instagram, because he liked the work we did with Sean Paul. Then we sent him a bunch of instrumentals,” Zacharie says. “When Demarco sent us his recordings on the Balanciaga beat, it was unequivocal: we absolutely had to release this track as a single,” he adds.
Born in Paris, Yannick moved to Guadeloupe at the age of three. Later in life, he moved to Montreal and started posting tracks on SoundCloud. Zacharie also started posting at a young age on the platform. “We both liked the music the other was creating and we decided to get in touch,” says Yannick. That conversation turned into several meetings in Montreal, and then countless recording sessions that led to the birth of Banx & Ranx in 2014.
Recently, they have made it their mission to make Canadian artists shine. Through their record label 31 East, Banx & Ranx have brought emerging Canadian artists like Rêve and Preston Pablo to the forefront. “We realized that it was important to grow Canadian artists. It quickly became a priority for us,” says the duo.
PAN M 360: What are your influences and what are you currently listening?
ZACHARIE: We are inspired by many different things. Obviously from music, but also from our lifestyle. We like to go out to bars, party, and meet new people. We love to travel, and we incorporate elements from the different cultures we come across. I would even add that visual arts and fashion inspire us. I listen to many different genres of music, but most of the time I listen to our own tracks to make sure the mix is right.
YANNICK: I listen to many different genres of music. Some days I only listen to music from the 70s, and other days I only listen to Caribbean music. I enjoy the music of Guadeloupe, the Zuke. This style of music makes me happy. I have countless different playlists on my Spotify.
PAN M 360: What software do you use to create? Do you have a favorite plug-in?
BANX & RANX: We’ll give away one of our secrets: we often use the metronome sound from Logic Pro as the basis for our bass line. We modify the metronome sound in our own way. Then, we like to try several different plug-ins. Of course, we reuse some of them, but it’s important for us to differentiate our tools. It’s also very important for us to have a mix of acoustic, organic, and electronic.
PAN M 360: In a previous interview, you said, “we want every music producer to be able to find the Banx to their Ranx.” How do you complement each other?
BANX & RANX: Our personalities are very different; we complement each other very well. We are like Yin and Yang. We have been able to develop a very efficient way of working. Now, it’s like we are one brain, and we are the two hemispheres. Together we can achieve our goals faster. Not many people think about it, but to travel together is very nice. It’s nice to be able to experience things together because we always have someone on our side to understand. It really makes it easier to navigate through the ups and downs of life. It also helps to push each other out of our comfort zone.
PAN M 360: Tell me about your new title Balenciaga. How did you get in touch with DeMarco and Konshens. How did the creation process go?
BANX & RANX: We created the instrumental for Balanciaga two years ago. At first, this song was intended for Bad Bunny. Some time ago, Demarco contacted us on Instagram because he liked the work we did with Sean Paul. Afterwards, we sent him several instrumentals and he chose the one for Balanciaga. When he sent us his recordings, it was unequivocal: we had to release it as a single. Konshens joined the track soon after. As far as lyrics are concerned, Jamaican artists don’t worry much about them. They improvise a lot. We’re willing to bet that he was wearing Balanciaga brand clothes during the recording. That’s probably where he got his inspiration from.
PAN M 360: What advice would you give to young producers who listen to you?
BANX & RANX: We have several pieces of advice we’d like to give. One is to visualize success and mentally project yourself into the future. We’ve done that a lot and we’re sure it’s helped us get to where we are today. Secondly, it’s very important to surround yourself with good people and to have a manager that you trust. We’ve had the same manager for eight years now and it’s worked out great. The entourage allows us to get out of our comfort zone and get outside opinions on our creations. Third, I would tell young producers that it’s important to give 100% and work with passion. You’re going to work on music every day, you’re going to dream about it. If you are not motivated by passion, you will not make it.
PAN M 360: How do you judge the freedom and space you must give to the artists on your tracks? When you create, do you imagine a specific artist who could pose on your tracks?
BANX & RANX: At the beginning of our career, we had prepared about 100 beats, but we were not able to record good tracks with artists, because our music was too condensed. As a music producer, you tend to want to show everything you can do in one song. At one point, we decided to hire a songwriter to accompany us in our creations. It allowed us to improve on that level. It’s certain that when we create, we imagine that a specific artist will play on our songs. However, artists rarely look for the instrumentals that we think they are looking for. You must adapt and find the perfect artist for each song.
PAN M 360: In the past, you have collaborated with many great artists. Is there an artist you have never worked with, but would like to work with?
BANX & RANX: We would like to work with artists like Post Malone, Drake, and Justin Bieber. Right now, we love working with young artists. It’s always special to work with them, they have a special energy and always feel like they must prove themselves. You don’t always find that energy with popular, established artists. We realized that it was important to grow local artists and it became a priority for us. Recently, this is what we tried to accomplish with Rêve and Preston Pablo.
PAN M 360: What can we expect from Banx & Ranx in the future? BANX & RANX: For sure we would like to do an album with many collaborations one day. It’s a dream for us. We’ve been talking about this possibility recently, but nothing is concrete yet. Hopefully, something like that will happen in the next couple of years. Now, we are constantly in the studio looking for new sounds. We hope to release many more tracks in the next few months.
