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For several months now, Banx & Ranx, a super duo of Montreal producers, songwriters and remixers Zacharie “Soké” Raymond and Yannick “KNY Factory” Rastogi, have been making a name for themselves. After many years working behind the scenes for renowned artists such as Dua Lipa, Sean Paul and J Balvin, they now find themselves at the forefront of releasing their own music, notably through their record and publishing company 31 East. PAN M 360 caught up with the pair at Planet Studios to discuss their new reality, their recent track The Birds with Zach Zoya and much more!
For the record, Yannick Rastogi was born in Paris and moved to Montreal several years ago, while Zacharie Raymond was born in Gatineau. From an early age, they began posting tracks on the SoundCloud platform. It was in this way that they spotted each other and decided to get in touch. After several meetings and countless recording sessions, Banx & Ranx was born in 2014. Since then, the tandem has enjoyed a string of successes with numerous international artists.
They recently set up their own record label, 31 East, with the aim of showcasing home-grown talent to the four corners of the globe. Since then, the two artists have been gaining in visibility and are increasingly at the forefront. Winner of the Juno Revelation of the Year in 2023, Banx & Ranx also received their first GRAMMY nomination in 2023 for their contribution to the production of Sean Paul’s 8th studio album. Needless to say, the pair have enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past year, with hits such as Flowers Need Rain with Preston Pablo and Headphones with Rêve, two tracks produced with artists signed to 31 East.
In early June, Banx & Ranx returned to the fray with The Birds, a collaboration with Quebec’s Zach Zoya in keeping with its primary aim of promoting local artists. At the confluence of pop, electro, reggae and funk, this track is just in time for summer, and is likely to get plenty of radio play over the coming weeks. What better way to kick off the summer!
PAN M 360: Over the past few months, you’ve been increasingly in the public eye, and the Banx & Ranx name has been gaining in visibility. After so many years in the shadows, how do you feel about this new reality?
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: It’s really cool. We didn’t really chase this visibility, but when the opportunity presented itself to us, we were definitely open. We’re studio guys, and that’s where we’ve been comfortable for a number of years. So it’s a challenge and a learning curve to do more live performances and show ourselves off more. It’s a great pleasure for people to know more about our work. Our “artist” project helps promote the songs we do behind the scenes for others. It also allows us to promote the talent signed with our 31 East label.
PAN M 360: Tell me more about what this visibility allows you to accomplish?
YANNICK RASTOGI: On the live front, it allows us to do more and more shows. So we have more and more opportunities to showcase our music and attract new fans. We’ve been in the shadows for a number of years, and it’s important to win over new listeners. In the past, we’ve had the opportunity to compose for several international artists. We’re very proud of that, of course, but it was always behind the scenes. This new visibility allows us to showcase our personalities in a new way.
PAN M 360: What would the ultimate goal be? Is it possible to reach it?
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: I don’t think we ever get there. We often say that we base ourselves on the model of Sweden’s Max Martin, or even DJ Snake, whom we respect enormously. The career models of these two men are very inspiring for us. We want to reach an international level and become a kind of reference in music. We’d love to see Banx & Ranx type beats on YouTube one day!
YANNICK RASTOGI: I couldn’t agree more. The Neptunes, Timbaland and Diplo are also good examples of what we want to achieve. These artists have all left their mark on the music industry, and that’s kind of our ultimate goal.
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: If we ever get to that level, we’d also like to take young directors under our wing and train them. We’d almost like to create a school of thought for music creators.
YANNICK RASTOGI: We’d like to be able to show young people that it’s possible to start out by creating in your own bedroom, and make it to the highest level. All it takes is determination and perseverance.
PAN M 360: What would the ultimate goal be? Is it possible to reach it?
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: I don’t think we ever get there. We often say that we base ourselves on the model of Sweden’s Max Martin, or even DJ Snake, whom we respect enormously. The career models of these two men are very inspiring for us. We want to reach an international level and become a kind of reference in music. We’d love to see Banx & Ranx type beats on YouTube one day!
YANNICK RASTOGI: I couldn’t agree more. The Neptunes, Timbaland and Diplo are also good examples of what we want to achieve. These artists have all left their mark on the music industry, and that’s kind of our ultimate goal.
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: If we ever get to that level, we’d also like to take young directors under our wing and train them. We’d almost like to create a school of thought for music creators.
YANNICK RASTOGI: We’d like to be able to show young people that it’s possible to start out by creating in your own bedroom, and make it to the highest level. All it takes is determination and perseverance.
PAN M 360: You recently released The Birds, a track with Quebec’s Zach Zoya. How did this collaboration come about?
YANNICK RASTOGI: The beginning of this track goes back to 2018 when we were in the studio in London. Zacharie came up with the idea of a track called The Birds, intended to represent the moment when you come home after a big night out until the sun comes up and you hear the birds singing. It’s a certain return to reality and, in a way, the big slap in the face that hurts at five or six in the morning.
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: We had this track lying around, and we submitted it to several artists in the hope that they would like the song and decide to record and release it. We even showed it to Maroon 5’s artistic director in Los Angeles. At one point, our A&R at Universel told us we should keep the song to ourselves. At first, we weren’t convinced, but that’s what we did. We modified and remixed the track into reggae and funk, because we like to explore and mix musical genres.
At the time, we didn’t have an artist to sing it, and we only had Ian James, who is one of the songwriters. We said it didn’t matter and we’d release it as is, without crediting Ian, because he didn’t want to be credited. He’s more of a songwriter, so he didn’t want to be credited. We almost opted for that option, but we had a certain amount of doubt in our heads. We thought it would be nice to have an artist to help us promote the track and perform it live.
That’s when Zach Zoya was suggested. He’s been a friend for a few years and we’ve worked with him on a few projects. The match was perfect for The Birds. We’re super happy to be able to share this track with a local artist, and it’s obviously in line with the mission of our record label 31 East. Zach did an incredible job and took the song to another level.
PAN M 360: You mention that this latest release is part of your mission with your record label. Tell me more about this quest you’re on.
YANNICK RASTOGI: Our manager always told us that the day we found our own artists and developed them, that’s when we’d make our mark on the music world. It’s a dream we’ve had for a long time, and that’s why we embarked on the 31 East adventure. We started by signing JujuBoy, then Rêve and Preston Pablo. JujuBoy is out of Canada, but the goal is to bring him here soon.
Over the last few years, we’ve been lucky enough to travel the world and gain a lot of experience in writing, structure, production and mixing. In short, everything that goes into making a track. For us, it was time to come back here and make it from Montreal to the world. The aim is to make music from Montreal, Quebec and Canada for the rest of the world.
Take Preston Pablo, for example. He’s from Ontario, but Montreal is sort of his second home. He loves it here, and is even thinking of moving there in the future. He often comes to Montreal, and that’s when we create. We try as much as possible to use Quebec resources, but we don’t stop ourselves from looking elsewhere if necessary.
We want to show Quebec that collaboration is extremely important in music. Quebec is teeming with creators, and they’re connecting more and more. Different scenes are collaborating more and more, and that’s the future. You can see it at the Francos in a show like Loud’s, where he plays a song with Charlotte Cardin and a little later you have Muzion on stage. There’s a superb fusion of genres going on.
We want to amplify this movement as much as possible and show that international connections with Quebec are feasible.
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: There’s a certain formula that you find in the United States or England, for example, that optimizes musical quality at every stage of creation, and that you don’t necessarily find in Quebec. In Quebec, it’s a closed market because of our particular brand of French. We like to defend the French language, and that has a lot of positive sides, but sometimes it can close doors internationally. So we like to mix cultures to optimize results.
YANNICK RASTOGI: I’d say that’s exactly the Banx & Ranx effect. It’s about mixing cultures and making them our own. If someone asked me what dish would identify me the most, I’d say butter chicken poutine. We’re all in favor of mixing cultures to broaden Quebec’s musical landscape.
PAN M 360: Your many years in the music industry have enabled you to observe the way things are done in several countries. Is there something we’re missing in Quebec in order to shine more brightly musically? If so, what is it?
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: I think we have everything in place to excel. We already have a lot of subsidies that remove financial barriers, so we don’t really have any excuses. I think we simply have to collaborate more. You have to get out of Quebec and come back with a baggage of different experiences. Also, setting up more writing camps would help a lot.
YANNICK RASTOGI: The more collaborations there are with other cultures, the more the level of music in Quebec will improve. It’s a collaborative effort. If there’s one piece of advice we can give Quebecers, it’s that we shouldn’t keep the “bread” to ourselves, we should share it so that it can grow and improve.
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: Don’t be afraid to ask for help too. There are a lot of artists who are songwriters, but sometimes it’s fun to get out of your comfort zone and have one or even two writers in the room to help you. It allows you to discuss things and say, “Ah, maybe if you said it like that, it would be even better. Or your chorus, it’s good, but I’ve got a better idea”. Often, it’s details like that that make a song more successful.
YANNICK RASTOGI: Then the biggest writers we’ve worked with in the world, for the most part, I’d say 95% of the time, do this. In other words, they could write solo, but they’ll end up with four or five people writing a piece. It’s a collaborative atmosphere, and everyone comes up with ideas. They’re not even attached to what he’s creating, and do everything for the good of the song. That’s something we push everyone to explore.
PAN M 360: Last time we spoke, you mentioned your dream of creating a Banx & Ranx album. How far along are you?
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: We’re getting closer and we talk about it a lot. We’d really like to make an album that’s closer to what we do live. Something more energetic, more electronic and less pop. Of course, there are going to be some pop tracks, but we’d like to have a different proposition around that. It’s going to be a pop and electronic music album that really reflects us. Maybe we’ll do two projects as well. One that’s more pop and one that’s really festival. We don’t know yet.
YANNICK RASTOGI: We talk about it every day. It would also be interesting to apply the concept of yin and yang. Even then, we may have just come up with another idea. We don’t like to put up barriers. I think the moment we both look at each other and say “We got it”, it’ll be time to release the album. We don’t have a specific date or time yet, but we’d like it to be in 2024.
PAN M 360: Finally, let’s talk about your summer 2023. You’ll be at the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival at the end of August. How are your next few months shaping up?
YANNICK RASTOGI: We’ll also be at the Festival d’été Québec on July 7. We also have dates in British Columbia and Quebec. It’s mostly early July and August. We must have seven or eight shows confirmed and more to come. We’re very excited and looking forward to this summer.
ZACHARIE RAYMOND: On top of that, there’s definitely going to be a lot of creative work on the menu, either with our artists or for other projects we’re working on. We’re also going back to London, because we’ve been there for a long time. We may also go to South Korea in July. We’ve had an invitation, but nothing’s been confirmed yet. It’s going to be an incredible summer.
