When I first heard Bankai, I was left blinking and stumbling around the room like I’d just been hit by a train with a cargo of NASTY BEATS.  Bankai, whose earth name is Will Dayble, is a producer of MENACING hard electro/glitchcore from Melbourne, Australia.  He’s become pretty well-established in a very short time by making smart use of the web, and he’s currently preparing for a crowdsourced tour of Canada.  Since Bankai’s music is all free, the tour is funded entirely by fan’s donations.  Bankai has confirmed tour stops in Vancouver, Calgary, Thunder Bay and Toronto so BECOME HYPED ABOUT IT.

I did an email interview with Bankai about the tour. It’s EXCLUUUSIVE so check it OUT.

Weekend Bangers: Your first EP came out in April 2009, how long were you making music before you started releasing songs online?

Bankai: A few months or so, I guess.

What inspired you to start producing music?

SebastiAn. I remember first hearing a SebastiAn track in my friends car and all of a sudden electro seemed like a really good idea.

When did you first start rocking live shows?

Electro? A few months after releasing Quarter Circle Punch. In particular, folks from the Melbourne breakcore scene (Xian and Cat-Grrl in particlar) have been awesome. They got me my first warehouse shows and were very supportive to the new kid… breakcore peeps are rad.

Where do the vocal tracks come from on songs like “Death by Stereo” and “Party Harder”?

I do all vox and instrument stuff. A remarkably talented girl called Erica from the Melbourne band Poor People helps with the feminine vocal bits.

How has your sound evolved since your first release? Are you consciously moving in a particular direction with your newer material, or did I just blow your mind?

I honestly don’t know. It’s been a touch whirlwind thus far. Every song is an experiment.

Why the name “Bankai”, and what does the name say about your musical style?

Haha… okay, nerdiest foot forward. It’s from an anime called Bleach, ‘Bankai’ meaning ‘full release’. I wanted to try and make a musical equivalent of that.

What advice do you have for the noob that wants to get into making electronic music, but has no idea where to start?

Me? I’m a noob myself. I guess the most practical thing in my limited experience would be to put in a solid four hours a day. If a concert pianist can practice hard there’s no reason why any other musician shouldn’t.

Tell us about the equipment you use to create your songs.

Logic for production, Ableton live. A rather buzzy marshall stack and a old 7 string guitar, a reasonably crappy instrument mic for vox. Also gin.
I record myself humming into my phone and work from that a fair bit.

All of your music is released for free under a Creative Commons license, why did you decide to distribute your music for free?

I could ramble about that for far too long. Open source is good. Efficient communication is good. Less noise in the signal is good. Commercial noise, hype and money and all the other noise we’ve become accustomed to. Getting rid of that noise leaves more room for… heart and hope and play-time.

You’ve done a lot to embrace social media as a way of promoting your music and interacting with fans and other artists. Could you talk a little bit about some of the results of marketing your stuff this way?

More than anything it’s gratifying. It’s very – and in the most humanistic way – efficient. Again, signal to noise. Someone can listen to a song and a few seconds later speak to me. A few minutes later I can be downloading stems, and a remix begins. Real people on the other end of the IRC channel.

That efficiency, the stripping away of the bullshit… it seems to leave a bunch more room for meaningful connections between like minds, fans and artists alike. The uniquely internet-based multilateral communication thing is awesome too. Bankai stopped being just one guy a while ago – people sending me samples, other producers doing remixes, people on AIM giving me feedback on early mixes… That awesome guy who runs the t-shirt store, for one. The people helping fund the tour…

I guess ‘DIY’ is morphing into Do It Ourselves, or something.

What’s it like planning a crowdsourced international tour?

Weird. I didn’t expect or plan this. It just kinda spluttered forth thanks to some amazingly cool people. Terrifying and wonderful. The actual nitty gritty of shows and flights and things is batshit boring and tedious. That’s to be expected, though.

Just so we’re clear, you DO know that Canada in February isn’t as balmy as the weather you’re used to in Australia, right?

Hold on…. I get to make snowballs. That is so awesome. I am so goddamn excited about snowballs. Australia at the peak of summer can bugger off. Give me ice-bears any day.

You’ve got fans in all corners of the globe that want to fly you out to party with them, what’s left before you can say you’re a bonafide rock star?

Hahah oohhh no no, I don’t see myself becoming a rock star. Don’t be silly.

Once Bankai achieves world domination, could you see yourself making music full-time and hanging up your web-development gloves?

Gosh, I don’t know. Being the Art Director at a small firm is seriously satisfying too. I work with my best friend there. Design is fun

Finally, is there anything you’d like to add?

Nothing poetic. See y’all in Vancouver! Oh, actually: the big rad show is going to be 20th of February in Vancouver. Folks can email will@bankai.fm to get mitts on the good tickets before they disappear…

Thanks so much!

Thank you, megamuch.

BANKAI!! A class act.

Download all of Bankai’s music for free from www.bankai.fm, Bankai’s SoundCloud, or from Bankai on TheSixtyOne. Read more about the tour at Bankai Kills Vancouver. You’ll see why Bankai has everyone super jazzed about his Canadian tour. You’ll also taste copper, but that’s normal.

Bankai – Faun
Faun by Bankai

Bankai – PARTY HARDER
Bankai – PARTY HARDER by Bankai