Tarriona “Tank†Ball was relaxing at her New Orleans home last week for good reason.
“We just finished touring," Ball said. "… It was quite amazing, amphitheaters all over the United States. And then we just came last week from Europe."
With the tours complete, Tank and the Bangas have a handful of spot dates to round out the year, one of which will be filled Friday when they headline Lincoln Calling 2022.
Nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy in 2020, the New Orleans-based quartet brings together hip-hop, funk, soul, gospel and rock with a touch of spoken into a distinctive, hard to classify, irresistible sound.
Tank and the Bangas broke out nationally in 2017, when they unanimously won NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest.
“We've been together for, I think, maybe 11 years,†she said. “So we've been touring before Tiny Desk for a while, obviously. But when that does happen, it just allowed us to be on a lot more platforms and a lot more stages. We traveled so much, the only thing that slowed us down, really, was COVID. But I kind of needed it to slow down a moment because there was so much touring, we only were home for, like, Christmas, Thanksgiving.â€
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The Grammy nomination, which brought even more attention to the band, came out of the blue.
“I just was like, 'Really, what category?,'†Ball said. “I was pretty surprised. That's the first thing I wanted to know was what category it was. When they said best new artist, it was like, ‘Wow, that's crazy.’"
In part, Ball was curious as to the category because Tank and the Bangas had released “Green Balloon,†their second album in 2019, in the time slot for Grammy nominations.
In May, they released their follow up, “Red Balloon,†an album that was delayed by the pandemic. It finds Ball addressing being Black in America, daily life in New Orleans and the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Those lyrics, she said, come out of her background in slam poetry.
“Poetry when you slam, which is competitive poetry, makes you stay current on events and just talk about things that really bother you and also your people around you, that, this is gonna affect everybody,†she said. “So, I think that definitely helped you the lyricism of it. But, you know, everybody saw it (Jan. 6), it affected all of us in such a way. It’s hurting to know that you know that something can go down so easily.â€
But she emphasized that the album — and the Bangas music generally — isn’t all social commentary, offering up a reworking of “The Simpsons†theme as an example while saying much of the music is based on all her experiences.
“I just talk about my experience, and not just the hard parts of what it's like to be in this American world, but just the beautiful parts as well,†she said. "And the joy. It’s just so cool to be here. I’m a cool woman.â€
All of Ball’s lyrics are rooted in the poetry that she’s been writing for more than a decade as she fits poems to the music she created with her bandmates and, on the new album, a plethora of guest collaborators.
“If the music is going one way, I'll keep it as a poem,†she said. “But if it feels another way, I'll make the poem a song. It’'s just the vibe that the guys bring. The spirit kind of determines if it's gonna be a song or a poem, honestly, because my songs start off as poems and then I make them whatever they need to be.â€
Then comes the music, which on “Red Balloon†reveals influences like that of Stevie Wonder while rolling some jazz into the Bangas’ sound.
“Sometimes, we'll be literally creating something completely fresh out of the blue, something that we've never heard before, something that's unlike anything else and we just continue going,â€â€™ Ball said. “Some times like on this ‘Red Balloon’ album, we had moments where we had the influence of Stevie Wonder, where we had the influence of Leila Hathaway, who’s on the album, and Earth, Wind and Fire. So we'll pull from that and continue going until we're done with it.â€
I then told Ball that “Red Balloon†was my favorite record of 2022 so far. To which she responded, laughing and saying:
“It’s mine, too. I just love it. I'm singing on it more than I've ever sung before, which feels good because I love my singing voice. When I perform a lot of times, I'm rapping or you just playing with my voice because I have so many of them. But my regular normal textured voice is really alto, very warm, like coffee. Like Nina Simone said, so you know it feels good to sing on an album."
Tank and the Bangas’ most recent release is a three-song live EP recorded for Amazon Music that isn’t exactly a preview of what will be heard when they hit the Bourbon Theatre stage at 10:15 p.m. Friday.
“Amazon was like just a little bit more calmed down because of where we were,†Ball said. “Oh my God, I was so hot. I don't know if you saw the video. I was sweating down. (The show) is pretty lively and exciting and the arrangements have changed a lot. We're gonna be having rehearsals soon. So the show may be even a little different from that.â€