Ep. 85 - TONY BANKS of Genesis ("Land of Confusion")

Grammy winner Tony Banks is the co-founder and keyboardist of Genesis, which helped define prog rock in the ‘70s with lead singer Peter Gabriel and emerged as a pop powerhouse in the ‘80s after drummer Phil Collins took over the lead vocalist role. Banks and Mike Rutherford were the only two musicians who were members of the band throughout Genesis’ entire history from the late 1960s through the early 2000s. He is a co-writer of Genesis classics, including “The Knife,” “The Musical Box,” “Supper’s Ready,” “Firth of Fifth,” “Follow You Follow Me,” “No Reply at All,” “That’s All,” “Invisible Touch,” “Throwing it All Away,” “Land of Confusion,” “Tonight Tonight Tonight,” “In Too Deep,” “No Son of Mine,” “I Can’t Dance,” and “Hold On My Heart.”    

In addition to releasing five solo albums, Banks began scoring films in the late 1970s, including a British horror movie called The Shout, a science fiction film entitled Starship, and Quicksilver, staring Kevin Bacon. It was his work on the Faye Dunaway film The Wicked Lady that first exposed Banks to working with an orchestra, reigniting his long time love for classical music. In 2004 he released Seven: A Suite for Orchestra, which featured the London Philharmonic and marked the start of a series of classical albums. The most recent is simply titled Five.  

As a member of Genesis, Banks has sold over 21 million albums in the US alone. He received a Prog God Award at the Progressive Music Awards in 2015, and was named among MusicRadar’s “greatest keyboard players of all time” in 2011. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Genesis bandmates Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford in 2010.