Tarriona “Tank” Ball is relaxing at her New Orleans home, having recently completed another round of shows – something that happens more often than not for her band, Tank and the Bangas. “It was quite amazing, amphitheaters all over the United States,” she says. “And then we just came last week from Europe.”
Now Tank and the Bangas are back on the road and stopping in Richmond for a June 16 show on Brown’s Island, with Richmond’s own psych-rock songsmiths Piranha Rama opening the evening. [This has been a strong summer for the popular outdoor Friday Cheers concert series run by Venture Richmond, with good weather and music helping to bring large crowds downtown.]
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 slam poetry, into a distinctive, hard to classify, but irresistible sound. Their recent third album, “Red Balloon” (Verve Records), received another Grammy nomination for best progressive R&B album at this year’s 65th Grammy Awards.
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. So we’ve been touring before Tiny Desk for a while, obviously,” Ball explained. “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 by that point, she kind of needed it to slow down: “There was so much touring, we only were home for, like, Christmas, Thanksgiving.”
The Grammy nomination, which brought even more attention to the band, seemingly came from out of the blue.
“I just was like, ‘Really, what category?’” 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 about the category because Tank and the Bangas had released “Green Balloon,” their second album in 2019, during the time slot for Grammy nominations. Last May, they released the follow-up, “Red Balloon,” an album delayed by the pandemic. The lyrics find Ball addressing being Black in America, daily life in New Orleans and the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Those lyrics, she says, 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 explains. “So, I think that definitely helped 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.”
But she emphasizes 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 [a wide variety] of her experiences. “Not just the hard parts of what it’s like to be in this American world, but just the beautiful parts as well,” she says. “And the joy. It’s just so cool to be here. I’m a cool woman.”
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 creates 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 says. “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.”
Then comes the music, which on “Red Balloon” reveals influences such as 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,” Ball says. “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.”
Ball is pleased with her growth as an artist and singer.
“I just love it,” she says of the album. “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 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. “Amazon was like just a little bit more calmed down because of where we were. 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,” Ball said, noting the group continues to evolve songs from tour to tour. “So the show may be even a little different from that.”
Tank and the Bangas perform for Friday Cheers with Richmond’s own Piranha Rama on Friday, June 16 at Brown’s Island. Piranha Rama goes on at 6:30 p.m. and Tank and the Bangas play at 8 p.m. $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Children 12 and under are free.
