How are you feeling?

Not too bad!

How did you find your stage? Still on that buzz?

Absolutely. I’m definitely still on the buzz. That is the biggest crowd I’ve performed to! No, it was insane!

Did it live up to your expectations? Did everything go how you wanted to, were there any unexpected moments?

Completely. I mean, I did talk too much in the set, so we had to not do the last song, but it’s okay.

I mean, you are a storyteller!

I am!

So if that’s what you need to do…

Exactly. Exactly.

How much prep goes in to a stage like that? Do you like to wing it and see what comes naturally, or are you super meticulous?

I mean, I’d had two shows at the Omeara in April, so it wasn’t too long ago that I kind of was with my band and did lots of rehearsals, but I just had a day of rehearsals yesterday with my band, and then I’m filming the sequel to a movie that I did at the moment.

I filmed last night, a night shoot from about half seven until four in the morning, which was crazy.

Oh my goodness.

So I’m sort of just riding the wave right now, I was absolutely winging it.

Are you buzzing on adrenaline then? Have you managed to like actually eat and hydrate?

I have, I have I’ve taken care of myself [laughs].

What artist, if you could collaborate with anybody, would you want to share a stage like this with?

To be honest, Noah Kahan is definitely up there for me and Bon Iver, I love. And the 1975.

You’ve talked about your songwriting process a lot and kind of how you do want to tell your stories. What does your songwriting process look like?

To be honest, it kind of varies. I have a notes app on my phone… everybody has the notes app on my phone, but I have notes on my phone where I just write down lyric ideas constantly, anything that comes into my brain.

But I find that having kind of… the theme for the song really helps me: starting out the day knowing what the song will end up being about, helps me then create the through line of it, I guess.

But lyric… melody… whichever order it comes… [it] changes.

So it depends on the song, depends on the concept.

Yeah, I think so.

With your acting work as well, you genuinely have an audience from all over!

What’s that like going into your songwriting process, knowing that people from completely different walks of life are going to be listening to your work?

It’s insane. I mean, it’s been like, such a whirlwind, I guess. I only started releasing music in November last year, so it’s just been insane. People came today from Portugal and from Belgium and like, I just have the best sort of fans who are amazing and beautiful.

But it’s pinch me moments every time for sure.

Your last EP dropped in March!

Yeah!

What was that roll out like for you? What was it like seeing the reception and did anything unexpected come up for you?

Again, it was just crazy. I mean, it was my first experience of releasing music, so I was just sort of riding a wave and having the most fun ever, I guess.

I did like a pop up kind of thing at Old Street Station where I had a SoundCloud billboard, which was really fun, and we had some people… we invited fans to come and and say hi, and I performed some songs, and I kind of wasn’t expecting anybody to come.

Just seeing people’s faces for the first time was definitely like the most surreal moment, because I think a lot lives online. So then seeing real people is just, like, insane.

Do you get people sending you in song requests online, when they know you’re going to perform?

Yeah. I mean, most of the time I get I get requests for things to cover, like on TikTok, because I post covers all the time I have. I have people asking me like…. like today somebody said, “Can you cover this Phoebe Bridgers song?”

Oh, wow!

But I mean, I’ve only released six songs. So the people that come to my shows know more than that. They’re always hoping that I play unreleased ones, I guess.

For someone who hasn’t listened to your music before, what song would you suggest for them to get a sense of you?

I think I would say “Shiver”. I think it’s the song that came the quickest, I guess. It was super easy to write and it feels very me.

Asha Banks’ EP Untie My Tongue is out now. She can be found on Instagram here.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.