There’s something sacred about the way Greg Banks speaks about music. Born and raised in New Orleans, Greg’s creative path began in community, from the church choir to the marching band and eventually the rhythm of a city built on sound. What started as poetry evolved into songwriting, guitar playing, and ultimately, a style that defies genre altogether.
In conversation with Muse Journal, Greg reflects on his evolution as both the artist and the man, from learning stillness as a source of inspiration to redefining what it means to create without boundaries. His words carry the weight of lived experience, of fatherhood, discipline, and finding peace in the chaos. Through it all, his music remains a vessel for truth, vulnerability, and divine expression.
With his upcoming EP New set to debut in Paris this fall, Greg invites listeners into a space where sound meets soul and where every chord reminds us that we are already enough.
Greg Banks photographed by Shane Augustus
There’s something sacred about the way Greg Banks speaks about music. Born and raised in New Orleans, Greg’s creative path began in community, from the church choir to the marching band and eventually the rhythm of a city built on sound. What started as poetry evolved into songwriting, guitar playing, and ultimately, a style that defies genre altogether.
In conversation with Muse Journal, Greg reflects on his evolution as both the artist and the man, from learning stillness as a source of inspiration to redefining what it means to create without boundaries. His words carry the weight of lived experience, of fatherhood, discipline, and finding peace in the chaos. Through it all, his music remains a vessel for truth, vulnerability, and divine expression.
With his upcoming EP NÜ set to debut this fall, Greg invites listeners into a space where sound meets soul and where every chord reminds us that we are already enough.
SASHA: How did you get your start in music?
GREG:
My music career began as a member of the choir back home in New Orleans. That's where I learned the importance of community. I learned how to be a part of something bigger than me. From there, I transitioned to the marching band where I played trumpet. And from that point, I started writing poetry, and poetry led to songwriting, and songwriting led to learning guitar, and here we are.
SASHA: Your music has been described between soulful and genre bending. Do you think in genres when you create, or do you see yourself building a world without those labels or outside of those labels?
GREG:
I see myself building an immersive experience that is limitless, where people can attach themselves to a true emotion, not limited by a label that someone else created. So if I'm feeling soulful in the chords that come out of me, that's what I'll play. And midway through, I feel like I want to add some funk on it. That's what I'll do. I'm just emoting the things that I'm going through. And hopefully, what I'm conveying someone else can feel. And I give them permission to accept it and acknowledge it and classify it in whatever way that feels right to them. That's what I would say.
SASHA What role does silence or non-music play in your creative process, if any?
GREG:
That's a beautiful question, actually. I can relate to that so much more now at this point in my life because I understand that in stillness, the greatest awareness comes. When I'm not doing and I'm allowing myself to just be, I find my greatest inspiration. When I'm walking or sitting in a park, I'll hear things that I wouldn't hear when I'm strumming through guitar chords. And when I allow myself to center, I could feel ways that I may limit when I'm in an environment where I have to be the artist. When I can just be the man, the person, the being, I'm most inspired. I think that that, for me at this point, is the most impactful part of my expression and interpretation, knowing that the beauty is in the silence.
SASHA: Where do you find your inspiration, and would you attribute that to more discipline or finding it in the chaos, or both, or not at all?
GREG:
Large part of my discipline is understanding that that's the only way to achieve greatness. In addition to that, equally as important is fatherhood. I find a great responsibility of being a father as one of the greatest gifts in this life because I have a chance to guide others to a greater life than I've discovered by being first the example and then holding them accountable to a higher standard. In addition to that, quite frankly, the chaos is a spark at times because in that chaos, you must create peace. So it's like, how can I challenge myself to find peace in mayhem? Because it's easy to find peace in peace. But can you find peace in mayhem? And when I'm able to do that, I realize I'm challenging something divine. And in that divinity, I'm creating the greatest art that I feel I've ever done.
SASHA: From your viewpoint, do you think artists have a responsibility to reflect the times in their work, or is it the opposite, where the times are a reflection of the art that we consume?
GREG:
From my perspective, I feel like those dualities can coexist. The artist is responsible to reflect the time that we're in because we have the capacity to do so in a way that many people can understand. We have a way of using words, colors, shapes to depict something that most people can only think about and imagine. When you've been blessed with a gift to transfer that information in a way that many can understand, you should do it because that's how we can shift the change that we seek. Everyone has a role, has a responsibility to add to the beauty of the world. But when we have the privilege of being influential, we should use that for good. And that doesn't mean you have to create albums of protest music or why not? But you're not limited to that. Your song about love can have something that lifts up the world in unity and oneness. The song about what you're seeing walking to your neighborhood could be the song that changes someone's life, save someone's life. So I think the responsibility of the artist is to be present, to be accountable, and to be a conduit for the things that will shift the world.
SASHA: What's a truth you've discovered through music that you couldn't have learned any other way?
GREG:
Well, I won't discredit life being a great teacher, but music helped me to fast forward to the point and the reality that I'm an emotional man. I'm sensitive. I care a lot, and I have a lot to say about that. I'm very accountable, and I try to pretend like I wasn't, but music forced me to accept that knowing. So I'm emotional.
SASHA: So if someone only listens to your music, what's one part that they never understand?
GREG:
One part that I think they wouldn't understand is probably how a teenage father without a father who, because of society and geography, was on a trajectory of being prison bound, created something so pure, so tangible, so full of love, and so light. I came up in a very heavy environment, and I think if people only listen to the music, they probably wouldn't know how that happened, that I arrived at this point.
SASHA: If your music was a conversation with future generations, what's the one thing you'd want them to hear between the notes?
GREG: I would want them to hear that they are already enough, that all they have to do is just allow the space to become. They don't have to pretend to be anything. They don't have to try and fit in. They are magnificent. They are special. They were selected, chosen for a specific path, and do everything with love. Show the way if you know it. Let it be known when you don't. Be okay with figuring it out because you'll get there in your own time.
MUSING: HER THE MUSE
As a quiet rebellion and a way of pulling myself back together, I decided to create an alter ego. This was after a major rejection from a top modeling agency.
In the modeling world, you are expected to show up as “yourself” and at the same time remain a blank slate that allows a designer to mold you into their perfect muse. Add in the measurements required for the job, and you’re left with maintaining the balance of who you are and who others think you should be. I figured that if I could maintain a perfect balance between this dichotomy I would appear as a more bookable model.
I was working well when I had the request to meet with bookers from one of the most powerful agencies. Everyone on the team seemed excited about me and offered me a contract. But there were some caveats – I was asked to lose some inches around my waist and hips and not to walk any shows that season. This was a big request but not a totally uncommon one in the industry. Many models and creatives at large use the strategy of disappearing from the public’s eye while they make changes or work on something new in order to grab attention of their audience or clients when they make their reemergence.
At the time of this offer, I had just arrived to New York for Fashion week and already had a few potential clients who I had to pass on if I wanted to move forward with that agency.
I decided to do what they requested because they guaranteed signing me if I followed through. I asked for the promise to be put in writing and with that I took on the painstaking challenge of losing inches on my already small frame. I was so eager that I immediately got to work with a personal trainer and made strict changes to my diet. This all came with its own challenges because while I never went hungry, it was an extremely limiting and came with a bit of overexercising.
WHEN YOUR BEST IS STILL NOT ENOUGH
I achieved the goals in about two months and had a follow up meeting. To my shock, the agency didn’t keep their end of the promise and instead I was met with a list of reasons why they changed their minds. Most of the feedback focused less on measurements and more on the idea of me being too muscular. They said that I converted any remaining fat on my body to muscle (side note: That’s scientifically impossible) and stressed that there are “real people” that model, people that were athletes that also model and finally there were “Model” models – by the tone of their feedback, I did not fall in that category for them.
That’s where the Imposter Syndrome kicked in, because if I wasn’t a “Model” model this entire time – what the heck was I? I had dedicated several years, tons of energy and even relocated to other countries solely to fulfill contract obligations and now I was being told that I didn’t really meet the qualifications.
Up until that point in my career I had endured a plethora of rejection so I thought my mental health was impenetrable. The rejection was always followed up with reasons why I wasn’t “good enough”. For some clients I was too tall, others too short, I’ve even had clients tell me I don’t eat enough within the first 5 minutes of meeting them so by that point dealing with rejection and offensive reasoning was a piece of cake. But now, here I was being told to loose more weight and when I did, I was too muscular.
Exhausted, confused and mentally drained, I decided to push through and re–strategize by refreshing my portfolio with new photographers that had interesting photography styles. On my first return, I was told my look lacked intrigue and that I was “just another pretty Black girl with an afro”. That critique stung but the suggested changes stung deeper:
“Shave your head, your eyebrows, reinvent yourself with makeup and shock value,” was the advice I received – and only way the photographer would consider working with me. Could you imagine? I was being asked to loose myself in exchange for who and what everyone else thought I should be. Not to mention, I’d be risking the chances of losing all of the clients I had at that time.
My experience taught me several lessons, from having a deeper understanding of self worth, to understanding the value I am willing to place on the objects and situations outside of me. Most importantly I learned the correlation of the both.
REMEMBERING WHO YOU ARE. REMEMBERING YOUR BOUNDARIES.
I was dismayed by the photographer’s advice but I took it anyway, with an artistic approach this time. I began shaping this idea of the industry's “perfect” Muse.
That’s when many more questions started to arise:
“What if I took every piece of advice or followed every instruction?”
“Who or what would I become?”
“Would I still be here?” And if I was…
“What kind of existence would that be?”
With that, I present you a few outtakes from ‘HER’ the MUSE, a self-portrait series.
MUSING: Marvin Desroc
Fashion Designer, Paris France
My earliest memory of Marvin Desroc is from the spring of 2021. I was working as a fit model at the Gucci design office in Rome, where he was part of the men’s design team. I remember strolling past Marvin while he was enjoying his lunch under the warm Roman sun. We made eye contact and smiled at each other as he waved to the other fit models I was with. I remember this moment so vividly because we had already been following each other on social media, and I make it a point to acknowledge and mentally note any and all Black people I come across living abroad.
Marvin was born in Martinique to parents of Caribbean heritage from Martinique and Dominica, and he was raised in Paris. Needless to say, he has a multicultural background that continues to shape his creative worldview. His upbringing gave him a distinct perspective on identity, style, and culture which is reflected in both his personal presence and design work.
Some time passed before we had the opportunity to truly connect over dinner with a mutual friend in Milan. He had recently relocated to the city to work in-house at Off–White under Ib Kamara. During that dinner, I grew fascinated by him, his views on fashion, and his creative process when he is in design mode.
Most recently, Marvin and I spent time together during his trip to New York, where he was celebrating his designs being featured in the Met’s latest exhibition, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. I was lucky enough to wear one of his pieces while accompanying him to preview the exhibition.
In this conversation with Marvin, we explore how his curiosity for learning gave him an unconventional head start in his career, his unexpected sources of inspiration, and his plans for the future.
SASHA: Walk us through your career – What was the first step you took to start?
MARVIN:
"I’d say my career really began when I was 17. I already knew how to draw, but I realized I needed to learn the actual skill of making clothes. So I went door to door in Le Sentier, Paris, seeking out tailors who would teach me. That’s where it started – learning directly from pattern makers and tailors. Most people count the beginning of a career from graduation or the first job with a brand, but for me, it all began at 17, with hands-on training in the heart of Paris.
I think it really cemented the foundation of everything that I do, everything that I'm about. I would say it's the beginning for me.”
SASHA: What followed?
MARVIN:
“What followed was a traditional path –– I went through the standard education system, then on to fashion school. I studied at Duperré, then at Central Saint Martins. Then obviously, what people would consider it to be the real start –– Gucci, I started as a junior designer there, then went to Off-White, and then Saint-Laurent. For me the real beginning was when I was 17, learning how to make clothes”
SASHA: You mentioned “Le Sentier” –– can you tell us a little bit more about what that is and how you navigated it?
MARVIN:
“Le Sentier is the fashion district in Paris. It's quite well known for if you want to buy fabrics, trimmings, you can find different tailors there. It's like the fashion district. If you want to do fashion, you just know to go as a Parisian. I just decided to go there and try my luck. I knocked on a few doors and I was like, ‘Guys, I'm only 17, just starting fashion school, and I would love to (Outside of fashion school) learn under somebody that knows the technique’. I received a couple of nos then one kind lady said she couldn't help me, but she knew somebody who could. So she gave me a number, and I called that person, and the rest is history. That person is still very much part of my life and became a mentor for me.”
SASHA: How does your cultural roots shape your artistic vision?
MARVIN:
“It's the driving force of everything I do, it's the starting point, I think. Even me with this top [points to the top he’s wearing], people see lingerie, but the starting point was actually the “wife beaters” that we all own in the Caribbean. And I wanted to blend that with that French sensibility that I adopted growing up in Paris. I think it's the driving force of everything. It's the filter to everything that I look at. Yeah, it's It's literally everything.
Basically, everything that I see, it's being filtered through my own emotions, my cultural roots. I think filter is the right word because as a designer, you absorb everything, but the way you're going to interpret that is unique to you. To me, my cultural roots, they do act as a filter to everything that I look at. So it's everything. It's the starting point, it's the filter.”
SASHA: What are the themes you're most passionate about in your work?
MARVIN:
“I love, love, love, lingerie. There's something about lingerie that I adore. I never can understand why. It's almost like an obsession. Yeah, I would say the main theme (it always changes) but I would say the main theme is always lingerie. Although people might not think, the other (inspiration) is hip hop, people might not see it necessarily in the work because I'm not necessarily giving off that vibe, it's streetwear. But It is a huge theme because I love hip hop, and I grew up in that as well through my big brothers. So it's always going to be something that I look at naturally.
But again, I'm going to filter it with different things. At the end, it's not really going to look like hip hop per se, but I always use it as a starting point somehow. I would say hip hop and lingerie for sure –– Those are the main ones. I have couture here and there. I love [adding] couture elements. I'm a huge couture fan. I'm a huge fan of just French designers in general. But the main two, I would say, is lingerie and hip hop.”
SASHA: That's what makes the influence so interesting with you, that there are of two different worlds.
MARVIN:
“So different. Opposite worlds. But that's what I love about… I've always worked in a diptych kind of way where I would take two components that are just so far from each other and try to figure out what links them together. I love working like that, in a diptych.”
SASHA: How did you build your network and find collaborators?
MARVIN:
“In terms of Paris, I definitely just went in with [the attitude] like, ‘Hey, guys I’m young, but I want to learn’. I built [network and collaborators] through drive and just wanting to learn skills, and then obviously, working in fashion. Also, working within studios of different brands.”
SASHA: What advice would you give to someone starting out as a designer?
MARVIN:
“I would say be kind, have fun, but learn... I would say learn your craft. I do think a lot of people now want to make fashion and want to do fashion because of what we see and how much of a wider audience it has now, and a lot of people want to make it, but they're not really going to the core of it, which is the basic skills of learning how to draw, learning how to drape. If you're going to be in a fashion, just know what you're talking about. [Make sure] you can hold a pencil, you can hold a scissors, you can cut fabric, you can do all of that. I believe, if you go back to the drawing board and focus on upping your skills first. I'm a bit old school.
That would be my advice because you're always going to be necessary. Even if [having your own label] doesn't work out, when you have skills, you're always going to be necessary. So skills are, to me, the most important thing. That's my advice. Focus on that.”
SASHA: What project or moment am I most proud of?
MARVIN:
Well, because it just happened, I would say the Met. I would say the Met exhibition because when I did what I did [design his graduate collection which is featured in the exhibit], at the time, it was never to launch a brand. I didn't know anything about launching [a brand]. When I did this, I was 22. I remember saying this, all I wanted was to inspire people and to open their eyes about new masculinity. And I just wanted to do something for the culture. So being at the Met, and especially being in an exhibit where it is about culture and it is about reaching people through that, it really meant something for me. I'm very proud of that because it’s what I wanted to achieve when I did this collection. I felt like I did that. I'm very proud of that.
SASHA: What's next for you? And is there anything that you want to share with us that you're excited about?
MARVIN:
“I definitely want to continue collaborating within fashion, maybe with other brands, maybe with other designers. But I also would love to implement my voice a bit more within the whole fashion sphere. I do believe I have something to say, and I want to say it.”
Stay up to date with Marvin and his latest work on Instagram.