Franny Gleave, the lead singer responsible for Bancho’s soulful and effortlessly beautiful musical delivery, enlightened me on the reasoning behind the choice for the particular and attention grabbing stage name and how it relates to her role as the “ringleader” of the group.
“I started doing solo stuff as Bancho so I’m kind of the ringleader I guess,” she said, trailing off as other band members clarified, “She is the Bancho.”
Gleave then added, “My sister started calling me that and then I looked it up to make sure it wasn’t offensive and it turned out it was kind of offensive in a way, like it’s tough,” she said to explain her use of the word.
After a little while as her own thing, Gleave added brothers Oliver and Max Taggart, with whom she grew up.
“I’ve known them forever,” she said. “Our parents were friends. And then I found our drum machinist, Kaden Hendron, in Provo,” she said, explaining that while she does currently go to BYU, she completed her freshman year here at the U. “He [the drum machinist] actually came to me and was like, ‘We should do a project!’—and I told him that I was doing Bancho and that I needed people to play.” Soon after he joined, Rebeka Olson, another friend from the Provo music scene was also added to Bancho’s team. Both contribute immensely to the group and its unique sound.
Surprisingly, none of the members of the band are majoring in music, preferring to take on sciences or a performing arts degree. Max, for example, is currently working on his Masters in Biomedical Informatics while Oliver is completing his undergrad in the Entertainment Arts Engineering program, which entails game design and technical arts, both at the U. Gleave is pursuing an undergrad in Theater Arts at BYU.
She explained this choice of study by saying, “I’m theater, no left brain, just all right brain, no math at all…I’ve always liked music, I grew up playing violin. And so I liked performance, but I didn’t like violin…I really like engaging with an audience.”
Keyboardist Oliver also underlined his extensive musical background to explain why he decided to join the-then solo endeavor that was early Bancho.
“I played piano for like 12 years since I was — I don’t know, eight or something,” he said. “But Franny actually coerced me into playing, convinced us to come to a practice and then it was a lot of fun and I really liked it.”
Talking about his keyboard contributions, Oliver said, “It’s a pretty fresh sound.” Max chimed in, saying, “ it’s synth-tastic!”
The band clearly enjoys the work they do, and it really translates to the band’s self-titled EP. When asking the members to try and define their sound with a single word, “dreamy” surfaced repeatedly.
“Maybe Lie” is the EP’s first song. The beat opens, very crisp and tight, then fades slightly as Max’s mellow guitar plucks chime in. The base and the synths (which comes later on) kick in to give the song a mesmerizing easy ebb and flow. Gleave’s vocals burst through with an effortless strength, her R&B influences subtly showing through.
“I would say that my vocal style, whether it translates or not, is pretty heavily influenced by R&B. I can name drop if you want,” Gleave said, laughing.
The track develops expertly, the chorus is memorable without trying too hard to be and the guitar and the synths experiment tastefully as the track progresses to a neat and tidy end.
A great light listen, which the band has coined as “Fruit pop” is reflected in the pastel colored EP cover depicting computer generated fruit with a pale pink backdrop.
You can listen to “Maybe Lie” and the entire EP on Bandcamp for free. Finally, make sure to support local music and fellow classmates by checking them out at their next live show at Kilby Court alongside other artists like K Theory and Peach Dream on Jan. 7.
This article has been updated to reflect new information.
@daanielsonn