Greg Banks Interview: The New Orleans Singer Who Went From NYC Subway Platforms to the World Stage

Greg Banks learned his most important lesson about performing on a New York subway platform, where nobody owes you anything.

"The street teaches you raw, unfiltered truth," the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter told me over Zoom on Wednesday. "I don't care how many streams you have, how many followers you have. If you don't give me something I can feel, I'm walking away."

Banks has spent years giving people something to feel, on Manhattan street corners, in train stations, and lately on stages in Paris and Brazil. According to his team, his street performances have racked up more than 40 million views across social media and built him a following of more than 100,000. He blends funk, soul and R&B, and he describes himself simply: "I am a culmination of everything I've ever been through. So that's what you'll hear."

I first photographed Banks in Brooklyn in 2021. Back then he had picked up the guitar only about seven months earlier. Today he calls it "my compass to the world."

Songs written after the storm

Banks grew up in New Orleans and was 16 when Hurricane Katrina hit. That is when he started writing songs, and the first ones were about what he could see around him: "hardship, trials and tribulations, broken homes, trauma, violence."

What carried him through was imagination. "Even when I was living in those circumstances, my imagination allowed me to harness something bigger than what was tangible," he said. Over time the songs shifted from what he saw to what he hoped for. Asked how close his life is now to what that teenager pictured, he didn't hesitate. "It's extremely close, and even more vast than that."

New Orleans still runs through the music, especially the Treme and Armstrong Park, where, as he put it, people have gathered for generations to "share our stories through song." His advice for visitors: "You don't see New Orleans. You feel New Orleans."

His teachers came from home first. He named the Meters and Dr. John, then James Brown, Prince, Funkadelic, Earth, Wind & Fire and Michael Jackson. "They were proof that I could get there," he said. "But life gave me the attitude. Life gave me the syncopation. Life gave me the grit."

The moment on the platform

When winter made the sidewalks too cold to play, Banks moved underground. On one platform he befriended a man named Jayson Corwise, who was unhoused and living in the station. Jayson would show up whenever Banks played one particular song. One day he started singing along, with a voice Banks compares to Teddy Pendergrass. Someone recorded it, and the clip went viral.

The bigger story was who saw it. According to Banks, Jayson's family had not seen him in more than a decade and had believed he was dead. The video brought them back together.

Banks remembers one of his sons asking why he trusted Jayson. He told him that underneath what he could see was a man who, just like his father, had the power to make different decisions. "It was a moment of brotherhood, camaraderie and oneness in the power of music," Banks said. The same clip, he added, brought him a global audience.

It also caught the attention of SZA, who Banks says wanted to collaborate with him and Jayson. That plan never came together. Jayson has since died.

How Lenny Kravitz found him

Banks' connection to Lenny Kravitz started without any viral video at all. While he was busking in Williamsburg, a woman stopped to say she liked his music and wanted to introduce him to a friend. Months later she came back, called the friend, and turned the phone around. It was Kravitz. "He's like, 'Hey, man, nice to meet you. I like what you're doing for the community. Keep going,'" Banks recalled.

The two met in person later in Paris, where Banks bought his own ticket to a Kravitz concert ("I want to support you") and was brought backstage after the show. A third encounter came during New York Fashion Week, when Banks was playing outdoors in the Meatpacking District. Actor Evan Ross stopped, said he would call a friend, and about 10 minutes later Kravitz sat down beside Banks on a windowsill for 15 or 20 minutes while he played. A stranger across the street caught 12 seconds of it on video. It went viral, too.

"People connect with authenticity and realness," Banks said. "The fact that I'm on their radars is powerful to me."

The clip below, from one of those sidewalk sets with Kravitz in the crowd, is the most-watched video on Banks' YouTube channel.

Same energy, any stage

Banks' approach to the street is deliberate. "I didn't have the luxury of building up to the moment," he said. "The first moment I opened my mouth and struck the guitar had to be the moment." He prepares for a street corner the same way he would for a big stage, with the same intention and the same professionalism. "People love feeling like you thought about how you would present yourself."

The street-corner résumé has opened some very big doors. His press kit lists national anthem performances at Citi Field, MetLife Stadium and Madison Square Garden, an official performer slot at the FIFA World Cup final at MetLife, appearances at the Cannes Film Festival and Jazz Mansion in São Paulo, a performance on the season finale of Bravo's "Summer House: Martha's Vineyard," and TV spots including Fox 5 New York and "Good Day Washington." He has been written up by The New York Times and landed the cover of AphroChic magazine. Greenpointers put it plainly: "Watching Greg Banks is like watching a rockstar in the making, or more suitably one already made."

That independence carries into how he makes records. During the pandemic he taught himself drum machine, bass and guitar so his momentum would not depend on anyone else. "The worst case scenario is it would take me longer than I imagined to learn those instruments," he said. "If I stuck with it, I'd get there. And I did."

The song carrying him into this season is "So In Love," which he wrote and co-produced with Dominique Pereira. He has also released it as a remix and in a version featuring TWISM, and his team says it is in Grammy consideration this year.

On the street, his reliable crowd-winner is still Chris Stapleton's "Tennessee Whiskey" ("babies to 80s, they rock with that one"), but "So In Love" is the one he is betting on now.

You can hear more of his catalog, including "So In Love" and "Soul," on Spotify.

Next stop: the world, and D.C.

Banks says his biggest support right now is coming from Europe and South America, and his goal is to take his music to those audiences while building with brands that fit what he already does. Those partners now include a Greg Banks signature line with French Kiwis eyewear, partnerships with Lucky Brand, John Fluevog shoes and Cult of Individuality, and an autobiography in the works with Ross Williams, according to his press kit. "I just seek to continue to take this globally," he said, "and turn this Grammy consideration to a Grammy win." His top three dream collaborators: SZA, Pharrell and Maxwell.

Fashion is a growing part of the story. Banks was the musical guest for designer Kent Anthony's fall 2026 runway show in New York this month. The pairing makes sense: Anthony, a menswear designer who debuted at New York Men's Day, carries a four-generation legacy of New Orleans Creole tailoring, and the new collection is a coming-of-age meditation on Creole identity. Next up on Banks' calendar, per his team, are headline concerts in New York and London and another stop at Jazz Mansion in São Paulo.

Washington is already on his map. For about two years he has performed every couple of months at The Ned, a private members' club in the District (he has also held a residency at the club's NoMad outpost in New York), and he plays there again this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16 and 17. His biggest D.C. show so far came a few years back at Black Men Rock, where he opened for Raheem DeVaughn in front of roughly 700 people.

But he wants more of the city than a members' club can give him. "I don't really feel the D.C. energy like I want to," he said. "Let this be the call to action. I'm ready to come out to D.C. and rock out," he added, naming the Howard Theatre and homecoming season. He has heard go-go through the D.C. musicians who play with him, and every visit he asks them to take him where the real thing is. "I really want to feel it, and even jam with the guys, too."

Lightning round

The New Orleans dish New York gets wrong: crawfish étouffée. "They just don't have the right flavor."

What fans would be surprised to learn: he is the father of four sons, all teenagers.

Where to find him: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, and, as he puts it, on the streets of New York if you're lucky.

His parting words were advice for anyone chasing something: "If you can think it, you can do it. You just have to do it. You're never too late. You're always right on time."

Feature photo: Elys Berroteran.