Interview: Asha Banks on 'How Real Was It?', Making the Leap From Acting to Music, and Her Future Ambitions
- All The Things Music
- Jan 23
- 4 min read
Asha Banks has spent years captivating audiences on screen, but now, she’s letting the music take center stage. With the release of How Real Was It? on November 14 via Island Records, the British singer-songwriter leans into raw emotion and intimate storytelling, highlighted by tracks like “Rerun” and “Mascara Tears.” While many recognize her from Prime Video’s My Fault: London and Netflix’s A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, music has long been her creative anchor.
We sat down with Asha, thanks to 1824, to talk about the inspiration behind her new EP, how her acting background informs her songwriting, and her not-so-secret goal of one day landing on a Hunger Games soundtrack.
Diving into the story behind How Real Was It?, Asha explains that the title came to her instinctively while writing. “I wrote that lyric as the first thing that came out of my mouth when I was writing "Done Is Done", and I feel like that song became everything for that track, and then everything for the EP,” she shares. The phrase quickly took on a deeper meaning, reflecting both the project and the period of her life it was written in. “I think it sort of runs through all of the songs, and also through my life during the period I was writing How Real Was It? I’ve had so many amazing firsts, so many ups and downs over the past year, and that feeling was so present in all of the music. It’s a question I’m always asking myself.”
For Asha, music functions as a kind of emotional release, something deeply personal, yet meant to be shared. When asked which lyric felt the most brave to put out into the world, one song stood above the rest. “The whole of the song Delay felt really honest and sort of everything was very much on the surface. Even the process of writing that—it was my first time writing with Taylor and Mason, who I co-wrote it with, and who are amazing. I was already nervous to be writing with them because I love everything that they've worked on. I think they're so talented. And then that song had been brewing inside of me, and it was one of the days that I just needed to write it. I remember feeling nervous and a bit scared in the room, so I tried to hold on to that feeling and realized that that means it’s probably a good one, and something I should be brave enough to write down, get out of my brain and my mouth, put onto paper, and release to other people. It’s been very nice, and I think people have connected to it in a way that I really hoped they would.”
That vulnerability is closely tied to Asha’s experience as an actress. After years of stepping into other people’s lives, music has become a way for her to reconnect with her own. “I've learned so much about myself through the music that I make and through kind of, you know, the forcing myself to dive deeper and to really think about everything that's happening and know my own brain,” she says.
“And I think that that's only been made more important through playing other people. So much of my time has been consumed by thinking in somebody else’s brain and trying to get into their psyche, their thoughts, that it’s become more important to take time to be myself and really think about myself. It’s really helped me, I think, and almost given me more tools. I’m so used to dissecting somebody else and trying to figure out their rhyme and reason—and now I can kind of use those tools for myself, which sounds strange, but it’s true.”
With two successful EPs released in 2025, Asha is stepping into the future with excitement and openness. “I feel like this year has been absolutely mad, and I hope that 2026 is as mad,” she says. “I'm like, bring on the chaos. I think I sort of like thrive with chaos, so hopefully more of that. But I'm just having the best time, and I find so much joy in everything.”
And while music is now her main focus, her love for film remains deeply woven into her creative dreams. “I’m such a huge fan of The Hunger Games, the books and the movies, and the music they use has always been some of my favorites,” she says. “Being on that soundtrack would be an absolute dream.”
As Asha Banks continues to blur the lines between storytelling, vulnerability, and instinct, one thing is clear: she’s only just getting started. Fans will be able to experience her music live when she heads out on tour in 2026, bringing the emotional honesty of How Real Was It? from the studio to the stage.
