And he's ready to tackle the hard topics.

Jacob Banks is a bubbling new artist that you can see a huge future for with just one click of a music video. He is handsome, stylish in that punky preppy way that only British talent ever is, a unique and emotional songwriter, and, most of all, he can sing. Really, really sing: He bellows deeply and croons sweetly. The 26-year-old British musician has recently signed to Interscope Records on the strength of a few promising singles, on which he has shown a talent for mining 1960s flourishes and making them sound completely fresh. He evokes that recent tradition of U.K. singers who harken back to Dusty Springfield and Sam Cooke: Amy Winehouse, Duffy, and early Adele. He is unafraid to tackle difficult topics in song, too. The track &ldquo;Unknown (To You)&rdquo; is a vivid recounting of an emotionally strained coupling, and in the video for the track, Banks makes allusions to a toxic relationship between a father and son. It has recently been remixed by one of his heroes, Timbaland. As he told us one day on a phone call from a tour bus somewhere in America (he is on his first solo headlining run in the States), he is a young man with a lot to say in his music. If things work out the way they look like they are going to, he&rsquo;s going to have plenty of chances to say it.

You take on the weighty subject of difficult father-son relationships in &ldquo;Unknown (To You).&rdquo; Why?

I&rsquo;ve had that song for about three years. It&rsquo;s taken numerous meaning to me every couple of months really. When I wrote it, it was about a relationship I was in. We both had to leave but didn&rsquo;t know how to tell each other. But when I put it out, it started to mean more of a father-son relationship. I felt like growing up in an immigrant background, as men, we are told to put our feelings in the back of our mind and not address them. Most men that I know don&rsquo;t get to speak their mind. We don&rsquo;t get to address how we communicate with our partners, and I think it all stems from how we communicate with our fathers. I think hypermasculinity is a massive issue. It&rsquo;s not okay to show your feelings. It&rsquo;s a universal thing&mdash;not just where I grew up. Most men will tell you it&rsquo;s hard to communicate because we&rsquo;ve been taught not to for so long. We are used to pretending stuff just isn&rsquo;t there. It&rsquo;s not about my father really&mdash;it&rsquo;s any relationship between men.

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Especially now with all that&rsquo;s going on in the news with sexual assault, addressing hypermasculinity seems like a good place to start to change.

I tell my friends that if we can address hypermasculinity, we will sort 80% of our troubles. We will treat women better, we will learn how to be more compassionate about same-sex marriage. So many things will be sorted naturally if we address it. It&rsquo;s just how we&rsquo;ve been raised. We&rsquo;ve been taught to shut so many things out. It&rsquo;s going to take time, but it can start with how we raise our sons, how we raise our brothers, how we talk to other men.

I&rsquo;ve spent most of my life by myself and I&rsquo;ve always struggled, in rooms of people, to ask for help. I don&rsquo;t know how to communicate. Even in relationships, I don&rsquo;t know how to allow myself to be there. And so the music is all I have. All my energy goes into that. I want the album to keep people company, and to do that, I have to be honest.

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Timbaland remixed the song. What did that mean to you?

I grew up listening to all the stuff Timbaland did&mdash;Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Aaliyah. It was a massive part of my childhood. It&rsquo;s a wonderful feeling to have someone you&rsquo;ve been listening to before you even considered picking up a guitar somehow join you on the journey. He reached out about the song and just wanted to be a part of it. I didn&rsquo;t believe it. We&rsquo;re going to work together in the new year.

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You spent the first part of your childhood in Nigeria. What do you remember of growing up there?

I remember it being fun. I remember having a good time. Growing up in that part of the world, the good thing about it is, it&rsquo;s not built on comparison. Everyone gets the same stroke. In the West, people are divided so viciously by class. In Nigeria, you&rsquo;re allowed to grow up not feeling like you are an outsider, because you are treated as harsh as everyone else or as loved as everyone else. I could get disciplined by my mom, my aunt, some lady in the shop&mdash;there was no special treatment. I think that&rsquo;s my most firm memory of the place. When you move to the West, you start comparing things, and it fucks with your happiness a little bit.

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Your sound has a feeling of nostalgia. Where does that come from?

It&rsquo;s the truth really. A song that&rsquo;s going to live with you for a long time should play like a projector in the back of your mind, a memory or a feeling or a scent. That&rsquo;s how I write songs. When I hear the chords, it triggers a memory, I feel it, a time and a place. My music is reflective, it&rsquo;s how I get my thoughts on paper. We look back at oldies like Al Green or Sam Cooke, but in their time, they were the forward thinkers.

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Some of your videos have political overtones, including &ldquo;Chainsmoking,&rdquo; in which you confront a police officer with your fist in the air. &nbsp;

My job is to respond to the time. If the time changes, maybe I can make music less political. But right now, people are denying other people in the most basic sense. I don&rsquo;t know how to convince people to care about other people. We all just happen to be here. I woke up one day, I was black. Why make anyone pay for that?

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Your voice is incredibly emotive&mdash;how do you approach vocals?

When I listen to an artist, my question is, Can I trust this person? Many people can sing well, but can you convey your emotions in a real way? That&rsquo;s what I try to do. I grew up in church, but I didn&rsquo;t start singing until I was 20, 21. I spent a long time trying to find my place and trying to be able to convey my emotions.

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You&rsquo;re on the edge of a huge career&mdash;when you look at your future, what do you see?

I don&rsquo;t really look. My benchmark was always just playing music with people I love. I&rsquo;m on the tour bus with people I genuinely love. I&rsquo;ve learned so much about myself by being an artist. How to love, how to be loved. I speak better to people. Even if the album sucks, I would become a better person because of the process. I think music is wonderful, but sometimes we give ourselves too much credit. We aren&rsquo;t curing cancer. I express myself for a living and that&rsquo;s a privilege. I&rsquo;m already where I&rsquo;m supposed to be. Anything past this point, it&rsquo;s fine, I&rsquo;ll take it. But I&rsquo;m already where I want to be.

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What are you hoping to accomplish with your debut album?

I&rsquo;m trying to not be complacent. It&rsquo;s easier said than done. Once you see something work, you think you have to do it again. But that&rsquo;s always the wrong move. The whole point is that it&rsquo;s unique, and if you do it again, it becomes a cliche. It was hard to find the first pot of gold, but you have to go and find another one. I can&rsquo;t do the same thing twice.

This album takes from all genres in U.K. culture: drum &lsquo;n bass, jungle, reggae. There are so many cultures in England. All my friends can speak patois. I can say hello in Urdu. It&rsquo;s such a microcosm of people&mdash;all walks of life. I really want to show how I grew up, the massive multicultural places that raised me.

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In your Twitter bio, you label yourself a jerk chicken connoisseur. Where&rsquo;s the best spot?

If anyone tells you that there&rsquo;s one particular place that makes the best jerk chicken, they&rsquo;re wrong. It depends on how you like it. Some people like it more spicy. Some people like it more char-grilled. I love this place with spicy jerk called C Breeze&mdash;I love all the hole-in-the-wall spots. I just love jerk chicken, man.

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All Photos by Grace Rivera.

Jacob Banks is the Honest Artist We've Been Waiting For

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