Five years ago, Isabelle Banos found her true calling. Already a member of the badass alternative pop band, Caveboy, the Montreal-based songwriter knew she wanted to produce. She reflects on her production journey and explains what led her to open a studio for women and gender minorities.
Banos was happily binge-watching Netflix miniseries, Maid last year, and on being blown away by the show’s music and soundtrack, was a little sad that none of her band’s (Caveboy) music had been included after getting a sync request six months earlier.
“Maid was right up my alley. It instantly hooked me,” says an instantly friendly Banos from her home in Montreal, Canada, where she’s joined by her sometimes vocal rescue dog, Bruce.
“I was really enjoying it and I was really drawn to the music that they used, to the point where I was a little jealous! I was super bummed that none of Caveboy’s music was able to make it into the show. I was like, ‘Man, this would have been such a great sync placement!’ I kid you not – the next episode that I watched, sure enough, our song Something Like Summer pops up.
"I nearly had a heart attack! I had completely forgotten about the sync request; I don’t know if I was busy or if because of the pandemic my brain was half working, but for some reason I didn't clock that this was the show.
"The scene popped up and I listened to the background music. I'm like, ‘Wait a minute. I know this song. I made this song’. It was like an out of body experience. It was so bizarre. It's certainly our happiest, most joyful song. We definitely write in a minor key more often,” she grins.
Making up the rest of Caveboy are Mint Bensimon on lead vocals, guitar and synths and Lana Cooney on drums, percussion and backing vocals, while Banos is on synths, bass and backing vocals. They met at CEGEP, a publicly funded college in Canada, and never looked back.
“I met Lana there. I saw this girl with drumsticks poking out of her backpack, and I was like, ‘Okay, I see you. Please be my friend’. We started making music and jamming in her garage.
"Our first gig was her sister's bar mitzvah – very rock and roll! We got a taste for performing, we got the bug. Eventually Mint joined the band and the three of us just clicked.”