Banks & Steelz with Dan the Automater

It all started deep in Chinatown, in a noodle shop where the noodles are handmade. See, long before the RZA and Interpol's Paul Banks could become Banks and Steelz and make an album together, they had to become friends. So there they were in Chinatown, Paul Banks and the RZA and the RZA's martial arts coach, chopping it up over noodles. "It was a very Wu-Tang Clan thing for me to do," Paul said. "I brought up my favorite Wu-Tang song. I said it was "Bells Of War." He nodded and told me about the Nord Lead keyboard he'd acquired at that time and used for the song. I saw he was stoked that I'd said that. That was my first interaction with him where I felt an artistic connection." The RZA liked Paul right away. "He had a cool New York musician type energy." But they had to hang out a lot more before they could get to making music.