Channing

Channing Banks was born in Stanford, California, USA on the 18th of March, 1978. Music has always played a great part in her life, starting with her father who used to sing on the radio in the late 50’s. At the time of her youth, Channing’s father Richard worked as a Levi’s executive, and was often out of town, which meant that many of the special moments Channing shared with her father consisted of singing together in the car, associating music with joy from a very young age.
Channing’s parents noticed very early that she was passionate about music and enrolled her in ballet courses which she took for a number of years. Her singing career began at about nine years old when she would tape herself singing to Debbie Gibson and The Beach Boys and created sing and dance shows for friends and family.
Her family moved to Seattle, Washington when she was twelve years old and Channing furthered her knowledge of music by beginning to play the piano and the flute. She also began writing peotry and sung in her school choir. At 17 she finished highschool one year before her fellow classmates and took a year off to study Spanish on a small island in Mexico. During this time, she danced at a special ceremony for the coronation of the carnival queen. Upon her return to the United States she began at the University of Washington where she served as the representative of her department and spent 4 months studying abroad in France. At the time of graduation in 2000, Channing spoke 3 languages, and her studies and travels had greatly helped her to learn and appreciate music and poetry from a variety of cultures.
Immediately after graduation, Channing left for a year in Taiwan where she worked as a teacher. During this year she studied Chinese and Buddism, also winning a prize in an English poetry contest. Due to a difficult language barrier, she lived a rather solitary existence, frequently painting and singing to wash away her loneliness.
After a long year, Channing returned to the United States for the summer during which she also spent one-month on a French island in the Caribbean. It was there that her love for music and dance was fully reborn. The following year she lived in France where Channing spent her free time dancing in a Caribbean dance troop and learning about Caribbean and French music and culture.
The following summer of 2002, Channing decided to settle down in Italy, where her music career officially began. Working as an English teacher and living with a fellow foreigner named Laura, Channing would constantly sing at home. Laura, noticing her talent, decided to introduce her to a DJ named Gianni who was searching for an English-speaking singer. It was then that her life changed.
Channing went to meet the DJ one afternoon and they made an appointment to do a demo. On the day of the appointment, Channing didn’t show. Fearing the music business for it’s particular reputation, she feared putting herself in an uncomfortable situation. But Gianni was curious and decided to give her one more chance, calling her to make another appointment. From that point on, her life made a dramatic change and Channing knew that music could be her dream come true.
Gianni introduced her to Larry Pignagnoli at Off Limits (Italy’s leading music production company) through Paolo Pignagnoli (Musical Advisor and Talent Scout).
Larry, who has been spotting talent successfully for two decades, offered her a contract and they began to work on finding the right sound and style to frame Channing’s extraordinarily evocative voice.