Titus Bank has a voice that can stop an audience in its tracks. The Vancouver-based pop adventurer can effortlessly shift from a smooth croon to a soulful vibrato to a note-perfect howl — arresting and inviting; confident yet vulnerable.
His awe-inspiring voice was the cornerstone of Titus’s wildly ambitious 2017 project when he aimed to write, record and release 365 songs throughout the year. He called it the 365 Songwriting Challenge — but by the end of the year, he had only written 185, barely half of his original goal.
“I would work a full day at my day job, get home and then start writing these songs. I would go until 3 or 4 in the morning, however long it took,” Titus remembers. Laughing, he adds. “I kept asking, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?!’”
Even though he fell short of his original goal, 185 songs is still a hell of a lot — that’s a lifetime worth of material for many artists. Not every song was magic, of course, but many of them were gorgeous folk ballads or towering R&B-inspired anthems. Full of plaintive guitar, nimble keys and the occasional ukulele, the stripped-down bedroom arrangements highlighted the aching power of Titus’s voice.
Titus has now entered the next phase of an already prolific music career. With two singles out that have garnered praise from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders and massive support from editorial playlist curators internationally, it is evident that Titus has tapped into something special as a result of refining his prolific songwriting ability into a clear and impressive artistic vision.
Four years on from the 365 Songwriting Challenge, Titus is left with positive thoughts about the experience. For one, it put him in touch with a number of similar-minded genre-twisters who were impressed with his sound and vision—including album collaborators Valley, and Cayne McKenzie (Big Kill/We Are The City). Hitting a daily quota isn’t so much a part of the process these days, though. While Titus has certainly proven he can come up with folk, pop, and R&B-leaning hooks at a reasonably prolific clip, his approach these days is more measured and mature.
“After the 365 challenge, I started focusing more on quality rather than quantity, like, ‘OK, I know I can write a ton of decent songs, but how can turn those into great songs?”
