It all started deep in Chinatown, in a noodle shop where the noodles are handmade. Long before the RZA and Interpol’s Paul Banks could become Banks and Steelz and make an album together, they had to become friends. Fortunately, good energy and camaraderie flowed easily between them for years. Then, as RZA looked for someone new to record with, he thought of Paul. They jammed in the RZA’s home studio in LA and when Paul got back to NY and began to dive in on the works, they spoke to him. Those songs shaped the nature of the collaboration resulting in there debut album Anything But Words. The album is a hybrid of their styles that feels like a natural blend for both of them. “It’s a great balance of who we are,” RZA says. “It’s pop but it’s not too pop. It’s hip-hop but it’s not hip-hop all the way. It’s alternative, but it’s not alternative totally. It’s actually a melding of the right amount of each. Something about it feels modern and space age and something about it feels 80s to me. To me it forms its own genre.”