Rock Island, Moline, East Moline, Davenport. These are the Quad Cities. Davenport, which lies on the Iowa side, is the largest of the four and is separated from its sibling cities by the mighty Mississippi. While singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Terrance Banks calls the entire Quad Cities area his home, Davenport is the current base of his artist persona, SoulTru.

The SoulTru name comes from Terrance’s gospel background and a love for singing that developed in him at a very young age. Another name that has been with him for year is his nickname Backpack. Residents throughout the Cities have witnessed Terrance walking from one place to the next, from work to home to a show and vice versa, and whenever they see him he always has his trademark backpack strapped to his shoulders. Terrance became synonymous with that backpack. In fact, it became a metaphor that represents who he is, where he comes from and where he’s heading. It’s also the title of his new EP.

Terrance recently finished his debut Backpack EP, which will soon enjoy a digital release with a limited number of CDs also available The six tracks were recorded, mixed and mastered by Antione Bellamy (aka TwonyB) at his Fresh Boy Studio in Davenport. The record is a continuation of the SoulTru journey. As Terrance goes on, he fills his pack with new things and empties out other things that may have served him well, but are no longer necessary.

For Terrance, the journey really began in high school with poetry, He didn’t feel that he was verbally as articulate as other students and this set him off as an outsider. He also wasn’t down with the streetwise crowd in the hood either, and they weren’t down with him. They called him an Oreo, the derogatory term for a black person trying to act white. Terrance used poetry to cope, which naturally progressed into music. He sang chorale music and made the Iowa All State Music Choir his senior year of high school even as he listened to music of different genres, from Shinedown and Maroon 5 to Ne-Yo and Kanye West. Black artists like Brian McKnight and John Legend were huge for him but a white artist like Gavin DeGraw was a big inspiration as well.

As SoulTru, his musical journey has been varied too and includes a stint in a hard rock band from out of Muscatine, IA and a few cover bands here and there. In between, Terrance would perform karaoke if no other venues were available — anything to keep singing. Ten years down the road and Terrance is still writing and performing. While he can look back and see the start of his journey and recognize the signposts he has past along the way, looking forward there doesn’t seem to be an end to where he can go. In fact, this is really just the beginning.