The Woman behind Bat for Lashes Interviewed
Natasha Khan creates illusions to help take her audience on a journey and, in part, as a way to dispel those images for herself. She’s the wildly creative force behind Bat for Lashes, a moniker she created for herself as she made the transformation from art school student to celebrated performance artist.
“Bat for Lashes allows me to create some necessary distance between myself and that person whose songs I hear on the radio and who deals with the press and all that,” she says.
And she has now embarked on her first major tour of America, the country whose cities, people and music served as the inspiration for her latestand stateside breakout releaseTwo Suns.
The 29-year-old Khan, who has already gained wide recognition in her homeland of England where her Two Suns garnered the singer-songwriter her second nomination for the Mercury Prize (the honor given to the top album in the U.K. each year), first came to America as a 20-year-old, and it was after spending time in Los Angeles and San Francisco that she mapped out the career that she finds herself realizing today. She returned to England and enrolled in a three-year degree program in music and visual art.
The curriculum included visual arts coursework such as painting, photography and sculpting, combined with musical composition and recording studio craft. Recalls Khan: “In the course of getting my degree, I built up a portfolio that is well-represented on the first album,” her 2006 release, Fur and Gold. “I could not immediately make a living as a musician, so I got a certification in child care, moved from London to Brighton and, to pay the bills, spent my days teaching art to young children or children with learning difficulties. Then I would go home at night and work on my music, adding to my portfolio of songs. And I made a pact with myself that I would perform at least once a month.”
After almost three years of this schedule, she met the man who would become her managerand that served as the catalyst to go into the studio to record the first album. With the success of Fur and Gold (her first Mercury nomination), Khan followed her desire to move to New York to pursue romantic interests.
