A worthy successor to Bush, Björk and Harvey, Natasha Khan – aka Bat For Lashes – is about to make a deep impression with her second album. She talks to TONY CLAYTON-LEAabout wanderlust, introversion and her new alter ego
THE TICKET first encountered Natasha Khan last summer, on the top deck of her moderately functional tour bus. Outside were Malahide, and the rush, shove, push and pull of activity as Radiohead prepared to edge their way on stage.
Khan, having just finished her support slot to the bigger band, was willowy and relaxed. Panic stations were several stops away. Brows were unfurrowed. She was in the zen zone, and enjoying every calm minute.
Khan's 2006 album Fur and Goldhad been nominated for the Mercury Prize but somehow lost out to the woefully underdeveloped Klaxons. Fur and Golddid win approval from the likes of Björk and Thom Yorke, who was so impressed that he personally invited Khan on Radiohead's 2008 European tour.
That album also opened the way for Khan to take precious time off in the US with her then boyfriend, musician Will Lemon.
Now, almost a year after her Malahide concert and three years on from Fur and Gold, she is releasing her follow-up, long-time-coming album, Two Suns. Her subsequent break-up from Lemon, she says, has formed a large part of the new album's lyrical thrust.
Many women have been inspired by the arty-party triumvirate of Kate Bush, PJ Harvey and Björk, but Khan has really run with the baton. She has, she says, written songs from the age of 10, the very act an “internal thing, simply the process of emotions”. She always wanted to create, but in a private manner.
“So when I did go to university it was very much a landmark in my life, because my family knew I was going to study art, but I had to tell my friends and other people.
“Because I did my foundation in art when I finished school, I had to pay to put myself through foundation and university, so I did quite a lot of work in offices and other fairly grim places. That’s when I decided that I wanted to travel before I started university. I went away on my own at the age of 18, absorbed things, received a lot of affirmation from other travellers and artists along the way. That was another eye-opening experience, another step up in the world.”
It was and is travel, she remarks, that provides her with answers to the kind of questions we usually ask ourselves when we switch the lights off.
“If I’ve ever felt bored or stunted in my life, or when there have been occasions when I’ve not known what to do, I’ve generally gone away. That harks back to when I was growing up, as my family travelled a lot back in the day. I’ve always had the travelling bug, always liked embracing different cultures.”
Having a travelling bug might indicate a need to run away if and when certain personal issues can’t be coped with. Other thoroughbred music artists (highly strung, sensitive, easily spooked – you know the sort) might think such cod philosophy insulting, but Khan receives the point evenly.
“Running away? I don’t feel like I’m running from anything. It’s definitely an adventure and a mission that I’m after when I head off somewhere. It’s a real privilege to just buy a ticket and head off somewhere and not really know what’s going to happen. A lot of people don’t have that level of spontaneity. In the unknown places you’re mostly yourself and are able to live in the moment. I like routine, but when you get too stuck in a routine you start working out of unconscious behaviours.
“In unknown situations, you’re coming from a much more instinctual and fresh place, from where you can reassess things much better.”
Khan’s personal background inevitably formed her into a curious fusion of fantasist and pragmatist. Coming from a mixture of English-Christian (her mother) and Pakistani-Muslim (her father), she developed a dual belief system from the off. Up until the age of 11, when her parents split up, she travelled between Hertfordshire and Pakistan. From the age of 11 onwards, she retreated into herself and a world of her own making.
Is she introverted? Not in character, she admits, but she is, nonetheless, “quite strong willed, tempestuous. The creative thing is very personal and private, and I’d say I was quite an emotional teenager.”
Is she an insular person? “I like doing things by myself, for certain, but I wouldn’t say I’m introverted in a negative way. Rather, I’m quite risk-taking and spontaneous, and I place myself in situations where I’m experiencing new and inspiring things.
“Having the Pakistan background and experience undoubtedly formed part of my worldview. Travelling as an adult informs your perspective on things and allows you to, perhaps, see things more objectively.
“When I was younger I noticed how difficult it was to combine cultures, and how sometimes that can cause conflicts as well as how it can nourish the mind with regard to acceptance of different people from different cultures. I feel I’m not very judgmental about people in terms of skin colour or where they’re from.”
Presumably working with children for a few years added to this sense of acceptance of "different people from different cultures". There can surely be nothing as fundamentally levelling, or as hopeful (singletons raised on Family Guy's caustic bile can skip this bit if they wish) as a bunch of socially uncontaminated preschoolers pin-balling around, caring not a whit as to their friends' tastes or tendencies in the areas of politics, religion, gender, fashion and musical.
“I loved interacting with kids,” says Khan. “Their imagination, their desire to learn, and their instantaneous displays of emotions are very humbling and grounding. They’re so free. I worked with kids from the ages of two to about 10. The later age group is also brilliant, coming out with some amazing insights, whereas the smaller children love to be swept away into imaginative lands.”
All the stages of child development, intimates Khan, are interesting. She says, tellingly, that if you can get back to those initial stages of freedom as an adult then you’ve got it made.
“I think in general that’s what artists try to do. Everybody isn’t fortunate enough to take those risks in their daily lives, so they look to culture, art, fashion and film to transport them into that place that is more spontaneous. That’s the artist’s job, isn’t it? There is a responsibility, but some people don’t take it very seriously.”
My other half: music's alter-egos
Ziggy Stardust
David Bowie’s early 1970s creation fused apocalyptic rock’n’roll earthiness with über-glam sexuality. Result? The best rock star alter ego ever.
Macphisto
Bono's attempt at twinning Quentin Crisp's gamy aphorisms with Gavin Friday's oddball Situationist malarkey during U2's Achtung Baby/Zooropaphase. Result? The biggest audiences The Virgin Prunes never played to.
Chris Gaines
In 1999, country singer Garth Brooks tried to gain a widespread rock/pop audience under the pseudonym of Chris Gaines, a character he played in the movie, The Lamb. Result? Disappointing album sales and a return to country.
Sasha Fierce
Beyoncé’s recent artistic “twin” persona cut her loose, she says, from creative constraints. Result? Did many fans actually notice the difference?
Pearl
Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan creates a self-destructive party girl character that weaves in and out of various songs on her new album, Two Suns. Result? Artistic daring that works a treat.
Talking about her new alter ego, Khan says: “Pearl isn’t something that I came up with just for the sake of it. The new album is, to a degree, about duality, so I felt it would be a good idea to create another persona.
“It started in New York, which is a great city, although not really for someone like me. Anyway, I was sifting through thrift shops one day and chanced upon a blonde wig, which struck me as the style of New York nightlife, with all the partying that goes with it.”
- For videos, and free streaming, go to www.myspace.com/batforlashes.
- Video clips of What's A Girl to Doand Prescillaare on YouTube
- Two Sunsis released through EMI
