Natasha Khan

Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), better known by her stage name Bat for Lashes, is a British Pakistani singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has released three studio albums, Fur and Gold (2006), Two Suns (2009) and The Haunted Man (2012), and received Mercury Prize nominations for Fur and Gold and Two Suns.

Early life

Khan was born to English mother Josie and Pakistani squash player Rahmat Khan. She is the granddaughter of squash player Nasrullah Khan and the cousin of squash players Jahangir Khan and Torsam Khan. She is the stepdaughter of British Indian singer Salma Agha and half-sister of British Pakistani actress Sasha Agha. Khan was born in Wembley, north London and moved to Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire with her family when she was five years old. Khan attended many of her father and cousin Jahangir's squash matches, which she felt inspired her creativity: "The roar of the crowd is intense; it is ceremonial, ritualistic, I feel like the banner got passed to me but I carried it on in a creative way. It is a similar thing, the need to thrive on heightened communal experience." After her father left the family, Khan, aged 11, taught herself to play the piano, which became "a channel to express things, to get them out".

Khan was subject to racial abuse during secondary school, played truant, and was suspended for physical and verbal abuse toward a teacher. After completing her GCSEs and A-Levels, Khan took a job in a card-packing factory where she would work while listening to songs she had made. She said: "My internal imaginary life was really fruitful at that time. I remember packing cards and just listening to songs that I had made the night before on my mini-disc player. All day long just listening and dreaming, while counting the cards to be packed; 'One-two-three… four-five-six-seven-eight-nine… 10–11–12.'" With money saved from the job, she embarked on a three-month road trip through USA and Mexico.

After returning to the UK, Khan settled in Brighton in 2000 to study music and visual arts at the University of Brighton, where she produced sound installations, animations, and performances influenced by artists includingSteve Reich and Susan Hiller. After finishing her degree, Khan completed an NVQ in play work and childcare and worked as a nursery school teacher, dedicating her spare time to developing songs, recording demos and gigging around Brighton.

Music career
2006–08: Fur and Gold

Khan's debut single, "The Wizard", was released digitally through Drowned in Sound records and on seven-inch vinyl through Khan's own imprint, She Bear Records. In mid 2006, she signed to Echo, a record label owned by independent publisher Chrysalis Music that acted as an "incubator" for artists before "upstreaming" them to major labels. Echo released her debut album, Fur and Gold, in September 2006. In 2007, Bat for Lashes and Echo signed an international licensing deal with Parlophone Records, which re-released Fur and Gold the same year. A limited vinyl version was released by Los Angeles indie label Manimal Vinyl in May 2007. Fur and Gold reached number forty-eight on the UK Albums Chart and has since been certified gold by the BPI for sales exceeding 100,000 copies. In 2007, Khan appeared at the Glastonbury Festival and toured the United States.

Fur and Gold received critical acclaim, including a five-star review from The Guardian. It was shortlisted for the 2007Mercury Prize, losing out to Klaxons' Myths of the Near Future despite being a favourite of British media to win the award.Also in 2007, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awarded her with the ASCAP Vanguard Award and chose her to perform at their "ASCAP Presents..." showcase at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. In 2008, Khan was nominated for British Breakthrough Act and British Female Solo Artist at the Brit Awards.

Radiohead's 2008 tour featured several shows with Bat for Lashes as their opening act. Her version of the The Cure's "A Forest" appeared on a charity album called Perfect as Cats on Manimal Vinyl in late 2008.

2009: Two Suns
Khan's second album, Two Suns, was released in April 2009 and produced by Natasha Khan and David Kosten. In preparation for the album, Khan journeyed to the Joshua Tree Desert in California to gain inspiration, before returning to New York and London to write and record the finished material for release.

A concept album, Two Suns focuses on Khan's desert-born alter ego Pearl, whose personality she adopted while staying in New York to gain a better understanding of the character. She revealed to the BBC's Newsbeat, "I really just did it as an experiment of dressing up myself with quite garish extreme feminine make-up. I wanted to photograph myself in that situation and just see what it made me feel." Khan believed that living in Brooklyn when bands such as TV on the Radio, MGMT and Gang Gang Dance were emerging on the music scene had an influence on the album's musical style. In an interview with MTV she said, "I experienced that whole thing coming out, in terms of beats and like going out dancing and checking out all this new music it was really inspiring." During the album's production, she also collaborated with Brooklyn band Yeasayer for the bass and beat programming. In June 2009, Bat for Lashes first appeared on the cover of The Fader, in its 60th issue.

Two Suns debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart, and has been certified gold by the BPI for sales of 100,000 copies. The first single from the album, "Daniel", became Khan's first hit, peaking at number thirty-six on the UK Singles Chart; it later won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song and was nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video of the Year. The following singles were "Pearl's Dream" and a double A-side of "Sleep Alone" and "Moon and Moon", the latter of which was featured in a high profile advertising campaign for children's charity Barnardo's in late 2009.

Critical response to the album was generally favourable, generating a score of 77 on the review aggregator Metacritic. In their review for Two Suns NME awarded it 8 out of 10 describing the album as "epic in scope and ambition and requires a similarly epic patience to unravel its charms." Rolling Stone also rated it favourably stating, "Khan proves she's a powerhouse under her billowy sleeves. She could be the next Kate Bush." However some critics such as Popmatters found problems, reviewing the album they claimed, "While the weaker songs are definitely not throwaways, they miss the mark in more than one way." Blender magazine also felt the album was average, awarding it 3 out 5 stars, claiming "The contrast between Pearl and Natasha isn't always crisply drawn". As with Fur and Gold, Khan was nominated for the Mercury Prize for Two Suns. In 2010, she won Best Alternative Act at the UK Asian Music Awards and received a second BRIT Award nomination for British Female Solo Artist.

As part of the 2009 summer festival season, Khan played at Glastonbury, Somerset House and the iTunes Festival. In September 2009, a special edition of Two Suns was released in the United Kingdom ahead of Khan's October tour. The special edition, which includes a cover version of Kings of Leon's single "Use Somebody", was released simultaneously in the United States. Later in 2009, the cover artwork for Two Suns was nominated for Best Art Vinyl.

2010–present: The Haunted Man

In early 2010, Khan toured South America supporting Coldplay after a one-off gig at The De La Warr Pavilion. In mid-2010, she collaborated with Beck on the track "Let's Get Lost" for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack. Khan expressed interest in working with Beck on her third album, saying he had "creative ideas."

In 2010, Bat for Lashes contributed the song "Sleep Alone" from Two Suns to the Enough Project and Downtown Records' Raise Hope for Congo compilation.Proceeds from the compilation fund efforts to make the protection and empowerment of Congo's women a priority, as well as inspire individuals around the world to raise their voice for peace in Congo. For Record Store Day 2010, Bat for Lashes released an exclusive double A-side 7" single comprising a live performance of "Trophy" single B-side "Howl" recorded at De La Warr Pavilion and a cover of Wild Is the Wind, originally written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington. In 2011, Khan recorded a cover version of Depeche Mode's song "Strangelove" for a Gucci advertising campaign. The song was released as a free download from Gucci's channel on YouTube and various blogs. In June 2011, Khan performed two shows at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Vivid LIVE Arts Festival, her only performances of the year.

Khan stated in May 2010 that she was in the early stages of writing a third album and "wanted to take more time with this one". The album, titled The Haunted Man, was released in October 2012 in the UK. The lead single from the album, "Laura", presented previously on live concerts, was released in July. The second single, "All Your Gold", was released in September. The Haunted Man debuted at number six on the UK Albums Chart, Khan's second consecutive top ten album; subsequent singles released were "A Wall" and "Lilies". Khan attended the 2013 Brit Awards having been nominated in the Best British Female category, and was also nominated at the Ivor Novello Awards in the category of Best Song Musically and Lyrically (for "Laura").

In 2013, Khan performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, supported Blur at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland, and opened forDepeche Mode on the first half of their North American tour. In September 2013, Khan premiered the track "Garden's Heart", a collaboration with Jon Hopkins for the soundtrack of the film How I Live Now. She is credited on this release as Natasha Khan rather than Bat for Lashes.

Khan's collaborated with Damon Albarn (frontman of Blur and creator of Gorillaz) on a track for his 2014 solo studio album, Everyday Robots. Speaking of it, Khan said: "If I could go back and tell the 15-year-old me that I'd just sang with Damon for his new record, she'd probably wet her pants with excitement, I had such a massive crush on him [...]". Also in 2014, Khan premiered "Skin Song" from Body of Songs—a compilation album featuring songs inspired by anatomy and medical science—and contributed a cover of "Plan the Escape" by Son Lux to the soundtrack album of the film The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. In a mid 2014 interview, Khan said she was focussing on visual art projects and that her fourth album would arrive "in its own good time".

Artistry

Critics have likened Khan's music to the work of Siouxsie Sioux, Björk, Kate Bush, Cat Power, PJ Harvey, Annie Lennox, Tori Amos and Fiona Apple. Both her albums were described by MTV Iggy as "at once haunting and way danceable."

Other projects

Khan and fashion house YMC designed a limited edition capsule collection of sportswear and accessories for the spring/summer 2014 season. The release of the collection was accompanied by a fashion film, Under the Indigo Moon, directed by and starring Khan herself and with a soundtrack she composed with Beck.

In 2014, Film4 commissioned Cowboy Films to produce the short film Gotcha, which Khan will write and direct. She said she intends to develop the project into a feature-length film.

Discography

Main article: Bat for Lashes discography

• Fur and Gold (2006)
• Two Suns (2009)
• The Haunted Man (2012)

Awards and nominations

Source: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia