Natasha Khan
(born 25 October 1979), also known by her stage name "Bat for Lashes
", is a British alternative rock musician. As a musician she sings and plays the piano, guitar, harpsichord and the autoharp.
Khan's debut album Fur and Gold
, released on 11 September 2006, peaked at #48 on the UK Album Charts and went on to be nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2007, in the following year Khan also picked up two BRIT nominations for Best Breakthrough Artist and Best Female, leading to growing media attention.
Khan’s second album Two Suns
, released on the 6 April 2009, reached #5 on the UK Album Charts and #17 on the Irish Album Charts. The first single released off the second album "Daniel" became a top 40 hit and the second single "Pearl's Dream" was released on 22 June 2009. The album Two Suns
has also been nominated for the Mercury Prize.
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BAT FOR LASHES TICKETS
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History
Early life
Khan was born in London, to a
Pakistani Pashtun father and an English mother on 25 October 1979.
[1] Until the age of five she was raised in Wembley where her parents had met and married several years before. However her father,
Rehmat Khan, a former professional
squash player decided to relocate the family to the commuter town of
Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire to help with his coaching of future squash world open winner
Jahangir Khan, Natasha's cousin.
[2]
As children Khan, along with her sister Surriya and brother Tariq would attend her cousin’s squash matches, in an interview with
The Daily Telegraph
, Khan reflected that seeing her cousin helped inspire her. "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."
With her father’s abandonment of the family Khan turned to the piano. Deciding to play improvised pieces instead of attending lessons Khan herself felt the piano became an outlet for her emotions. “You need to find a channel to express things, to get them out’ she said.
During her teens Khan was also a victim of
racism. Speaking about her time in after-school clubs she claimed “the kids there totally ripped me to shreds.” This rejection led Khan to rebel, making the decision to “
bunk off” school and stay at home listening to music. “My mum would take me to the train station and I pretended to get the train; she'd drive to work and I would go home and play a tape of
Nirvana all day”.
With the completion of her
GCSEs and
A-Levels she decided to embark on a road trip through America with her boyfriend at the time, using the money earned from her part time job at a local card-making factory.
After spending three months touring through the US and Mexico Khan returned to Britain and settled down in
Brighton to study a degree in music and visual arts at the
University of Brighton. It was during her time at university that she began writing material for her debut album and eventually assume her stage name Bat for Lashes.
Fur and Gold
Natasha graduated in music and visual arts;
[3] while at university her experimental work was influenced by artists such as
Steve Reich and
Susan Hiller, and she produced multi-media work centred on sound installations, animations and performance. She went on to work as a nursery school teacher, and it was during this period that she began writing the material for her first album. "Whenever I'm writing music it's a very visual place in my mind," she said. "It has a location full of characters and colours and landscapes, so those two things really complement each other, and they help the other one to blossom and support the other. They are like brother and sister."
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. She then signed to the record label
Echo, alongside
Feeder and former
Moloko singer
Róisín Murphy, and released her debut album,
Fur and Gold
, on 11 September 2006. In 2007, Bat for Lashes parted company with
Echo and signed to
Parlophone records.
Fur and Gold
was re-released with the addition of bonus material. A limited vinyl version was released by Los Angeles indie label,
Manimal Vinyl in May 2007.
Khan's music has been likened to the work of
Siouxsie,
[4] Björk,
Kate Bush,
PJ Harvey,
Annie Lennox,
Tori Amos and
Fiona Apple.
[5]
On 17 July,
Fur and Gold
was announced as one of the albums nominated for the 2007
Mercury Prize, losing out to
Klaxons'
Myths of the Near Future
despite being a favourite of British media to win the award.
[6]
After the success of Khan's second album
Two Suns
, sales of
Fur and Gold
in the UK increased and it was certified Silver by the
BPI on 29 May 2009 for sales of 60,000.
Two Suns
Khan’s second album,
Two Suns
, was released 7 April 2009 and produced by
David Kosten.
[7] In preparation for the album Khan journeyed to the
Joshua Tree Desert in
California in order to gain inspiration before returning to New York and London to write and record the finished material for release.
A concept album,
[8] Two Suns
focuses on Khan’s desert born
alter ego Pearl, whose personality she adopted while staying in New York in order to gain a better understanding of the character. She revealed to
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.”
[9] Khan believed that living in
Brooklyn while bands like
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 claimed, “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 artist
Yeasayer for the bass and beat programming.
Two Suns
went on to debut at its peak position of #5 on the
UK Albums Chart.
[10] The first single off the album “
Daniel” became a top 40 hit,
[11] while the second single "Pearl's Dream" was released on 22 June.
Critical response to the album was generally favourable, generating a score of 77 on the review aggregator
Metacritic.
[12] 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.”
[13]Rolling Stone
also rated it favourably stating, “Khan proves she's a powerhouse under her billowy sleeves. She could be the next
Kate Bush."
[14] 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.”
[15]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".
[16]
On 1 May 2009
Two Suns
was certified silver by the
BPI for sales of 60,000 in the UK and on 31 July 2009 the album was certified Gold for sales of 100,000 in the uk also for the second time in a row, Khan has been nominated for the
Mercury Prize for her album
Two Suns
[17] and for the single "
Daniel", which was also nominated for the
MTV Video Music Award for breakthrough video of the year.
In the media
In 2007, Khan appeared at
Glastonbury and toured the USA.
[18]
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 ASCAP's prestigious "ASCAP Presents..." showcase at
South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
Thom Yorke and
M.I.A. have previously complimented her work,
Ringo Starr has said she is one of his favourite new artists and
Björk was also spotted at her early gigs.
[19] Radiohead's 2008 tour featured several shows with Bat for Lashes as their opening act.
The Bat for Lashes live line-up contains an ever-revolving cast of musicians often changing on a per-tour basis. The latest line-up includes
Ben Christophers,
Charlotte Hatherley and Sarah Jones, who also plays drums with
New Young Pony Club. This line-up was announced in March 2009. In April 2009 she appeared on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. She performed an acoustic version of the single, "Daniel", and also covered
"Use Somebody" by
Kings of Leon. Her first appearance on US broadcast television was 2 2009-05-01}} on
The Late Show with David Letterman
, performing the song "Daniel."
[20] In April 2009 she appeared on the BBC2 live music show
Later... with Jools Holland
performing two songs from
Two Suns
: "
Daniel" and "Sleep Alone". On 11 August 2009 Bat for Lashes performed on
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
. She performed the song "Sleep Alone".
Discography
Albums
Year
| Title
| Peak Chart Positions
| Certifications (sales thresholds)
|
UK
| IRE
| CHE
| FIN
| FLA
| FRA
| US
| WAL
|
2006
| Fur and Gold
- Released: 11 September 2006
- Formats: CD, vinyl, digital download
| 48
| —
| —
| —
| —
| 130
| —
| —
|
|
2009
| Two Suns
- Released: 6 April 2009
- Formats: CD, vinyl, digital download
| 5
| 17
| 94
| 39
| 26
| 56
| 141
| 74
|
|
EP's
Album
| Release Date
|
Live Session - EP
[23]
| 19 Feb 2008
|
iTunes Live London Festival '09 - EP
[24]
| 19 Jul 2009
|
Singles
Year
| Song
| Chart positions
| Album
|
UK
| ITA
| BEL
|
2006
| "Trophy"
| —
| —
| —
| Fur and Gold
|
"The Wizard"
| —
| —
| —
|
2007
| "Prescilla"
| —
| —
| —
|
"What's a Girl to Do? (Bat for Lashes song)
| 141
| —
| —
|
2009
| "Daniel"
| 36
| 28
| 47
| Two Suns
|
"Pearl's Dream"
| 173
| —
| —
|
"Sleep Alone"
| —
| —
| —
|
Contributions
Year
| Song contributed
| Release title
|
2007
| "Trophy" (Acoustic)
| Acoustic 07
|
"I'm on Fire" (Live)
| The Saturday Sessions: The Dermot O'Leary Show
|
2008
| "What's a Girl to Do? (Live)
| Chillout Sessions XI
|
"Sweet Dreams" (Live)
| Radio 1's Live Lounge - Volume 3
|
"A Forest" (Cover)
| Perfect as Cats: A Tribute to The Cure
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Awards and nominations
Year
| Award
| Category
| Result
|
2007
| Mercury Prize
| Fur and Gold
| Nominated
|
ASCAP Awards
| Vanguard Award
| Won
|
2008
| Brit Awards
| British Breakthrough Act
| Nominated
|
Brit Awards
| British Solo Female
| Nominated
|
2009
| Mercury Prize
| Two Suns )
| Nominated
|
MTV Video Music Awards
| Breakthrough Video (Daniel)
| Nominated
|
References
- Bat For Lashes biography
- Bat for Lashes: off the wall
- interview with Natasha Khan, arbobo.fr, June 11, 2007.
- ''The Guardian'' ''The Observer'', Garry Mulholland, Sunday 13 August 2006. Excerpt: "Khan and producer David Kosten reinvent Siouxsie/Bush/Bjork mystical sex, musical travelogue and poetic dreamstate for the contemporary singer-songwriter milieu"
- AllMusicGuide, Bat for Lashes' biography by MacKenzie Wilson. Excerpt: "Echoes of Björk and Siouxsie Sioux are heard throughout Bat for Lashes' mystical indie rock sound."
- Mercury Prize: The nominees BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Mercury Prize: The nominees
- Bat For Lashes announces new album plans and tour dates
- Bat For Lashes interview
- Bat For Lashes' glittering return
- Chart stats for album ''Two Suns''
- Chart stats for single Daniel
- Two Suns by Bat For Lashes
- Album Review: Bat For Lashes
- Bat For Lashes: Two Suns
- Bat For Lashes: Two Suns
- Bat For Lashes: Two Suns
- Kasabian, Florence Lead Mercury Prize Nominations
- Bat for Lashes
- Zane Lowe - BBC Radio 1 August 15 2007
- Live on David Letterman - May 1st
- http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx
- http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx
- Live Session EP Bat For Lashes
- iTunes Festival: Live EP Out Now