Music > Interviews
Interview with Bat for Lashes
08/10/12
At Latitude 2012, when Bat for Lashes played, all that stood between her and her captivated audience was barrier, security and a couple of feet of spare stage. Before, it was a different experience; feathers, tassels, lycra, cloak or some other garment of armoury stood between Natasha Khan and her crowd. The power of the music would permeate, but was there the same connection as now? With simple chiffon jumpsuit and demure new bob, Natasha was now presenting herself as she does on her latest album – quite literally if you sneak a glance at the artwork – bare, unarmed and easy to emotionally connect with…
We’re very much looking forward to you coming to Norwich – it’s been a while since you’ve been here…Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve done a headline tour, I feel like. But no, I’m excited to come.
We did get treated to you at Latitude this summer, which is local to us, and you’ve popped up at others – you played Bestival last weekend, didn’t you?I did, yeah.
Have you recovered? Well I’ve just moved house in the last couple of days, so I went straight into packing up my life. And this morning I was doing TV, so yeah, it’s all happening at once. It’s been good to get the festivals sort of finished, ‘cause now I can just look forward to just doing my own shows, which is kinda a bit more fun, really.
I read that someone proposed at the end of your set at Bestival – did you know anything about it?I hear about that yesterday! I didn’t know on the day, but that’s so sweet. I wish I’d seen it, but I didn’t find out ‘til yesterday.
You must have inspired matrimony, how beautiful… So you’ve been able to debut some of the songs from ‘The Haunted Man’ on the live circuit, but have you been itching for us to hear them in our own space?Well I definitely think, in terms of the record, obviously I worked on it for a long time, for two and a half years and I’ve got very involved in the production and the mix and the mastering of the thing, which is a very detailed, minute world. It’s a process for headphones and high quality listening, so obviously I love the idea of people listening to it alone, on their headphones and really immersing themselves in the universe of the album. That’s how I listened to it whilst making it, and I keep going back to how did it feel either on a big speaker with loads of sub bass, or failing that soundsystem, if you can hear it on a good set of headphones, yes, I’m excited for people to hear it.
I have to say, I woke up feeling emotional this morning and it’s kinda been punching me in the heart as I listen to it, it’s filled with such emotion. Even the line in ‘Lilies’, “thank god I’m alive”, is such a positive exclamation, but it sounds as if it’s a product of previous heartache…Yeah, when I think about that song, and that part of that song, it’s extremely emotional for me, and obviously the whole song is about looking for something, or searching for a new life – or a way out of feeling blocked, or like alone – all those things that we, as human beings feel all the time. But there is that bit at the end that’s like, even though I have nothing, when I do feel just a tiny bit of hope or new blossoming, or there’s some little signal, the joy that you can feel from that moment of feeling really alive… Sometimes at your worst you can feel your most raw and alive. I think it is that bittersweet celebration; it’s quite pro-life, I suppose, with all its difficulties. It’s celebrating being a human being in all your complex form. It’s not that easy, but it’s joyous, and it is an emotional song for me.
Sometimes you have to feel the low points in order to experience the highs, even if they slap you in the face with their polarity…It is a complex thing, but I think also there’s an emphasis in our culture on being dark and sad, and it’s very rock ‘n’ roll to be suicidal and stuff, but I think to celebrate the joyousness of raw living is like isn’t touched on as much as it should be. It is joyous to be alive, and you don’t hear that pro-life message very often. People think it’s cheesy sometimes, you know, if you express that, so I’m proud of that.
The album came at the end of a period where you seem to have made a very conscious decision to stay creative, which is just fun in itself – you directed a friend’s dance film, I read…Yes, well my friend Caroline Weeks, she also does music and played in the first Bat for Lashes incarnation, so obviously we’ve been friends for years and she did an amazing dance piece with two other girls – I think it was called ‘Triangulation’. But yeah, they did this beautiful series of kinda modern ballet pieces and I filmed one of her preparatory pieces. She did a cover of a David Bowie song, which I filmed the video for as well. When I was at university, making films was sort of my main thing to do, and I made soundtracks to go with them as well. It was just really nice to be involved in someone else’s projects, where the burden isn’t on my shoulders in a heavy way. I love dance and I’ve been doing a lot of dance this year, so it was really nice to explore that world; I’d warm up with them, then I’d get behind the camera and they’d do their thing. It was just lovely to hang out with friends and do other projects, definitely.
One of the most talked about points so far, for the new album, has been that cheeky little album cover of yours –- Hahaha, yeah!
There’s a strong contrast between the artwork for ‘Two Suns’ – it was quite a dense, colourful tableau; it reminded me of Frida Kahlo surrounded by votives – and then you’ve got the stark honesty of ‘The Haunted Man’. I’m guessing that was a very conscious statement…Yeah, like you say, I was kinda into Catholic, religious art, looking at Frida Kahlo on the last album and iconography in that very adorned, symbolic way, using objects and symbols. It was very colourful and rich and I felt like that whole last album was extremely conceptual and layered, both visually and musically. When I started doing the demos for this album, I immediately started recording them in a verydifferent way; instead of layering them up with extras and effects, I put the vocals up very loud, very up front with hardly any reverb, and was writing very big bass and beats and there wasn’t much else. I noticed immediately that it was a very stark, much different approach to the one before, and I think visually that’s continued through. I just wanted to really represent taking away all that adornment and seeing if you can still create magic - that soulful, beautiful thing. I think it’s about having the confidence to believe that you don’t necessarily have to present those magical tokens on the outside to validate what’s on the inside. I think it’s become quite – not necessarily passé, but fashionable to look like this mystical being who goes and snorts coke every weekend, even if you’re not anything like that. So I felt like it was just a bit of a statement of not needing to do that anymore; stripping it back and representing the body in a raw, natural form, that’s not glossed over and made up, the way that naked bodies aren’t presented any more, without being sexualised. And yeah, I was just thinking about John and Yoko, or Patti Smith, who had that quite amazing, 70s iconographic album art that used to be present. I think it’s got a bit more lost recently.
The fashion world really fell in love with you, and Jefferson Hack described you as “shamanic”, but recently at Latitude you looked very understated and demure – are you keen to eschew the relationship that music has with fashion now?Well I felt like the summer shows were an interesting sort of middle space, for me, ‘cause I hadn’t finished the record – well I’d finished it, but it wasn’t particularly mixed and mastered, or anything. It was very much like going out before I was ready, in some ways. But obviously it was important to show my face in some ways, and to get back into it, rehearsing with a new band and all the things like that. So I think for these shows, it’s been a more modest approach as I’m sort of easing my way back in. I do feel like for October, not so much shamanic, but I am taking reference from dancers like Martha Graham and Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham and looking at the outfits and the graphic shapes that they use. I think there will be, not a fashion perhaps, but definitely a very modernist, visual aspect to the live shows with what we do, and what I’m wearing. Obviously I’ve enjoyed doing the demure thing for that time, but I don’t think it’s me to just be, like, really normal and take a step back! I think I do want to present a strong visual image, so I’m working on that and I think it was a process where I wasn’t completely sure what I wanted to do, but I’m much clearer now.
You didn’t look like you were half ready. You didn’t have your tights only half rolled-up, or anything!Hahaha, thank you!
You had an alter-ego on the last album, Pearl. This album seems like straight up Natasha Khan – did you make a decision to be the narrator?Well I think if you’re a creative person, I think for me it means that you want to innovate and explore new territory with each album. I didn’t want to repeat myself and I felt like I’d really pushed that theme with the last record to its conclusion. I could have gone anywhere, I suppose, but I wanted this to be about England, much more about my home, much more autobiographical and I think just in life, in general, I’m trying to really be conscious of developing an intimacy with people in my life that’s real. In our day-to-day lives, I think everyone can put up a persona, and the most terrifying thing is just to be vulnerable and open and say how you really feel about things. That creates an intimacy with other human beings that’s priceless, so I think that kind of ethos has really permeated my work as well. Who am I, out of all this stuff, and what do I want to communicate? I think without having all this drama and moving around, really dramatic relationship breakups and all of that sort of dramatic stuff, I think that can be quite one-dimensional sometimes. Actually stopping and just being a human being for a while, I think I discovered that Natasha Khan is a lot more complex and rich, as a person, than just being this mystical, sad person. I feel like there’s a lot more to me than the subjects I was exploring on the last record. You find like a real humanity, I think, to all those layers and different things that you experience over the period of two and a half, three years.
Just to leave you with a question, it seems pertinent to ask you – as we await the nominations announcement for the Mercury Music Prize – are awards and bodies like that ever something that moves how you work?Erm, no… Obviously it’s an interesting and flattering by-product of doing what I do, but I think my own inner critical voice and standards are so high, that if I started bringing in a need for outside affirmation and validation for what I do, it would become very complex and quite hard to navigate. I love when I get nominated for things; it’s great to be thought of and it gives you exposure to people that might not have heard it, which is the most important thing to me – perhaps persuading people to have a listen. But I think the only thing I ever do is follow my heart really; I have to be true to myself. I try to push myself to do better than I did before, but I think that’s just me. I’m quite hard on myself, but I think that’s good. No matter what people think of it, I think I’ll always do that; whether I’m in fashion, or whether people are liking it or not, I’m gonna keep doing what I feel I need to communicate. That keeps you safe, I think. That’s what keeps you grounded in your creative process.
Emma Garwood
I discovered that Natasha Khan is a lot more complex and rich, as a person, than just being this mystical, sad person.Natasha Khan brings Bat for Lashes to the UEA on Friday 26th October. She releases her new album, ‘The Haunted Man’ on October 15th. For tickets go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk. To read the full interview, go to Outlineonline.co.uk