Bat for Lashes

Müzik öncesi hayatı

Khan İngiliz Josie ve Pakistanlı squash oyuncusu Rehmat Khan çiftinin kızı olarak dünyaya geldi. Khan soyundan gelen sanatçı, squash oyuncusu Nasrullah Khan'ın torunu, squash oyuncuları Jahangir Khan ile Torsam Khan'ın yeğeni, şarkıcı ve aktris Salma Agha'nın üvey kızı ve aktris Sasha Agha'nın üvey kardeşidir. Aile Khan daha beş yaşındayken Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire'a taşındı. Çocukluğunda babasının ve amcası Jahangir'in squash maçlarına katıldı. Bu maçların ilerideki yaratıcılığını etkilediğini öne süren Khan şu yorumu yaptı: "Kalabalığın gürleyişi çok yoğun; ayinsel, ritualistik, bayrağın bana verildiğini fakat onu daha yaratıcı bir yolda taşıdığımı düşünüyorum. İkisi de benzer şeyler; coşkulu topluluk deneyimi üzerinde gelişme isteği." Khan 11 yaşındayken babası aileyi terk edince kendi başına piyano çalmayı öğrendi. Ona göre piyano "bir şeyleri ifade etme ve onları döküp uzaklaştırmak için bir kanal"dı.
Khan ortaokul yıllarında Pakistan kökenli olduğundan ırkçılığa maruz kaldı. Okulda kaytarmaya başlayan Khan, bir öğretmenine küfredip sandalye fırlatınca uzaklaştırma cezası aldı. Konuyla ilgili The Daily Telegraph'a şu demeci verdi: "Okulda hep bir yabancıydım. Uzaklaştırmadan döndüğümde orada sahip olduğum küçük arkadaş çevreme benimle konuşma yasağı verilmişti çünkü kötü bir örnektim. Sonra gittikçe yalnızlaşmaya başladım." Mezun olduktan sonra bir kart paketleme fabrikasında çalışmaya başladı. Khan bu dönemle ilgili "İç görsel hayatım o dönemde çok zengindi. Kartları paketlerken bir gün önce yaptığım şarkıları mini disk çalarımda dinlerdim. Bütün gün müzik dinleyip hayal kurar ve paketlenmesi gereken kartları sayardım," yorumunu yaptı. İşten kazandığı paralarla üç aylık ABD ve Meksika yol gezisine çıktı.
Birleşik Krallık'a geri döndükten sonra 2000 yılında Brighton'a yerleşti ve müzik ve görsel sanatlar okumak adına Brighton Üniversitesi'ne başladı, Burada ses instalasyonları, animasyonlar ve Steve Reich ve Susan Hiller gibi sanatçılardan esinlenerek oluşturduğu performanslar üretti. Mezun olduktan sonra çocuk bakımı kursuna katıldı ve anaokulu öğretmenliği yapmaya başladı. Boş zamanlarını şarkılar yazmaya, demolar kaydetmeye ve Brighton'da çeşitli yerlerde sahne almaya harcadı.

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 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 2007 Mercury 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 their 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 Cure's "A Forest" appeared on a charity album called Perfect as Cats on Manimal Vinyl in late 2008.

2009–11: Two Suns

Khan's second album, Two Suns, was released in April 2009 and produced by 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 wrote, "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, saying "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 included 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.
In early 2010, Khan toured South America supporting Coldplay after a gig at The De La Warr Pavilion including covers of Radiohead's "All I Need" and The Cure's "Lullaby". In 2010, she collaborated with Beck on the track "Let's Get Lost" for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack, and contributed the song "Sleep Alone" from Two Suns to the Enough Project and Downtown Records' Raise Hope for Congo compilation. Proceeds from the compilation funded 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.

2012–14: The Haunted Man

The third Bat for Lashes album, The Haunted Man, was released in October 2012 in the UK. The lead single, "Laura", 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, and has since been certified silver by the BPI for selling 60,000 copies. Subsequent singles 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 for Depeche Mode on the first half of their North American tour. In June, she released a cover of "The Bride", a pre-revolution Iranian song, with the rock band Toy. On 2 September 2013, Khan premiered the track "Garden's Heart", a collaboration with Jon Hopkins for the soundtrack to the film How I Live Now.
In 2014, Khan collaborated with Damon Albarn on a track for his 2014 solo album Everyday Robots, 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.

2015: Sexwitch

On 15 August 2015, Khan began teasing new music on her Twitter and Instagram pages via a game of Hangman. During a surprise Green Man Festival set in Wales on 22 August, she debuted a music project with producer Dan Carey and the band Toy, called Sexwitch. Two days later, it was announced that Sexwitch's eponymous debut album would be released on 25 September 2015 by Echo and BMG, consisting of six covers of 1970s psychedelic and folk songs from different parts of the world.

2016: The Bride

On 19 February 2016, a new song, "I Do", was released YouTube, with a picture of a wedding invitation reading "Save The Date 1st July 2016". The track was made available for purchase the same day. On 11 March, Khan released "In God's House", the lead single from her fourth studio album, The Bride, which was released on 1 July.

Artistry

Khan is a soprano. 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. Her music has been 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 including 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.