Bat for Lashes Bat for Lashes Age: 37, born 25 October 1979 Country of origin: list by 13th moody grape Published 3 years, 11 months ago View all Bat for Lashes pictures Description: Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), better known by her stage name Bat for Lashes, is an English singer-songwriter and musician. She sings and plays the piano, bass, guitar, harpsichord and the autoharp.Khan's debut album, Fur and Gold, released in 2006, peaked at number forty-eight on the UK Albums Chart and was shortlisted for the 2007 Mercury Prize. In 2008, Khan received two BRIT Award nominations for Best Breakthrough Artist and Best Female Solo Artist. In 2007, the album was re-released through Parlophone. Fur and Gold contains the singles "The Wizard", "Trophy", "Prescilla", and "What's Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), better known by her stage name Bat for Lashes, is an English singer-songwriter and musician.

She sings and plays the piano, bass, guitar, harpsichord and the autoharp.Khan's debut album, Fur and Gold, released in 2006, peaked at number forty-eight on the UK Albums Chart and was shortlisted for the 2007 Mercury Prize. In 2008, Khan received two BRIT Award nominations for Best Breakthrough Artist and Best Female Solo Artist. In 2007, the album was re-released through Parlophone. Fur and Gold contains the singles "The Wizard", "Trophy", "Prescilla", and "What's a Girl to Do?" In 2008, "What's a Girl to Do?" was re-released as a 12" with a remix featuring Scroobius Pip and Plaid. Two Suns is the second studio album by English recording artist Bat for Lashes, released in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2009 by The Echo Label and Parlophone. The album was produced by Khan herself and David Kosten (who also worked on her debut album Fur and Gold), and features collaborations with members of Yeasayer and Scott Walker.

Two Suns was recorded in segments in California, New York City, London, Brighton and Wales. According to the accompanying press release, Two Suns is "a record of modern-day fables exploring dualities on a number of levels two lovers, two planets, two sides of a personality", bringing reflection about "the philosophy of the self and duality, examining the need for both chaos and balance, for both love and pain, in addition to touching on metaphysical ideas concerning the connections between all existence." In Two Suns, Khan also presents an alter ego named Pearl, described by the press release as "a destructive, self-absorbed, blonde, femme fatale of a persona who acts as a direct foil to Khan's more mystical, desert-born spiritual self." Upon its release, Two Suns was met with positive reviews from most critics. Additionally, it was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2009, Khan's second nomination after Fur and Gold in 2007. "Daniel" was released on 1 March 2009 as the album's lead single, reaching number thirty-six on the UK Singles Chart.

Both "Sleep Alone" (909s in DarkTimes Mix) and "Siren Song" were featured on the American supernatural drama television series The Vampire Diaries, while only the former was included on the series' soundtrack album. 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. In May 2010, Khan stated she was in the early stages of writing a third album and "wanted to take more time with this one". In June 2012, it was announced that the album, titled The Haunted Man, would be released on 15 October 2012 in the UK. ...

( more ) ( less ) Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan Talks About Playing Coachella, Her Love for The Cure, and the "Controversy" Around Her Latest Album - Los Angeles Magazine Contact Photo by Peter Dovgan via Facebook Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan Talks About Playing Coachella, Her Love for The Cure, and the “Controversy” Around Her Latest Album TONIGHT: The enigmatic musician plays the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood Sonya Singh Comments Natasha Khan is an enigmatic figure. Better known by her stage name , Bat for Lashes, her music is a haunting blend of dreamy, often danceable pop while her voice is calm, confident, and transporting. Speak to her off stage and what immediately becomes un-mysterious is that Khan’s commercial success is the byproduct of a drive to make art for its own sake. Tonight, the British-born musician brings her acclaimed third album, The Haunted Man, to the Fonda Theatre. The record finds Khan getting up close and personal with her audience, paring down her musical style, and drawing controversy because of the “explicit” album cover.

The black and white image features a naked, makeup-free Khan supporting a nude man draped over her shoulders with both positioned to cover their naughty bits. Chatting with us before a sound-check between Coachella weekends, Khan discusses her affection for music like the Cure and Lou Reed, being compared to groundbreaking musicians like Kate Bush and Björk, and her surprise about the album cover fracas in an industry that routinely sexualizes female performers. How was the first weekend of Coachella? It was great. I think we played a good set. It’s hard because you don’t get to sound check and you get thrown on stage. After the first song, I think we got it down. The audience was absolutely lovely. They went crazy for it and we had a really good time. It’s so nice to be in the sun with palm trees around! It’s very different from Glastonbury or other festivals back in England. What was it in that pushed you toward music? I decided to do music when I was about 20 years old. Before that, I sang in my bedroom and wrote guitar-y songs. When I was 9 or 10, or even before that, I was making piano compositions and taping those on my cassette player.

I suppose I was always making music or writing music, but I didn’t consciously think it was something I could do until quite a bit later on. There’s no one that does music or art in my family, but there’s a lot of people who love music. My mum’s a huge music fan — Motown, Michael Jackson, Prince, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell — all that good stuff. So, music was always in our house and we were always singing. People often say your music has hints of everyone: Björk, PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple. Were any of those women influential for you? When I was 12 or 13, my older cousin came to live with us for a few years. She brought along Carole King’s Tapestry, Björk’s Debut, Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, Tracy Chapman, and some other things. We’d play Monopoly late at night and listen to those things. It completely inspired me. It felt very familiar and I guess the sounds just made sense. Those women have definitely been reference points.

At the same time, I’ve been equally influenced by a lot of male musicians like Robert Smith of the Cure, who’s just as big an influence as Björk. Lou Reed is just as big an influence as Joni Mitchell. It’s funny when people compare me to female musicians because a huge amount of my record collection is male musicians from bands, as well. Those comparisons are interesting because you cover songs by The Cure and Depeche Mode. Exactly. That’s because I love them. When I was a teenager, I listened to all The Cure’s albums and me and my boyfriend followed them around, wherever we could see them play. I love Neil Young’s Harvest and Lou Reed’s Berlin. I’ve covered Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Radiohead, David Bowie as well as Nina Simone. I suppose I do get compared to the same people often but my own music taste is rather eclectic. Vocally, Jeff Buckley is a huge influence and inspiration. On previous albums, you had more creative tools around you. The Haunted Man is much more stripped down and intimate. What was your thought process heading into this record? I didn’t want to repeat myself.

I’d progressed as a person and was thinking about deeper, more intimate things. More emotional intimacy. It felt good to strip away all that regalia and adornment, which I still love, and present myself from a different angle. Yeah, there were more symbols and metaphors and archetypal characters on the last record. It was so colorful. This record was much more formed by the art and dance worlds. It was that choice to be upfront and bold and step back and be more raw. I love the rawness of real bodies. Were you ever worried that the style wouldn’t translate without the larger concepts cloaking you? I suppose that was a thought, but the music is magical anyway without having to tell people. Especially now, we’re playing all these songs [from The Haunted Man] live and they have a color and visual imagery and sumptuousness and sensuality. I think the work stands upon itself. No, I wasn’t really worried. I was excited to see how that translated and to see the discussions that followed, which I think have been relevant to the music world and to how women are presented. It’s been a much more interesting discussion than what would’ve resulted from just doing another magical cover.

The album cover has been a springboard for discussion. The “controversy” was odd because you deliberately chose a pose that wasn’t particularly suggestive by today’s standards. The original reason I did it was for the art of it. For me, it’s all about the close personal relationship with the men in my life and how I present them on the record. That’s what I was thinking about. When it came out, I really wasn’t anticipating all that discussion, but the fact that it happened was not something I wanted to shy away from. I thought it was interesting and exciting that people cared that much. It brought a lot of questions about women and presenting them in the nude form. The lack of Photoshop in an industry awash with heavily retouched imagery was a refreshing statement. Thank you. I don’t like all that airbrushing. It’s such a shame. You really miss out on the beauty of real bodies, no matter what shape or size they are. To make them look all glossy and make everything about sex is really boring. You overcame a bout of writer’s block before you began writing The Haunted Man. What got you to that point? Being overtired and overworked.

Traveling all over the world but not really having a base. The natural conclusion to working hard is getting tired. Time got me through it. Being kind to myself — cooking, gardening, putting around at home, being quiet, seeing good friends and family, and doing creative things that weren’t music so I didn’t have so much pressure. I joined a life-drawing class, did some illustrations for children’s books, pottery, dance. Staying active and creative but not necessarily worrying about music all the time. Popular Music Interventions Series presents Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan (POSTPONED), Goldsmiths, University of London Telephone 020 7919 7645 THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTILL THE NEW YEAR. Natasha Khan, better known by her stage name Bat for Lashes, is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Bat for Lashes first captured hearts way back in 2006 with a set of distinctively haunting and rich, darkly phantasmagoric songs ripe with magic realism.

Her sensual and gilt-decorated dream world was opened up in two Mercury Music Prize nominated albums, the atavistic, reverb-drenched Fur and Gold (2006) and 2009’s more electronically poppy Two Suns. The latter featured the irresistible Daniel – which won Ms Khan an Ivor Novello award for Best Contemporary Song – and was recorded in London and across America. Bat for Lashes last album, The Haunted Man, was released in 2012. Khan is also the vocalist for Sexwitch, a collaboration with the psych-rock band Toy and producer Dan Carey, and their debut album was released earlier this year - with versions of songs that Khan and Carey picked up while on jaunts to places as far flung as Morocco, Thailand and Iran. The lyrics have been translated, and the songs recorded live in a single session. The result is a selection of hypnotic, groove-based tracks that feature jagged post-punk guitars and shrieking crescendos. All are welcome to attend these public masterclasses but priority will be given to students on the BMus Popular Music programme.

Natasha Khan – Name collections Bat for Lashes at Allmusic Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), better known by her stage name Bat for Lashes, is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She sings and plays the piano, bass, guitar, and the autoharp. Khan’s debut album, Fur and Gold, released in 2006, peaked at number forty-eight on the UK Albums Chart and was shortlisted for the 2007 Mercury Prize. In 2008, Khan received two BRIT Award nominations for Best Breakthrough Artist and Best Female Solo Artist. Khan’s second album, Two Suns, released in 2009, reached number five on the UK Album Chart and number seventeen on the Irish Album Chart. It produced her first UK top forty single, “Daniel”, and was shortlisted for the 2009 Mercury Prize. Khan was nominated for Best Female Solo Artist at 2010 BRIT Awards. 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. In May 2010, Khan stated she was in the early stages of writing a third album and “wanted to take more time with this one”. In June 2012, it was announced that the album, titled The Haunted Man, would be released on 15 October 2012 in the UK. The lead single from the album is called “Laura”, presented previously on live concerts, and it was released digitally on 24 of July, at midnight. A music video was also released along with the single announcement and the album cover release. The second single from the album,All Your Gold was released in October 3, along with the music video, directed by Noel Paul. Maddy Costa talks to Natasha Khan from Bat for Lashes | Music | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close The music Natasha Khan makes under the name Bat for Lashes sounds enchanted, as though cauldrons and wands were as instrumental to its making as synthesisers and guitars.

So it's no surprise to discover that Khan's home looks quite different from its surroundings - but it's different in disappointing ways. A drab 1960s building, it squats unattractively between elegant Victorian houses. The rooms are neutral in colour and sparsely furnished; pinned to the kitchen noticeboard is a cleaning rota. It's all surprisingly ordinary. But then you spot a tarnished crown in the sitting room, acquired by Khan on a recent trip to the US, and a gauzy, rainbow-hued dress, apparently made of butterfly wings, hanging by the front door, and you think: that's more like it. The dress, on loan from Alexander McQueen, is one of many signs of Khan's surging popularity since her debut album, Fur and Gold, was nominated for last year's Mercury prize. This month, Bat for Lashes (Khan and a new backing band, the Blue Dreams) are touring Europe on the invitation of Radiohead.

When Khan walks through her adopted home town, Brighton, girls sashay into earshot singing her finest, best-known song, What's a Girl to Do: "When you love someone/ But the thrill is gone." Most importantly, success means that the 28-year-old can now leave this rented house and move into her own flat. "I've yearned for that security all my life," she says. "To have somewhere to call my own is all I've ever wanted. Now everything else is a bonus." Fur and Gold beguiled critics on its release in September 2006. Otherworldly in feel, it carries lyrics loaded with images from Khan's dreams and her reading in Jungian theory, while its dark, sensual sounds evoke everything from 1960s pop to Native American rituals. Despite the positive reviews, however, it went relatively unnoticed by the general public - until the Mercury nominations were announced several months later. Khan is thankful for the slow burn: "It allowed me to get used to the idea of opening your dressing gown in front of lots of people." As a child, she never wished to be famous. "When I was younger, there wasn't that spotlight on celebrity and its workings.

When I played piano, I wasn't performing for anyone. I played because it gave me goosebumps all over my body. I was able to express the overwhelming tides of emotion that wanted to come out." Over the past year, she says, she has felt overwhelmed by emotion again, as she has attempted to deal with the demands of touring - and then, over the winter, the sudden absence of that routine. She played her final Fur and Gold show last October at London's Koko, a magical evening in which the stage was transformed into a glittering forest inhabited by sprites. After that, she spent some time with her family, then with her boyfriend (a musician in the New York band Moon and Moon), and had "a bit of a nervous breakdown. It was the first time in two years where nothing was needed of me. It's as though you're the queen at the top of your tower, and suddenly you're flung out the window. Actually, it was really good for me to just be Natasha for a while, to have an everyday life and slow down. But I can imagine why people in that situation need to get fucked up." Books pulled her through.

She has a pile beside her as we talk: Heroes and Villains, by Angela Carter; We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love, by the Jungian analyst Robert Johnson; a biography entitled Victor Hugo's Conversations With the Spirit World, about which she is particularly enthused. The French novelist spent three years in exile in Jersey, during which he communed with the spirits of the ocean, rocks, animals, Galileo, Jesus, you name it. The book has tapped into Khan's own beliefs about "the connectedness of all things. It strikes me over and over again how physics and love and creativity and physical birth are all the same thing." She is a self-confessed hippy, "obsessed with Woodstock and running through the California forests. People say it's stupid, but I don't care: people are so cynical nowadays." Khan has always felt a little bit different. Her mother and aunts mostly do secretarial work (although her mother recently completed a degree in criminal psychology), but the teenage Natasha wanted to be "a painter or a writer", and decided that life experience would serve her better than university. She spent two years working in offices and factories, saving enough to travel to New York, San Francisco, Mexico and Canada.

It was then that she realised how important music was to her - something she previously "wasn't cognisant of, even though I was playing piano all the time, and writing poems and books of lyrics". She surprised her family by signing up for a degree in music and visual art at Brighton University. "Mum says that, since I was a tiny baby, I've had the most strong-willed and stubborn personality known to man. Although that was a real pain for her, she admired my resolve. It can be frightening to turn your back on what others think is right. But I'm not the same as a lot of people - I'm quite artistic and quite eccentric sometimes. If you honour that, you fit into yourself better - and people accept you for what you are." It seems she inherited her creativity from her father, Rahmat Khan, a squash player who gave up his career to coach his cousin Jahangir, who for several years was the world No 1. "Dad was an amazing storyteller and illustrator, which he did in his spare time - very inspiring and dramatic." He instilled a wanderlust in Natasha. "I'd travel the world with him and watch him compete.

I think that's why I'm really free-spirited: I'd been all over the world by the time I was three." She's able to talk calmly of the fact that her father abandoned the family when she was just 11, and has rationalised it as "that moment when life becomes serious, and you realise you're a soul on a journey", an experience she believes everyone shares. But she also admits: "I'll always be someone who is frightened of being abandoned, and finds it difficult to trust people." Her view of human relationships has grown quite cosmic since a visit to the planetarium in New York. "Planets will bask in each other's glory but never quite meet, until at some point they crash and create a whole bunch of other planets. I was thinking about love, how there's a desperate need for us to connect, yet we're all separate - planets that need to circle around each other." Khan and her boyfriend have been together for two and a half years, time she says has been characterised by "a lot of pressures, but a lot of beautiful, inspirational things, too." It's a tricky time for Khan: she is ready to settle down, yet determined to pursue her wayward career.

She longs to have children, yet can't even commit to a pet cat. Children were a big part of her pre-Bat life: after university, she trained as a nursery-school teacher, and spent three years in the job. "I loved it. I'd pile up on bean bags with a load of three-year-olds and tell them stories about witches and gargoyles and thunder dragons, and they would squeal in delight. There's something in me that loves to inspire people: when I'm playing music, I imagine all this sparkly stardust going through everyone. I want to make people come alive." Her second album is still a work in progress, but Khan says she has changed musically. "Fur and Gold was 'inside Natasha's mind': it was very intimate and personal. This one feels a bit more confident and physical and in the world. It's me balancing out my more masculine side with all my good feminine intuitions and emotions." This is reflected in her new band, too: unlike her all-female first band, it is a mixture of men and women, with real drums instead of programmed beats. She has mixed emotions about returning to the promotional merry-go-round.

"I feel creatively at my strongest, but this is quite a sad, scary time, too. Last night, I spent half an hour writing down all the things I'm grateful for. To be able to put out things that I think will be beneficial, in a world that is transient and difficult, is very rare." She hasn't yet designed the visual world for the new album (like Alison Goldfrapp, she's a firm believer that image is as important as sound), but has fond memories of creating Bat for Lashes in the first place. "I was really naive and excited. It was like being a child taken up into the loft, and finding 50 million boxes of whatever you could imagine - musical instruments, books, dressing-up clothes." Her earliest promotional photographs are vibrant and a little bonkers, featuring Khan in a boxing ring, bedecked in feathers, with a golden headband that became her trademark. "I was playing and not giving a shit," she says cheerfully. "Looking back on it, I love it still, but I do think: 'Gosh, what are you wearing?'".

· Bat for Lashes support Radiohead at Victoria Park, London E9, on June 24 and 25, and on tour Bat for Lashes - New Songs, Playlists & Latest News - BBC Music Read more about sharing. Bat for Lashes Biography (Wikipedia) Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), known professionally as Bat for Lashes, is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has released four studio albums, Fur and Gold (2006), Two Suns (2009), The Haunted Man (2012) and The Bride (2016), receiving Mercury Prize nominations for Fur and Gold, Two Suns and The Bride. Khan is also the vocalist for Sexwitch, a collaboration with the rock band Toy and producer Dan Carey. This entry is from Wikipedia , the user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors and is licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License . If you find the biography content factually incorrect or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia . Find out more about our use of this data.

Show more Sasha Aagha - IMDb IMDb Actress | Music Department Aagha was born on 15 March 1992 in London, England to singer, director, producer and actress Salma Agha and father Rehmat Khan. English singer-songwriter Natasha Khan, better known by her stage name Bat for Lashes, is her half-sister. She is of Pashtunn descent. Her grandmother Nusrin Agha was a singer as well. Music composer duo Sajid-Wajid are ... See full bio » Bat for Lashes: 'I don't want to hide any more' | Music | The Guardian The Observer Bat for Lashes: 'I don't want to hide any more' After the success of her first two albums, Natasha Khan, better known as Bat for Lashes, found herself in a dark place, pursued by demons.

Here, she talks about finding peace in a patch of dahlias, posing naked – and why Björk keeps her sane Bat out of hell: Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes Photograph: Chris Floyd for the Observer Saturday 8 September 2012 19.05 EDT First published on Saturday 8 September 2012 19.05 EDT Share on Messenger Close I dream a lot about miniature sea animals," says Natasha Khan, the 32-year-old singer-songwriter better known as Bat for Lashes . "What do you think that means?" I ask. "I don't know," she replies archly. "You tell me, Dr Freud." We are flicking through Khan's notebook, an A4-sized Moleskine, that she compiled while she was working on her new album, The Haunted Man. It is crammed, margin to margin, with what she calls "mind splurges"; these are jottings and intricate sketches that – were you, say, to find the pad left on the seat of the Tube – you might conclude were the work of an eccentric genius or a high-functioning crazy person. Half a page is devoted to diagrams of outdoor dens.

There is a large section about a book of first-person testimonies from the last generation of British lighthouse keepers and their families. The video artist Bill Viola, director Ingmar Bergman and author Raymond Briggs are recurring presences in different forms. Occasionally there are snatches of chords and lyrics. The notebook starts off playful, but gets gradually darker, more desperate. It becomes harder to ignore the dark, shadowy figures that appear sporadically, menacingly on the pages. "There's loads of drawings of these big black beings standing over my bed watching me sleep," Khan explains. "That's how I was feeling doing the book. Everything I was doing, they were around, these ghouls that are chasing you or just always present and leave behind this sense of uneasiness." She pauses. "At least that's how it feels sometimes." You don't need to be trained in psycho-analysis to decipher what these unnerving creatures might represent.

The first Bat for Lashes album, Fur and Gold, came out in 2006 and announced Khan as a rare and subversive talent: not only did she write the songs and supply the dramatic, reverb-heavy vocals, she played most of the instruments and created a fantastical universe in which they existed. Fur and Gold appeared locked in for the Mercury Prize, only to be beaten by the Klaxons of all people. Not bad for a debut, though. Her sophomore effort in 2009 was the even more ambitious Two Suns, featuring Khan's blonde, femme-fatale alter ego Pearl. Against expectations, the album went to number five in the charts and proved that she could write a conventional pop hit, with "Daniel" winning an Ivor Novello award. Khan's look – flapper-era headbands, glitter, Native American threads – became pervasive with girls who didn't look nearly as good in it as she did and Rolling Stone called her out as "the next Kate Bush". Not bad for an uncompromising concept album. So, when it came to writing the third Bat for Lashes record, you can imagine that Khan might have been feeling a bit of pressure.

Hence the shadowy monsters and the increasingly fraught scribblings in her Moleskine. "Stress! Stress! Oh God, oh God, oh God!" she says, leafing through the pages. "I was getting very stuck and having writer's block and getting panicked and really upset. I was honestly ready not to do music any more because I thought, 'That's it, I'm just going to go off and have a baby. I don't want to do this any more.' I'd lost my way." Khan's existential crisis is being relived in front of me in Vanessa Bell's artist studio at Charleston, the idyllic country bolthole for the Bloomsbury Group in East Sussex. Most of the furniture is covered with dust blankets, but every inch of doorframe and window ledge is daubed artfully with paint in a manner that you imagine an inveterate doodler like Khan must heartily approve of.

The house and its gardens have been famous for inspiring creative expression since Virginia Woolf spotted it in October 1916 – TS Eliot, Maynard Keynes and EM Forster were regular visitors – but it's a safe bet that The Haunted Man is the first pop record to have taken root here. As her block worsened, Khan decided to step away from music. She tried to go back to her old job as a primary school teacher, but by the time her Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check came through the summer term was almost over. She volunteered at Great Ormond Street Hospital, but they required a commitment for six months that she couldn't give. A friend, however, suggested she could do unpaid work at Charleston, helping out the gardener, Mark, and his infirm whippet. Khan came to the house regularly for a couple of months – time to plant a dahlia bed that Mark still recalls fondly – but it was long enough to clear her head (Khan being Khan, she also did a course on children's book illustration, made a series of dance films and worked through a reading list from her old college professor). "I was quite sad at the time and quite lonely," she recalls.

"I was stuck in my flat in Brighton and I was desperate for a garden. Working with Mark felt like going back to my mum's for a cup of tea. My parents don't live in the UK any more, so it felt a bit like a little family." When Khan went back to her notebook, The Haunted Man started to take shape. It would be an album about England, a love letter to Hertfordshire where she grew up and Sussex where she now lived. Without even realising it, the menacing creatures disappeared. In line with any self-respecting, mid-career crisis, Khan decided to overhaul her image. Her long, flowing locks have been clipped into an orderly bob with a forbidding fringe and today she wears a simple vintage summer dress with just a dash of make-up. "Maybe to other people it seems like I've tried to reinvent myself, but it's not in a Madonna-y conscious way," she says. "I don't want to go out wearing glittery headbands again because I did that seven years ago.

And I want to cut my hair because people cut their hair in life, because it's hot in the summer having hair all down your back and sometimes your hair goes a bit crap." The starkest expression of her new look is the cover of The Haunted Man. Previous Bat for Lashes record sleeves have seen her surrounded by candles, holding a planet in each of her hands or even the face of Daniel LaRusso (yep, The Karate Kid) spray-painted on her back. This time, she is buck naked, standing assertively like a huntress with a man, also nude, draped over her shoulders. The image, shot by Ryan McGinley, is stunningly simple and unretouched; scandalously, Khan hasn't even bothered to shave her legs. It's hard to predict what Tesco's will think, but it already feels like an iconic piece of album art. "I was looking at old pictures of Patti Smith and PJ Harvey, those raw women of the past, just not giving a shit," says Khan. "Or Frida Kahlo with her amazing eyebrows and moustache and I think that's a bit lacking these days: real bodies, real people. So I'm proud of that aspect of it.

"I did have a freak out when it first came out," she says ruefully. "I'm only human, as much of me that is badass and like, 'Have it!' I'm still conscious of the fact that people are seeing something quite vulnerable and raw. But I remember thinking: I don't want to hide any more, I want to step forward and be bold with this album and it's happened." Pinterest The boldness extends to more than the cover. Khan feels that The Haunted Man is the most punchy and assured Bat for Lashes album to date. Although the genesis of the material was often dark and tumultuous, the result is unexpectedly upbeat and euphoric. The new singles, "Laura" and "All Your Gold", which is out in November, prove that "Daniel" was not a flash in the pan and overall Khan believes the record has an ambition and energy that is channelled more efficiently than before. "I feel like I'm at the crux of something quite special," she says. "There's a feeling in the air which is different to the other two.

I feel like I'm reaching something." It's tempting to think that, in some ways, Khan has been spurred on by the breakthroughs of Adele and Florence Welch, or the continued excellence of Björk, PJ Harvey and Joanna Newsom. "I do feel like I'm glad they're there, it's less lonely because of them," she confirms. "It's reassuring to see their lives unfolding, like a distant family member or something. You know, when you're in a normal family and you feel like a black sheep? But then you've got a mad auntie who lives in France or somewhere and she sends you weird things and you think, 'Oh, it's all right. I'm not alone.' " Khan giggles, "It's a bit like that. When Björk comes out with some mad new album, I think, 'That's good.' It's reassuring." We should enjoy Bat for Lashes now as Khan makes no secret that her biological clock is ticking loudly. She points out that Lily Allen stopped after three albums to have kids and that Adele is currently taking time off, too.

Khan's love life has tended to be, in her own words, "destructive" and the only time she clams up during our afternoon at Charleston is when I ask about her current partner. "I don't want to jinx it," she says, shaking her head. "I don't think speaking about my personal life is going to enhance the music, otherwise I would have put it in the album. I've given as much as I want to give, which I think is quite a lot. And I'm naked, so ppphhhlllbbb!" Khan blows a raspberry and falls into hysterics. "I'm not giving any more!" The Haunted Man is out on 15 October. Bat for Lashes' UK tour starts on 18 October ( batforlashes.com ) Animals, Plastic or Dead - The New York Times The New York Times Fashion & Style |Animals, Plastic or Dead Search Fashion & Style | A Night Out With | Bat for Lashes Animals, Plastic or Dead Continue reading the main story Photo Natasha Khan, the singer known as Bat for Lashes, shops for stage props at New York Costume in the East Village.

Credit Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times NO surprise, perhaps, but Natasha Khan, the British singer better known as Bat for Lashes, has a thing for costumes. On stage and in videos she wears feathers and animal heads, new wave makeup and shredded T-shirts, an expression of her hipster chic as well as her musical aesthetic: girlish but cloaked in grit. (At her debut show in New York in 2007, half the girls were already aping her style, with thin headbands worn over dark bangs.) So on a recent visit to the city, before a summer tour to support her album “Two Suns,” Ms. Khan went right for a favorite hangout, New York Costumes in the East Village. “I love dressing up,” she said, pulling a barmaid outfit off a rack. Too overtly sexy (Ms. Khan, 29, is striking but underplays it). A Superman cape met with more approval. “I quite like androgyny,” she said. She knocked on the stiff chest of a Batman costume (“Oooh!”) and wandered in search of something bat-like to fit her.

“There’s a place near my house, I buy all my skeletons and animal heads there,” she said. No such luck here, but she did like the store’s soundtrack, singing along to “If I Only Had a Brain” from “The Wizard of Oz.” An hour later, having bought a feathered mask (to wear as a hat), some glittery makeup and a fake stuffed raven for the stage, Ms. Khan headed to Freemans on the Lower East Side to meet her bandmates. Charlotte Hatherley, the guitarist, and Sarah Jones, the drummer, turned up, but Ben Christophers didn’t, so it was a girls’ night. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Does anyone need a cocktail immediately?” Sparky the waiter asked, sensing the mood. “I do!” Ms. Khan replied, waving her hands in the air. She ordered a Bangkok Buck (Thai rum, ginger, pineapple juice) and applauded when it arrived. The ersatz-rustic surroundings suited her. “I know it’s not politically correct,” she said, “but I quite like the taxidermy.

I think it’s great that they have all the baby deer heads.” Navigating the menu, she squealed over devils on horseback — dates wrapped in bacon — while Ms. Hatherley and Ms. Jones kept their eyes on the waiters. “I was just going to go and have porridge this evening,” Ms. Hatherley said, ogling. “This is better.” As female musicians, they have had to endure some stereotypes. Starting out on tour, Ms. Hatherley was asked if she was the makeup girl. Ms. Jones gets compared to Meg White “constantly,” she said, her eyes closed in annoyance, adding, “Meg White is the worst drummer I’ve ever seen.” “I get people being frightened of me,” Ms. Khan said. “One time I did this photo shoot where I had hairy armpits — I was really digging it, but they were like, ‘We’ll airbrush that out.’ ” As for her stage name, Bat for Lashes “doesn’t really mean anything,” she said.

“It conjured up Halloween -y images, and it sounded metal and feminine.” On “Two Suns,” which she co-produced, she plays piano, guitar, synths, harmonium, drums and bass — and did some of the artwork for the album cover. “I pretty much know what I want,” she said, “and then delegate.” More cocktails, Sparky! “That was so niiice,” Ms. Jones sighed at the end of the meal, and Ms. Khan clapped gleefully. A version of this article appears in print on , on Page ST4 of the New York edition with the headline: Animals, Plastic or Dead. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

Question: Natasha Khan is better known by what name?
Answer: Bat for Lashes