Bat For 80s

Natasha Khan reveals the inspiration behind her second album

07 April 2009 - Bat For Lashes has admitted The Cure and Kraftwerk were a major inspiration behind her new record Two Suns.

The Brightonian songstress, aka Natasha Khan, deliberately incorporated "a lot more beats" into her second album which follows her blonde alter ego Pearl.

"It was really important to me because the last record is very beautiful in its way but it didn’t have those dance elements which are obviously very important to me and always have been," she said. 

"That came across this time in electronic, tribal beats and real drum kits, I was hiring in synths and things Kraftwerk and The Cure used in the 80s." 

The sparkly singer recorded the follow up to her Mecury Music Prize nominated debut Fur And Gold in California, New York, London, Brighton and Wales.  

"I was hiring in synths and things Kraftwerk used and The Cure used in the 80s." Bat For Lashes

"It is about the two aspects of me being pushed and pulled through New York and England," she explained. 

"Because I had a relationship and my boyfriend lives in New York, I was thinking about the two continents, the fact that when he sees the moon I don’t see it. But he can put a wish on the moon and I'll see it."

According to the singer, the Big Sur region in California was instrumental on the track Sleep Alone.
  
"The desert was actually a huge inspiration but when I was in the Big Sur I actually recorded a lot of my friends sat around a camp fire clapping and stamping their feet and singing along," she enthuses.

"You can actually hear the crackle of the fire at the end of that track on the record."

Her childhood was also a major driving force behind Two Suns.

"Having gone to a Church Of England school, we did hymns every morning and we had silence and the Lord's Prayer," she added.

"That mixed with my love of theatre, films and drama and atmosphere naturally combined to give me a love of ceremony in making something special and heightened with this record."

Bat For Lashes kicks off her UK tour at the Manchester Ritz tonight (7 April) with ex-Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley.

Damian Jones