Good morning,
Welcome to your weekly free edition of The New Cue, because no-one wants to start the week facing a paywall, and we don’t want to start the week putting in a paywall. Take the day off, paywall. What that means is today’s Life & Times interview with Bat For Lashes, aka indie-pop adventurer, singer-songwriter and visual artist Natasha Khan, is free for one and all. It’s almost Christmas and, more importantly, it’s Monday. No paywall. But you can still click here and become a paying subscriber if you like. It costs £5 a month, a true bargain in a time of why the hell is everything so expensive:
Earlier this year, Khan put out her sixth album as Bat For Lashes, a brilliantly ambient and atmospheric record titled The Dream Of Delphi. On Friday, she released a sister EP titled The Dream Of Delphi (Harp Visions), on which she has collaborated with the harpist and composter Lara Somogyi to rework some of the songs from the album alongside a pair of new tracks. It’s a rich, stripped-down sound that the duo fashion, and quite a festive one too. The song Christmas Day definitely sounds more Christmassy now than it did upon initial release. It’s hard to get those Christmassy vibes going in February.
Natasha spoke to Niall, me, last week over Zoom and talked us through how the team-up came about. “I met Lara at a Decca party in south London,” she said. “She played last and I was blown away by her beautiful playing and her use of pedals and ability to conjure a landscape with her music.” They ended up working together to perform at a launch show for The Dream Of Delphi, she explained, and it went so well that they decided to get the versions of those songs down on tape. “It all happened so organically and now we have this beautiful EP which I really love the sound of.”
She agrees that it is suitable music for the season. “Yeah, it’s really nice winter music. And it’s also lullaby versions of songs that’s already about having a child, so I feel like it’s probably nice bedtime music.”
But don’t be going to bed just yet! First of all you have Natasha’s excellent Life & Times interview to read. And then you probably have some other stuff to do, too. It’s only Monday morning, sort yourself out!
Enjoy the edition,
Ted and Niall
The Life & Times Of… Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes
What was the first record you loved?
It was probably True Blue by Madonna. I loved the song La Isle Bonita - as a little girl, I used to do my Spanish dancing and sing along to it in the mirror. I was definitely exposed to Madonna quite early. And also Michael Jackson, my first concert was the Bad tour at Wembley Stadium when I was nine, my mum took me, and Five Star supported who I really liked as well.
And the last?
Rosalia’s first album from 2017, Los Angeles. That’s been my obsession over the past month or so. I love that album, I think it’s so beautiful. It’s very different to all the new stuff, which I’m not so into, it’s just a pure voice and guitar flamenco-style record. Her vocal is really incredible. It’s got that passionate flamenco thing but it also reminds me a bit of Pakistani music with those scales, and a bit of Bulgarian female choir stuff. There’s something really archaic about the album, and she was so young when she sang it, but I think it’s really beautiful.
What is your earliest memory?
Walking from my mum to my dad when I was just over one. I remember being let go of and then walking, looking at my dad and aiming for him, tripping over my legs and then being caught. That’s a really early memory. I think a lot of people don’t remember that far back. I remember the room and everything as I described it to my mum. It was the place we lived at until I was three or something, so I definitely remember that first walk.
What is daily domestic routine?
It’s the school run, so we get up at seven. Usually I get kicked or walloped on the head, and then get up, get changed, brush teeth, make some porridge with raspberries and maple syrup in it, and get all Delphi’s school bags together. Then we get the bus or walk to school and then I go and get a coffee at my local coffee shop, and that is what I do every morning. My main project at the moment is that I’m writing a memoir, a creative memoir, not so much like an A to B of my life but more the themes and the mythology of my life as talked about through the records and the landscapes I was in and the characters I developed, and how that relates back to childhood and the seeds of all those obsessions and themes and ideas and where they came from. I’ve done 50,000 words so far.
Who or what is the love of your life?
My daughter Delphi, definitely. It’s a pure, unconditional love, which I think you can find in romantic love, but I think this kind of love is that sort of love where you make a commitment to someone for the rest of your life and there’s just no way I won’t be in her life, or she won’t be in mine, until death do us part. I feel like there’s a liberation in that commitment because it’s not going anywhere. You just have to always show up and be your best self every day because there’s a lifetime of repercussions if you don’t. It’s a pure form of love because you just want the best for that person, and therefore you have to be your best self, and there’s a selflessness to that which is humbling.
What’s your worst habit?
Daydreaming, escaping into fantasy land. I’m quite self-motivated, I get a lot done but I like to be in that dream world more than reality sometimes. Usually if I’m stressed or under pressure or anxious or feeling overwhelmed, I’ll go to that place rather than being really present. I think that a lot of creative people have that place they like to go, but sometimes you just need to face things head on.
When were you most creatively satisfied?
Around the second album, when I went to New York and I made the Two Suns record. Actually, from university all the way up to that point, I was on a roll and a sponge, soaking up so many different inspirations, traveling, going on tour with people, meeting new musicians, going to late night shows, and absorbing lots of music and books and films and people. I met a lot of eccentric, idiosyncratic people around that time, and left England and lived in New York. I think I was really fulfilled around that time, because it was such a juicy, full well of possibility and ideas that I’d been building up over my whole lifetime and so that first and second record was just so fulfilling. To realise all those dreams and work with all these different people and make videos and do shows and wear costumes was a real highlight for me. Then there was that third album drop where you get the pressure of success and those sorts of things and then after that, you’re grappling with trying to regain that initial innocence. But I have since been very creatively fulfilled. When I had Delphi, I was really on fire as well, in a different way.
Has anyone you’ve met ever made you feel starstruck?
Björk came to one of my earliest shows and came to say hello afterwards. I didn’t know she’d come to the show, and I didn’t know what to say because I had loved her since I was an 11-year-old. I think when I first met Thom Yorke, when we supported Radiohead on the In Rainbows tour, I was pretty starstruck. He’s also slightly awkward and scary until you get to know him and I felt really shy.
Who or what is the greatest influence on your work?
Films have been a massive inspiration on my work, I’d say, because my brain works in a sort of narrative way. For most of the albums, I’ve written either a script or a novella or some story to go with them all. I think the use of constructing the storytelling, or the story behind the albums, has been a huge influence on my work because I’m almost making soundtracks to things that live inside my mind’s eye. Probably the other biggest influence has been where I live, the landscape I live in. Some of them have been recorded in deserts, some in mountains, some in LA, some in New York, some in the countryside of England. I think there’s definitely an absorption of the environment and nature that seeps into the music, the cultural landscape of where I am often comes in.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I suppose that I’m quite vulnerable, very sensitive and vulnerable. I have to work really hard on keeping my myself grounded and not overwhelmed by the speed of the world and the way the world is. I think a lot of people feel this way, but sometimes when you present yourself as so sure of yourself and your vision is strong, people think you’re invincible. But actually, I think I’m a really sensitive person.
What are you scared of?
Being alone. Although I love being alone, but I’m scared of ending up alone. Oh god!
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
I’d probably go back to some incredible Egyptian matriarchal tribal life that I could enjoy being a woman in my 40s. Like, being the head of an incredible tribe and enjoying the wisdom and the intergenerational life and raising children and being a big tribe of family. I think that would be really awesome. And then learning about all the mystical mythological traditions and rituals and ideas behind an old civilisation like that.
What do you wish the 18-year-old you knew?
That I was a beautiful woman that had probably had a lot more power than I realised. I wasn’t very aware of my own feminine power. I think I went for men that weren’t good enough for me and I didn’t have the self-confidence or the self-worth that I wish, looking back, I’d known how special I was. I think about that with my daughter, it’s just sometimes when you’re young, you don’t see yourself how other people see you.
What one book would you recommend we read?
Wilding by Isabella Tree, because I’m about to embark on this re-wilding ecological guardianship of biodiversity course next year. With all the things that are going on in the world and how apocalyptic it feels, the book is this meditation on hope and the resilience of nature. If we were to step back and work in partnership with nature and actually just take ourselves a bit out of the equation, there’s this incredible capacity for our biodiversity and wildlife to come flourishing back all over the world. We have it at our fingertips. We’re still in this archaic moment of trying to control and cajole nature into bending to our will and actually hurting ourselves in the process. When I read that book, I felt that there was some hope and I think everybody needs a bit of that.
What was the home you grew up in like?
It was an old Edwardian house in the suburbs in Hertfordshire with a big garden and the back door was always open. People always popping in for cups of tea. Aunties, uncles, cousins lived with us. My dad was a famous squash coach, so all these young kids would come and live with us and coach under my dad. It was busy, bustling, always full of guests and lots of music and laughter and also lots of dark shit as well, traumatic childhood stuff, but I think it was quite a rich hub.
How do you spark creativity?
Fill the well, first and foremost, whatever that is, whether it’s walking in nature, contemplating, reading poems or going to see an amazing art exhibition or a film. Sparking creativity is about filling the well, making sure your well is full. If you’re blocked, I think sometimes people try and make work and keep pushing it when nothing’s coming out. I look at creativity as like an inner child. I was a pre-school teacher before and I always describe it as if there was a child under the table, and you’re like, ‘Just come out and perform your tasks and you’re going to get told off if you don’t do that’, and then they’re not going to come out. But if you go under there and you say, ‘I’m a pirate, and guess what, there’s a pirate ship out in the garden, and we’re gonna go and make pretend boats’ you create magic and use your imagination and tempt out the inner child, or the inner creative, placing beautiful, alluring experiences or objects or people or things around you, it brings out that playful side in the creative.
Do you mind getting older?
I mind in the way that my physical body is not quite the same it was. Or the apparent sociological parts, like you’re supposed to look 25 forever. There’s a little bit of me that feels the pressure of that but mostly I don’t mind at all. I’m really enjoying my 40s. I feel that I’m still confident and young enough to enjoy my life and I’m letting my grey wolf hair grow out. I don’t mind that. I think getting older just shows that you’ve lived a life. I like the wisdom that I now have and the abilities that I’ve developed to deal with life in a more successful way. I think the bit between your 30s and your 50s is hard, because that’s quite a big change, but then I’m excited to get over this hump and then be like an elder, a cool, older woman who’s potent and radiant and useful to others.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
I think it’s Aristotle, ‘Know thyself’. It’s not really advice, I remember seeing it written across the top of an old building. In order to be a conscious human being that’s able to not cause pain to others, I think it’s a gift to know who you are, what’s good for you, what you need to live a successful life and to try to as much as possible give yourself those things so that you can then generate a loving existence. I think people that really don’t know themselves often create quite a lot of havoc without meaning to and life is a whole journey of getting to know yourself, or getting to remember yourself as you when you came in.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
When my daughter wipes her bogies on me, she goes, ‘mummy, bogey!’ Then I have to take it. She gives them to me in my hands while we’re driving or if we’re watching TV.
What’s your favourite film and why?
I’ve got so many favourite films, gosh, that’s really hard. The Wizard Of Oz, I think. It’s a classic hero’s journey tale. I love the sets, I love the Kodachrome film colour, it was made in 1939, which blows my mind at how beautiful it looks, how surreal it is, the moral to the story. I love a story that’s got a fairytale kind of feel because I think a lot of fairytales work on this psychological level, like Dorothy and all the aspects of herself, that all of them are searching for something and actually that it’s inside the whole time. It’s a film that stands the test of time and is very actualised as a storytelling device.
What trait in other people most winds you up?
Non-accountability. I really love it when Delphi and I have a fight about something where I get cross with her, or she gets across with me, and then I try to talk to her about if I’ve been mean to her or lost my temper or something when I shouldn’t have done. It feels really liberating to say, ‘Can we have a talk? I’m really sorry if mummy shouted at you, I’m really tired today’, or ‘It’s OK to be angry but I shouldn’t have lost my temper and I’ll try and do better next time’. Then, ‘Is there anything you want to say?’ Sometimes she says, ‘It’s OK mummy, and I’m sorry too’ and then we make up. It really winds me up when someone’s done something shitty and then you try to talk about it and they just won’t take responsibility. I think when someone takes responsibility, it creates vulnerability, and then you can have true intimacy with someone else. When you say, ‘Look, I’m sorry I fucked up’. I found that when I do that with Delphi, it brings us closer. It’s really liberating for me to admit that I’m not perfect and I make mistakes. It’s much more human to do that and I find it hard when people don’t want to go there.
Can you cook? If so, what’s your signature dish?
Yes, I absolutely love cooking! I’d say my signature dish is a roast chicken with loads of garlic and lemon and a mustard and double cream sauce with loads of vegetables bubbling, all in one pot, and it’s all crispy and delicious. I’m salivating talking about it. And I love making spaghetti bolognese, because I’m like a classic mum, spag-bol is an essential part of my life.
Have you ever broken the law?
If speeding is breaking the law again, then yes I have. But apart from that, no.
Which talent would you most like to have?
I’d love to be an either an amazing surfer, because that looks epic and I’m terrified of doing that, or be like Fred Astaire, or an incredible tap dancer or flamenco dancer, someone that can just move their feet in that way is really impressive to me.
Do you have any phobias?
I don’t like being trapped in small spaces, so I’m a bit claustrophobic. I’ve only had one really bad experience and it’s made me nervous since. We went on tour around England and on our day off, our tour manager took us to a Yorkshire mine. You have to go down through this tiny tunnel, you have to bend your head over to get into it and then they pull you along on this water on a tiny boat for 10 minutes and it’s where the little kids used to go down into the mines. You do come out eventually into this big quarry, inside cave thing, but the fricking going down, I felt like I was gonna crawl out of my skin. It was so claustrophobic and scary. I felt really sorry for people that had to do that every day.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Managing to live my life this far being making music and making work is a real achievement for me, because it takes a lot of discipline and focus and some courage. If I could have told my little self that that’s what I would do with my life, I would never have expected that’s how my life would have been spent, making work. I feel very, very fortunate and glad that it turned out that way and that I get to do what I do is really special.