Natasha Khan understands how, to many, The Bride, a 13-song concept album and her fourth under the alias Bat for Lashes, may seem, well, a bit depressing. After all, the U.K.-born singer's new LP tells the tale of its soon-to-be-wed protagonist whose fiancé is killed in a car crash moments before they are to marry. But Kahn—a multidisciplinary artist who studied music and visual arts in college, and who since her 2006 debut, Fur and Gold, has used her outré music as a complementary vehicle for immersive performance art—sees things a bit differently.
To her, The Bride is actually "the ultimate love story." The album, Khan explains, is "in the end about this beautiful gift this bride is given through this tragedy." Yes, in the singer's eyes, fixating on the tragic nature of life rather than, say, embracing its nuance is the ultimate misstep. "People like to fixate on the dark or the light [in life]," Khan says, "but I think the most beautiful is the commingling of the two. Often when those two things meet there's an evolution of consciousness or a leap forward in your development as a human being."
Arriving at The Bride was in many ways an unintentional revelation for the critically acclaimed recording artist. Following intense touring behind 2012's intricately produced The Haunted Man, Khan says she grew tired of the road-warrior life and was looking to put music on the back burner. However, upon brainstorming ideas for future visual projects with her friend, artist Neil Krug, the entire concept for her new project appeared before her. "Suddenly I could see the bride with blue eye shadow and the highway and the trees and it was all so strong to me," she recalls of the project's dramatic genesis. And while she'd initially envisioned the story existing exclusively as a film—it would in the end wind up forming the basis for her directorial debut, the short "I Do" for the anthology filmMadly—Khan couldn't ignore the accompanying music and sounds she heard in her head.
"I could just hear it all the time," she explains of the eerie, synth-laden sonics that ultimately formed the bedrock of an album that includes narrative-driving song titles including "Honeymooning Alone," "Widow's Peak," and "I Will Love Again." In her eyes, The Bride comprises a series of short chapters chronicling the protagonist's journey from tragedy to emotional triumph. "Without even trying, the songs leapt out and started writing themselves," she continues. "I tried to wrangle them together and put them in some context by writing the titles of all the songs in order like chapters of a novel and incorporating the narrative arc of the bride and the story thread through them."
If it all seems a bold, large-scale proposition for one person to endure, Khan wouldn't have it any other way. Escaping the traditional album creation cycle and focusing on a multidimensional project like The Bride was liberating for the 36-year-old. Khan says she's always viewed herself as struggling to choose between her various artistic interests—"I used to say I wanted to play piano when I grow up or I wanted to be a writer when I grow up or a painter as well. I've always had that identity struggle between all of them"—but finds peace in her manic pursuits. "I love every aspect of translating an idea into all different media," she explains. "I've come to rest with the fact that that's how I do things and you're very much creating a universe and a world that I can invite people into."
To that end, despite its logistical hurdles, Khan embraced the challenge of directing her first film with "I Do," which she hopes to soon turn into a feature-length work. "There was lots of red tape to get through," she says of helming the acclaimed short that's been shown at film festivals across the globe, including the esteemed Tribeca Film Festival. "But it was a really good experience to know that if I wanted to make another film I'd want to do it in more of a guerrilla style. I learned about the process and what I like and didn't like about it."
She similarly dove headfirst into translating her new album into a dynamic stage show. For her current tour, Khan appears every night dressed in a floor-length gown, traipsing through the crowd at the evening's outset as if entering her own wedding. "It's really emotional and I'm trying not to cry. Everyone's beaming. I think they feel proud of you," she says with a laugh, recounting her nightly stroll. "When I get up onstage it's just this super-emotional, connective, beautiful, communal experience. I've been really, really loving it."
If nothing more, Khan says, The Bride will surely prove an instructive endeavor: If the day comes when she decides to tie the knot in real life, she'll be prepared. "I'll have done it like a hundred times," she says. "I'll have to like bungee jump into my own wedding to change it up a bit."
