Black Veils And Bouquets, How Bat For Lashes Brings The Bride To Life

Throwing herself into researching a film idea that ultimately became her fourth album, Natasha Khan began The Bride with a tracklist, fleshing out the character-driven story arc title by title as though writing a book. Following The Bride as she prepares for marriage and deals with the unfolding tragedy of losing her husband-to-be on the way to the church, Khan's imaginative exploration of waiting to be made whole by another is filled with deep and dark reflections of love.

"When I looked back towards the end I realised that it was definitely a metaphor for relationships and some of my ideas about, you know, moving from a romantic ideal and then to better that romantic idea in order to move into something deeper — whether it's self love or just losing the idea of someone answering your everything and just being more realistic. And understanding that love is kind of, if it just stays in that sort of really heightened superficial space it can't really get that deep," says Khan.

"I like calling her The Bride because I didn't want to call her Natasha or another name. She's just an idea I suppose, and she's definitely very much a part of me and sort of heightened aspects of me."

Through her gentle and sweetly spoken British accent, Khan explains her relationship with The Bride. "I definitely accessed her when writing the music and singing, and I located an area of my heart and soul to explore her as a character — well, not even a character, but just an aspect of myself. And I like calling her The Bride because I didn't want to call her Natasha or another name. She's just an idea I suppose, and she's definitely very much a part of me and sort of heightened aspects of me."

Much of the enjoyment of The Bride comes from tapping into the energy of Khan's creativity, and her dedication to fully exploring the musical and literary themes through visual mediums too, Khan becoming her storytelling device on stage.

"I think that's kind of been brought into reality by doing these church shows and coming down the aisle in my black veil and bouquet, and throwing it in the audience and stuff — I didn't realise how fun it was gonna be to interpret these songs with my band, who are amazing musicians, so that's a thrill. And then just seeing the audience and how much they're going along with the story, and how present and invested they are emotionally is really touching. It is really fun; sometimes it makes real life harder to live," she says with a chuckle, "because you can just escape into your own world, and I think probably a lot of artists — like if you're an obsessive painter or musician — sometimes the world's so raw and hard to be in, and that is your escape or your place to go where it feels most real, or you feel most yourself or something. I suppose it is akin to a bit of a spiritual experience and a place where you touch sort of higher realms. It's addictive and it is beautiful and it's also a very good way of becoming self-aware and working through stuff. So I think for me it provides lots of things 'cause I take it as like a life challenge and responsibility in a way, my responsibility to make good work."