Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), better known by her stage name Bat for Lashes, is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has released three studio albums, Fur and Gold (2006), Two Suns (2009) and The Haunted Man (2012), and received Mercury Prize nominations for Fur and Gold and Two Suns. Khan is also the vocalist for Sexwitch, a collaboration with the rock band Toy and producer Dan Carey.
Early life
Khan was born to an English mother, Josie, and Pakistani father, squash player Rahmat Khan. A member of the Khan family, she is the granddaughter of squash player Nasrullah Khan and the niece of squash players Jahangir Khan and Torsam Khan, and the stepdaughter of singer and actress Salma Agha and half-sister of actress Sasha Agha. Khan is of Pashtun descent and British and Pakistani ancestry. Khan moved to Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire with her family when she was five years old. She attended many of her father and uncle Jahangir's squash matches, which she felt inspired her creativity: "The roar of the crowd is intense; it is ceremonial, ritualistic, I feel like the banner got passed to me but I carried it on in a creative way. It is a similar thing, the need to thrive on heightened communal experience." After her father left the family when Khan was 11, she taught herself to play the piano, which became "a channel to express things, to get them out".