Bat for Lashes has revealed how a series of classic 80’s movies influenced the themes and sound on her latest album.
In a new interview with The Observer, the musician – real name Natasha Khan – opened up about how films like The Lost Boys, E.T. and The Goonies helped to inspire her latest.
“I was developing a script for a film called The Lost Girls. It was heavily influenced by 80s children’s films and vampire films, many set in Portland and California,” Khan explained. “But as the songs progressed, I felt like I was writing the film soundtrack. Music does tend to overtake film ideas, as it comes out much more easily.
“The Lost Boys, obviously, is a close link, and seeing LA’s hazy sunsets is making me think of films like ET and The Goonies. Moving to LA, I’ve basically been plonked inside the sets of all the films I loved as a kid.”
Her upcoming album, Lost Girl?, arrives on September 6 and the singer has already shared two singles from the album – ‘Kids in the Dark’ and ‘Feel For You’ that NME described as being influenced by “80’s synth pop.”
Elsewhere in the new interview, Khan also opened up about how she wasn’t sure if she would make another album.
Khan explained: “I had moved away from London, where I’d lived for seven years, and finished my contract with EMI. My plan initially was to go to Los Angeles to focus on scriptwriting and doing music for film. The first song on the album, Kids in the Dark, was actually written for a Stephen King TV series [Castle Rock] – but the music supervisor Charles [Scott] and I had such a good time that we decided to keep meeting.
“I didn’t even know whether I was going to make an album again – I wanted to have a real break and leave everything behind me. And so when this album started happening, it was sort of a secret – and nobody really knew about it until it was nearly done.”
Khan was recently awarded an Ivor Novello for Best Television Soundtrack for her work on Requiem with Dominik Scherrer. Speaking about the soundtrack, the judges said: “With immediate, absorbing and haunting Celtic vocals, the score empowered drama with innovative instrumentation”.
In 2010, Khan also received an Ivor Novello for Best Contemporary Song for ‘Daniel.’