On Sunday night Loverboy was on the plane home from London to Barcelona, and yes we were very happy about it, thank you, when we began our descent and were suddenly enveloped by clouds and even lightning. A typically dramatic end to a Spanish summer. Now we are not the best flyers it is true, but with Bat For Lashes‘ new album, Lost Girls, playing in our ears, so began our out-of-body experience as we gazed out the window and imagined we were the album’s titular group of female vampires haunting the skies and flying through the clouds.
We didn’t get to tell Natasha about being the soundtrack to our “near death” experience, but we did get to discuss other important topics like her inspiration for the new album, her love for drag and how “I am obviously not a girl that goes round killing men at night, but there’s an aspect to it that I feel when I’m walking around at night….stalking!”
So, Natasha, first up I need to know….Lost Girls is all about vampires and in 2010 you contributed a song to the Twilight soundtrack. Was it this key moment that inspired your new album?
Not so much Twilight. Haha…It was more The Lost Boys and harkening back to amazing camp vampire films. Living in LA has really made me think of those 80s films as you walk over hills and see hazy sunsets and pylons with kids in hoodies riding their bikes and vampires under bridges. Being in California, it does permeate your consciousness, constantly reminding me of the romance of those films.
One of the songs on the album is called ‘The Hunger.’ I’m hoping this is an audio interpretation of the Bowie/Sarandon/Deneuve vampire love triangle movie…
It’s weird because I wasn’t even consciously thinking that there was a David Bowie vampire film called The Hunger. I did actually re-watch it but the song wasn’t thematically linked. ‘The Hunger’ is all about this conflict between wanting to be with this person Nikki loves on the topside while the Lost Girls are singing about flying up into the sun and jumping off bridges. They are all around her so it’s kind of like this haunting song. It just so happens that it has the same name. But it’s a good title! Thanks, David! Haha…
With the first single, ‘Kids in the Dark’, you released a hotline alongside all the visuals online, right?
Yes! We had loads of messages and then used some of them as soundtracks to Instagram videos. Some were poetic. One person even played a piece of piano music which we put to some fairground footage. I’ve really been enjoying directing these little Instagram videos. It’s sort of a thrill to be developing these characters and narratives alongside the music.
What film would we be most surprised to know has played an influence in this album?
I guess Point Break has been popping up a lot. It’s such a good film. I was reading a lot about the Director Kathryn Bigelow. She’s such a badass. I love that a woman directed Point Break because it’s so kind of cops and robbers.
Does the album run like a film score in chronological order?
They’re not actually. This would be like what the characters would play on the radio or what’s playing in the weird bar they go to. It’s much more like a soundtrack album.
Do you have a favourite on the album at the moment?
I really do love them all. I suppose it’s like asking which your favourite child is.
Well, Sophie’s Choice is a whole other genre of film.
Haha…yeah! But I think ‘The Hunger’ is great. It’s epic and has a lot of energy in it. It’s slightly different for me. ‘Feel For You’ and ‘So Good’ are really dancey and have quite big beats which is really different compared to the last album. There are a few tracks that stand out as things you wouldn’t expect me to do. So I think I’m excited about those.
When you were writing for this album, how much is from Natasha’s perspective and how much is from your protagonist, Nikki’s?
I mix the two together. Every song I write has to come from some personal experience, otherwise I don’t feel it. ‘Jasmine’ is a spoken word, film noir song about this girl that goes round killing men at night, burying their bodies at the bottom of a cemetery. Obviously that’s not me but there’s an aspect to it where I feel that way sometimes when I’m walking around at night, stalking. Then the ballad ‘Kids in the Dark’ is very much a love song, written from my personal feeling of falling in love but it’s wrapped up in this story of Nikki and the girls so I guess it would be fifty/fifty.
I know you have embodied characters on other albums too. Do you see this as drag?
I mean I have been obsessed with drag since I was younger, but drag is so in the mass consciousness now. Before that it was this underground world, that held a lot of emotional resonance for me, because I just feel like drag is what I do all the time, as a way of making a living but also my way of just coping with life is to go into characters, exploring aspects of myself through dressing up and transcending things.
One of my favourite films is Paris Is Burning. In that film there is so much tragedy but the way out is through dressing up, dancing and elevating yourself and just taking yourself to this beautiful place where you can express yourself. I absolutely love it and it really helped inspire my second album. For that album I dressed up as Pearl with a blonde wig and we’d go out in Brooklyn at night. The song ‘Laura’ is about a drag queen. In the video I danced with Lavinia, this beautiful queen that has been on the London circuit for a long time.
Speaking of drag queens, Loverboy is named after the infamous Mariah Carey song. So, tell us, what is your favourite song by Mariah?
Oh my God, I love Mariah. Have you been to Las Vegas to see her?
I have! I went twice!
Oh my God. She gets carried around…because her heels are so high! She’s honestly one of my all time favourites. My favourite song is ‘Always Be My Baby’. ‘Do-do-do-ah….do-do-do-do-do-do-do-dah…’ I also love ‘Emotions’ as well because that was really the first song I remember hearing by her, especially with the MTV Unplugged video. I watched it over and over again. She’s changed so much which is just hysterical. Back then she was just this brown-eyed, curly-haired sweet girl with high-waisted black jeans and polo-necks and now she is just like…wow!
Bat For Lashes’ new album, Lost Girls, is out now.
www.batforlashes.com
