Bat For Lashes was inspired by the "spiritual ritual" of marriage for her new album 'The Bride'.
Bat For Lashes
The 36-year-old singer/songwriter - whose real name is Natasha Khan - has explained the concept behind her fourth studio LP, which follows the story of a bride whose fiancé dies on the way to their wedding and sees her end up going on their honeymoon in a bid to find herself and face her inner demons.
Explaining the unusual concept, she explained: "Marriage is one of the few spiritual rituals we can collectively share as a culture. You can't count on someone to complete you and make you happy forever. So what happens when you take the crutch away?
"So I took away the groom and made her go on a honeymoon alone. I thought it would be a nice metaphor for falling in love yourself, starting a journey of self-discovery."
The 'The Haunted Man' hitmaker also revealed that the character is very much "a part of her" and she admits it is sometimes hard to "separate" herself from her alter-ego as she can "relate" to her so much.
Asked how she came up with the character, she told Rolling Stone magazine: "She doesn't seem like a character to me; she is a part of me. In this album I am navigating my own psychic terrain. I find it quite hard to separate us. I don't need to step into her; I just tune into her and where she's coming from. She could be anyone."
Before making records Natasha always comes up with visuals and that was no different for this album.
She said: "I made up the whole story, the landscape, the characters ... The feeling of it has to whirl around my brain for a while before I put pen to paper, or actually play something."
Bat For Lashes LP 'The Bride' is out on Friday (01.07.16).
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