Bat for Lashes: Brexit Is “Painful” but “Needs to Happen”

Today, Natasha Khan (aka Bat for Lashes) participated in a webchat with The Guardian, where fans asked her a wide variety of questions. She revealed her five favorite movies (including E.T. and The Shining), discussed growing up as the daughter of a squash player (and meeting Muhammad Ali), and even fielded a marriage proposal. At one point, someone asked, “As a British person with Pakistani ancestry, how does the recent [Brexit] vote make you feel?” She replied with disappointment, but also hope that the UK’s vote to leave the European Union will serve as “a wake-up call” for change. Read her full response below:

I’m obviously devastated by the message that this choice has put out to the world, because I’m a product of a multicultural society. My mother lives in Germany, I have French aunties and uncles and cousins, and I’ve benefitted from being part of the European community. And my dad is Pakistani, an immigrant in this country, and met my mother and I was born out of his ability to come and live and work here. However, I’d like to offer some reassurance in the fact that I think the corporate structures of our world are not serving us and haven’t done for many years, and even though this is a scary time of unrest and upheaval, looking at it from a grander perspective, it’s an important part of the breakdown of outmoded political and economic models. I hope this helps us to break down the things that aren’t working for us any more, and to bring about more emphasis on community, loving our neighbours, re-educating ourselves that we are all global citizens, and start to rebuild structures we’re facing in the future, like stopping wars that create the immigration crisis, environmental issues we’ve been ignoring for too long, and the fact we need to reach out to each other as a global human race.

Obviously this sounds like a fairly idealistic view, but I do believe the breakdown of the EU, whether I agree with it or not, is a symptom of a greater breakdown, and although it’s painful for us in the near future, including for artists and musicians, I somehow have the sense it needs to happen to revolutionise the structures on which we build our society. It’s a wake-up call. I’m working out my opinions on it still – it’s still fresh.

Many artists have also reacted to the Brexit vote. ANOHNI called it “a prison riot;” PJ Harvey spoke out about it during her Glastonbury set; and Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich have joined the call for another vote. See more artist reactions here.

Read “The UK Leaving the EU Would Change the European Music Industry” on the Pitch, and check out our Glastonbury Festival Report, “Glastonbury in the Time of Brexit.” Also read our recent interview with Bat for Lashes.

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