Bat for Lashes: Bat Power

Photographed for SPIN by Viki Forshee

Natasha Khan is in the middle of a shopping spree at a vintage-clothing boutique in Manhattan's East Village when she gets some bad news from the store's owner: A remake of one of her favorite movies, The Karate Kid, is in the works. "Noooo!" she moans from inside the dressing room, where she has been debating the purchase of a pair of white, high-heeled ankle boots. ("I'm not sure how Stevie Nicks I want to go," the singer muses, "although I love Stevie Nicks.") Also, according to the proprietor, the new version will star "somebody crazy." "What, like Lindsay Lohan?" Khan asks. Try Will Smith's son, Jaden. Khan grimaces.

Like many of her beloved pop-cultural touchstones -- among them Pat Benatar and The Wonder Years' Winnie Cooper -- the film is important to her because it reminds her of the '80s, an era she often draws on for inspiration when writing and performing as Bat for Lashes. In 2007, for example, her mesmerizing video for the Phil Spector–esque "What's a Girl to Do?" featured a gang of BMX bikers in hoodies doing acrobatic stunts while following Khan through the woods -- a nod to E.T. and The Goonies.

Today, Khan is in search of the perfect wardrobe for her next YouTube sensation: a video for the awesome, Kate Bush–channeling single "Daniel," off of Two Suns, her exquisite follow-up to 2006's Fur & Gold. Though the song is actually named for Mr. Miyagi's crane-kicking disciple, Khan wants the video to have a pugilistic vibe in the tradition of Rocky and Raging Bull. "I'm envisioning a big boxing ring and I'm fighting all of these guys," she says, gamely throwing jabs in the mirror while modeling a sleeveless red sweatshirt. "We'll be kissing and then punching. I want it to convey the desire you have to merge with someone that you love and the fine line between passion and violence."

Interest in brutality of any kind is just about the last thing you'd expect from the 29-year-old Khan. She is disarmingly friendly, and her aesthetic choices -- turquoise eye shadow and sparkly headbands -- are about as intimidating as a My Little Pony doll. "But," she continues, "instead of blood spurting out, there will be rainbows and glitter." Now that's more like it.

Yet despite the mystical tone and lyrics about wizards, "knights in crystal armor," and other images she says psychedelic drugs are only marginally responsible for, Khan is, as she puts it, "struggling with some situations" on her records.

"Two Suns is about human relationships and the use of illusion to try to see beautiful things during a hard time," she offers vaguely.

In other words, it's a breakup album.