Bat For Lashes

Khan was born to English mother and a Pakistani squash player Rehmat Khan. She is the step-daughter of singer Salma Agha, step-sister of actress Sashaa Agha (born as "Zara Khan"). She is the niece of World Open winner Jahangir Khan and Torsam Khan, and paternal grand-daughter of Nasrullah Khan, a squash player. Khan attended many of the squash matches, which she felt inspired her creativity: "The roar of the crowd is intense; it is ceremonial, ritualistic, I feel like the banner got passed to me but I carried it on in a creative way. It is a similar thing, the need to thrive on heightened communal experience." After her father left the family, Khan, aged 11, taught herself to play the piano, which became "a channel to express things, to get them out".






After completing her GCSEs and A-Levels, Khan took a job in a card-packing factory where she would work while listening to songs she had made. She said: "My internal imaginary life was really fruitful at that time. I remember packing cards and just listening to songs that I had made the night before on my mini-disc player. All day long just listening and dreaming, while counting the cards to be packed; 'One-two-three… four-five-six-seven-eight-nine… 10-11-12.'"
With money saved from the job, she embarked on a three-month road trip through America and Mexico. After returning to the UK, Khan settled in Brighton to study music and visual arts at the University of Brighton, where she produced sound installations, animations, and performances influenced by artists including Steve Reich and Susan Hiller.After finishing her degree, Khan worked as a nursery school teacher and began writing the material for her first album.