| Interview: FLORENCE + THE MACHINE on 'CEREMONIALS'. |
| Written by Shahlin Graves |
| Saturday, 26 November 2011 16:06 |
 If FLORENCE + THE MACHINE's 2009 debut album 'Lungs' was the construct of bedroom daydreams, then her follow-up second studio album 'CEREMONIALS' is most definitely a roaring battle-cry of an awakening - full of fight, big intentions, and even bigger vocal-hooks. It's the stuff that the realities of heroines and goddesses are made of... the reality of a girl to whom the world has offered up all its most privileged treasures and adventures. From performances at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, the 53rd Grammy Awards and 83rd Academy Awards, a placing in Time magazine's annual '100 Most Influential People In The World' poll, to sixty-five consecutive weeks of 'Lungs' charting in the top forty UK albums chart, a now-twenty-five-years-old FLORENCE WELCH is entire universes removed from her 2006 days of gigging as a two-piece around London under the moniker of 'Florence Robot/Isa Machine'. Coup De Main had the delight of catching up with frontwoman Florence Welch while she was in Sydney last week to discuss 'Ceremonials', literary titans, and those diva rumours...  COUP DE MAIN: Florence! This is the first time that you've gone to Australia and not come to New Zealand. When are you going to return to us?! FLORENCE + THE MACHINE - FLORENCE WELCH: I know!! I'm so sad. I wish we could but we're literally only in Australia for four days anyway. CDM: But most importantly, congratulations on your new album 'Ceremonials' which debuted at #1 in NZ this week! FLORENCE: Oh thank you so much, thank you! I feel so pleased about that and I'm very grateful, so thank you. CDM: We love it so much that we invented a Florence-themed Halloween 'Flo-lo-ween' to celebrate its release. FLORENCE: Wow - AMAZING! CDM: Listening to 'Ceremonials' from beginning to end, it plays sort of like a stream-of-consciousness. Was that intentional? FLORENCE: I was definitely looking more for it to be like not separate, but for it to be a whole thing. To have a flow to it, to have a beginning and a middle and an end, because I think 'Lungs' is a lot scrapbooky. CDM: Lyrically, the album brings to mind Virginia Woolf, John Berryman and T.S. Eliot's 'Prufrock'. Did they influence 'Ceremonials' at all? FLORENCE: Well, those are three of my favourite writers, so I guess, consciously or unconsciously they have. John Berryman is my favourite poet and I read a lot of T.S. Eliot, so that's very flattering that you would say that. <laughs> But I don't think I could really compare to those titans of writers! But I think their influence does seep through. CDM: 'Breaking Down' especially to me, seems like the kind of song that Zelda Fitzgerald would have found comfort in. The sentiments are timeless. FLORENCE: Oh wow, thank you! That's an amazing idea. It's one of the simplest songs on the album, but it's one of the most earnest I think. It is about childish fears that then grow into adult nightmares and yet the feeling is so similar, it's kind of like an old friend. CDM: You really went for gold vocally on 'Lover To Lover'. Was that fun for you to experiment with your vocal-range? FLORENCE: Yeah I was definitely thinking about soul music a lot and it was almost directly influenced by listening to a lot of Marvin Gaye - 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' and 'Try A Little Tenderness' - and Otis Redding. I was really trying to sing it from a male perspective, to write a song that perhaps a male soul-singer would sing.  CDM: What's the story behind your song 'Heartlines'? FLORENCE: I was just thinking about touring and being away and how the lines that tie you to certain people... bloodlines, life-lines, that kind of thing. CDM: Emma Forrest wrote an amazing essay for the 'Ceremonials' album booklet. How did that come about? FLORENCE: It came about because I ended up reviewing her book - her book called 'Voice In My Head' - and she really loved the review and got in touch, so I thought it would be a nice thing for her to do the liner notes. We talked and talked - spoke on the phone - and really got on and understood each other really well. It was just really nice to have a strong female voice to talk about my music. It was amazing. CDM: The 'Landscape' demo on the deluxe edition of 'Ceremonials' is one of my all-time favourite songs of yours. Do you think you'll ever play it live? FLORENCE: Yeah, maybe! I really like that song too. CDM: In 'No Light, No Light' you sing "it's so easy to sing it to a crowd / But it's so hard, my love, to say it to you out loud..." Are those lyrics based on a real-life relationship of yours? FLORENCE: I guess it's more to do with my inability to express how I feel in a face-to-face basis. I find it really difficult and it's always getting harder. I think that, maybe when you do have such a big emotional outlet with performing, saying things in a small way becomes difficult. There's no crescendo to a conversation. You have to... I feel like it's easier for me to express myself through song than it is to on a one-to-one basis. CDM: There's so much violent emotion in your music, but you're such a softly-spoken person. Where does it all come from? FLORENCE: I don't know! I think again, it's just that internal conflict. I guess I'm not an aggressive person, but maybe I do have all these different battles going on - there's this conflict between a side that wants safety and the side that wants freedom. The side that creates security and the side that creates chaos. And there's this constant to-ing and fro-ing between those two parts of myself and I think that does lead to some quite aggressive imagery. CDM: Is it sort of akin to an out-of-body experience for you? FLORENCE: I think so. It's like conducting a séance almost, you don't quite know where it's coming from. Sometimes the songs get written down and... at the end of 'All This And Heaven Too' that last verse is literally a stream of consciousness, that whole thing that's up to the very end is literally what came out of my mouth as I was singing over the loop. I just kept it because I didn't want to change it. CDM: "Words were never so useful ‘til I was screaming out a language that I never knew existed before" in 'And All This And Heaven Too' is my favourite line of the entire album. What was running through your mind when you wrote those lyrics? FLORENCE: Thank you! Ohhhh that just came out!! That's just what happened. And literally that was just the words that came into my head, so weird.  CDM: Your next two years seem to have been already planned out for you with touring and promotional commitments. Having been diagnosed with dyspraxia it must get quite overwhelming. Do you ever get panic attacks? FLORENCE: I haven't had one in ages, but I did have them though. I do have a weird sense of things being like so... I get really freaked out by everything... I feel like if one thing drops then everything is going to be a disaster, you know? Everything is so structured, I feel like if one thing starts falling behind then everything's going to... do you know what I mean? It's very stressful. But I'm lucky because I have a lot of people around me who look out for me and look after me and I'm really lucky in that way. CDM: How do you cope with all of the pressure and expectations? Do you have any internal coping mechanisms? FLORENCE: I don't think I do! <laughs> I don't know if I do. I guess my coping mechanism is to try and get outside and really go and check out some vintage stores or to go to a gallery - going to something that has nothing to do with any of this. CDM: And indulge in some balletic-running? FLORENCE: I like running in open spaces, I like running outdoors! I don't like going to a gym, I just like seeing the sky. And being outside in a new city is just a really exciting experience. But it does lead to me doing some pretty interesting dancing and doing this kind-of running with your eyes closed and your arms open thing. That looks pretty weird... CDM: At twenty-five, do you feel like your career is currently your number one priority? FLORENCE: I think so. I can't really see much... there's not really much room for anything else, it's kind of all-encompassing. CDM: Performing live must be like the ultimate high. Have you ever had a comedown after walking off-stage? FLORENCE: Sometimes, if I worry that I haven't done a good job or if I'm feeling really... like if my voice is tired, I think then I get to fretting, but usually, performing is a cure-all. If you're feeling a bit ill and you go on-stage... there's this thing acting called "Doctor Theatre" - and it's that the adrenaline cures you of whatever might be making you feel sick. CDM: True or false? Late last year a band called Clement Marfo & The Frontline opened for you in Swansea, and have now come out saying that apparently you acted like a diva demanding everything in your dressing room to be black and to be cleaned four times. FLORENCE: That's ridiculous! False. What was that band called? Is that true? Say it again? It's crazy! Clement Marfo & The Frontline? What?! That's so ridiculous... I don't think they've ever supported us. I've never even met them! <laughs> That's so bizarre. Maybe I have... that's very odd. Oh no! One of them said that the experience with me made them not like my music anymore? But I don't remember... how many years ago did they support us? CDM: Late last year? FLORENCE: I don't know who they are... I really don't remember that. That's definitely not true. If I did apparently meet them or offend them in any way I am hugely sorry. But I definitely didn't order anything black, or any black tissues, or any black straws. <laughs>  CDM: Name your top five books that you'd recommend fans to read... FLORENCE: 'The Great Gatsby', 'The Ice Age', 'Lolita', 'Reality Hunger', 'Letters From The Other Side'. CDM: If you were a cake, what kind or flavour would you be? FLORENCE: I like carrot cake, obviously! Ginger and carrot cake. <laughs> CDM: Have you thought about any New Year's resolutions yet? FLORENCE: Not yet, not yet! CDM: If you were forced to choose between sparkles or jumpsuits, which one would you rather give up? FLORENCE: I'd give up jumpsuits. CDM: In 'Only If For A Night' you name-check the album title with the lyrics "my own secret ceremonials" - what are secret ceremonials of yours that fans might not know about? FLORENCE: I don't know... I think that they know now pretty much everything, the balletic-running being one of them. They're secret aren't they? So I think I've got to keep some things to myself. CDM: If you were to re-write the list of Ten Commandments you wrote back when you were eighteen/nineteen-years-old for now... what would be the important things you'd want to include? FLORENCE: I think, just be kind to yourself. I can be pretty hard on myself. I'm definitely my own worst enemy. CDM: Lastly, do you have a message for your New Zealand fans? FLORENCE: I miss you and we're all coming to see you soon! Click HERE for details on Florence + The Machine's May 28th, 2012 show at Vector Arena in Auckland. Click HERE to read our August 2010 'Little Book Of Calm' interview with Florence.  |
