Florence Welch Quotes

I'm attracted to the idea of drowning. Or rather the idea of jumping off and being enveloped by something, not bad or good, just enveloping.
When I was a kid, I had a moment when I got under the water, lying on the pool floor, and felt I could breathe. I've been trying to recreate that feeling ever since.

I try to maintain a healthy dose of daydreaming, to remain sane.

There's a drumming noise inside my head
That starts when you're around
I swear that you could hear it
It makes such an almighty sound
There's a drumming noise inside my head
That throws me to the ground
I swear that you could hear it
It makes such an almighty sound
Louder than sirens
Louder than bells
Sweeter than heaven
And hotter than hell

I quite like the drama of an encore. I think an encore is for those artists who are inclined to do dramatic gestures, and I certainly would say I am inclined towards them.

During the songs, you transcend yourself. The best way to be in the performance is to be without pause and be essentially in the moment, in that moment of expression.

I make songs to tie people to me
With a ribbon of fantasy around their necks
Such a beautiful bow.
That I hold in my fist
And I will not let go.

I like to wear clothes that I will wear when I am an old lady.

So you start to take pieces of your own life.

And somewhat selfishly
Other people's lives
And feed them to the song
At what cost
This wondrous creature
That becomes more precious to you
Than the people that you took from

How awful

To make human sacrifices
A late night conversation
A private thought
All placed upon the altar

But you have to satisfy the monster
The monster has loved you for longer
Than anyone else.

My siblings and I were friends with the boys who would become our stepbrothers - we grew up on the same street. I feel very special to have these amazing people in my life and if we hadn't all moved into this big house together I think I would have missed out on that, because we would have drifted apart.

When making the first album, I think I wrote a song about every six months. The first album was so much about the vocals carrying it.

I'm pretty obsessed with Stevie Nicks from her style to her voice. I like watching her on YouTube and her old performances, the way she moves and everything.

This is a song for a scribbled out name
And my love keeps writing again and again
This is a song for a scribbled out name
And my love keeps writing again and again
And again and again and again and again and again and again ...

Love is horrible. I mean, when you're in love, it's like a sickness. Such madness.

And I started to hear it again
But this time it wasn't the end
And the room is so quiet,
Oh oh oh
And my heart is a hollow plane
For the devil to dance again
But the room is too quiet
Oh oh oh
I was looking for the breath of a life
A little touch of a heavenly life
But all the choirs in my head sang
No, oh oh

Whispering like it's a secret, only to condemn the one who hears it, with a heavy heart.

I don't know what makes a song a song and a poem a poem: they have started to bleed into each other at this stage.

You can have everything.

It's hard to dance with the Devil on your back, So shake him off.

I think I just have a problem generally in life of wanting more of everything - more emotion, more drama, more glitz.

I think music should be scary. Music is an exorcism.

'Spectrum' is in part a disco song. But we play it hard, and it's a real euphoric, wailing tune. It's kind of like a total house anthem, in a way, but it seems to be going down really well. We've got all the grunge kids going mad for disco house raves.

I've spent a lot of time in tiny venues in the way that I got my record deal and got my name out there just performing live. I was literally performing my songs in all kinds of different ways with different guitarists, and I didn't have an album up online or anything. It's been a lot of work; it definitely hasn't been a sudden explosion into fame.

Songs can be incredibly prophetic, like subconscious warnings or messages to myself, but I often don't know what I'm trying to say till years later. Or a prediction comes true and I couldn't do anything to stop it, so it seems like a kind of useless magic.

But I was always much more interested in reading fashion magazines than I was music magazines when I was a teenager. Just that sense of romanticism and escapism and the dream of it has always been quite alluring to me, as well as that sense of becoming a character through clothes.

I dyed my hair red when I was ten and when I was 11 - in my goth period - I dyed it black and I was really into witchcraft. I made mini shrines in my bedroom with candles and tried to cast spells to make the boy in the next class fall in love with me. I don't think he did.

My visual landscape as a child was the inside of a lot of these old churches. And the Baroque drama of the things was what I was first engaging with artwise. I'm much more attracted to the aesthetic of religious iconography than the actual religious side. The passion and the blood and the violence and the gaudy side of it I find really fascinating.

I can't wait to get on stage, because there you don't worry about whether you'll ever get married because your life is insane, or whether you'll ever have another boyfriend again, you don't worry about the typical boundaries of how your life has to be.

I've learned not to hide behind a veil of irony - to talk about my work in a more honest way.

I am obsessed with the whole Victoriana thing, the whole Jack the Ripper London era, the grayness of it, the haunted feeling of it, all ancient and bloody.

The music is so euphoric,as a way of battling the words. It's like an exorcism, beating it out with drums, shake this demon out, it's so visceral because the melancholy has to be drummed out. I can't let it sit inside me.

Maybe I've always been more comfortable in chaos.

Rotting like a wreck on the ocean floor. Sinking like a siren that can't swim anymore.

I can't ever seem to shake the feeling that when things are really good it essentially means that things are going to go really bad. When I feel calm and settled, there is always an underlying feeling of impending doom ... I don't think that it's healthy.

Being heartbroken is like having this really horrible freedom. You can be selfish with your thoughts, which can lead to manic creativity, but at the same time you're just really miserable.

I've got quite a vivid imagination and I'm easily overwhelmed by sensations and things that are beautiful or scary. I don't think I've ever seen a ghost - I think I'm probably haunted by my own ghosts than real ones.

I've been thinking about songwriting more in terms of playing it live, and how it will sound as a band.

I've fallen out of favour
And I've fallen from grace
Fallen out of trees
And I've fallen on my face
Fallen out of taxis
Out of windows too
Fell in your opinion
When I fell in love with you

Then I heard your voice as clear as day,
And you told me I should concentrate,
It was all so strange,
And so surreal,
That a ghost should be so practical.
Only if for a night
And the only solution was to stand and fight,
And my body was bruised and
I was set alight,
But you came over me like some holy rite,
And although I was burning,
You're the only light
Only if for a night

I like a house party and fancy dress, a big fan of fancy dress, like dress up, costume parties.

I can't just have one painting - I need to cover the wall in paintings. It's the same with my music. I want to mix everything together to create more.

Maybe in music you're making an auditory environment and maybe you change your environment around you to suit your own way.

I wish I had more of your staunch American character,
Strong, bold, and unflinching, like the desert or a New York skyscraper.
But I am more like the English weather
Unpredictable and ever changing,
Prone to downpours.
Battered by sudden winds - thin skinned, eye-bagged and always cold,
Proud and leaking.

I'd gone from being this art student messing about with music to this girl with a record deal, magazine front covers and all this hype. In many ways, it was everything I ever wanted, but when it happened all I felt was total, paralysing fear.

The release of 'Lungs' was so hard. It was terrifying, because it was the first time doing everything. The first experiences of media exposure were almost paralysing. I spent a lot of time crying on the floor of the studio - it sent me a bit mad.

I've built my wardrobe color palette around red, so I'm happy with it, but I do get pangs when I see beautiful brunettes. I've already been blue, green, black, and blonde.

I love Lady Gaga and I love Katy Perry and R&B and rap music ... I love big, American pop music.

I was having a conversation with my father and he was talking about this thing - strangeness and charm. It's actually the name of the two smallest particles that there are when you split the atom, so I wrote a song around it. I even managed to fit the word 'hydrogen' in there. Isn't that a nice thing for scientists to call them though?

Music is my way out. I keep things locked up and never say anything. I guess in order to say something to one person, I have to sing it to a couple of thousand. It doesn't make for healthy relationships.

Excitable, easily distracted, sometimes vacant, prone to gloominess and also extreme euphoria; I can't be generous with time, but I try to be generous with affection. I'm really lucky to be able to be in some of these situations and it feels really nice to be able to take people along with me for the ride. Oh, and I'm a pain in the ass as well.

You took my heart and you held it in your mouth
And, with a word all my love came rushing out
And, every whisper, it's the worst, emptied out by a single word
There is a hollow in me now ...
And
Every whisper, every sigh
Eats away at this heart of mine
And there is a hollow in me now.
So I put my faith in something unknown
I'm living on such sweet nothing
But I'm trying to hope with nothing to hold
I'm living on such sweet nothing.

I wanted to be a witch when I was a kid. I was obsessed with witchcraft. At school, me and my two friends had these spell books; I always wanted a more magical reality. I had a little shrine at home and I did a spell to try and make the boy in the other class fall in love with me.

The only music I was listening to for ages was old soul. So I wasn't listening to a lot of new music - especially indie music.

I wish to remain nameless
And live without shame
'Cause what's in a name, Oh
I still remain the same

Growing up, I always wanted to be in punk bands, so I'm really enjoying the harder, heavier element. It's always been my dream to have people moshing at my gig, kind of that really feral element of the music coming out more. I love crowd-surfing.

Sometimes I find that music is so much more attractive than love. I don't know ... It's like some kind of euphoria, that love can't bring to you.

When you're dressed up as David Bowie, with your eyebrows completely bleached, and you're doing this kind of strange dance with Paul McCartney while singing "Rebel Rebel" in the middle of the Met ball, and Madonna's looking at you ... I was just thinking, It's become a bit weird.

I've always been able to just concoct a melody quite easily - it's just kind of instinct, really. You've got to channel your subconscious.

Be careful of the curse that falls on young lovers
Starts so soft and sweet and turns them to hunters
A man who's pure of heart and says his prayers by night
May still become a wolf when the autumn moon is bright
If you could only see the beast you've made of me
I held it in but now it seems you've set it running free
The saints can't help me now, the ropes have been unbound
I hunt for you with bloody feet across the hallow'd ground

My mum wanted me to go to university.

I've just never been a tracksuit-wearer.

Look, if Givenchy is going to lend you a dress, I'm not going to turn it down. I would wear that dress to just go out and buy a pint of milk if they would lend it to me.

Bono told me how to dance in high heels and he also told me about U2's Glastonbury performance and how everything that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong, including him ripping his trousers on stage. I think he was lunging and his trousers ripped! He was telling me how he had to find a new way of performing that didn't involve moving.

I'm a choir girl gone horribly, desperately wrong.

I love performing outside because it's as if the heavens are open and the elements become part of the stage show as well - you know, the wind and the rain and the thunder. It's almost as if there's a sense of invocation in performance.

I'm completely in love with the world but also terrified of it. It creates some overwhelming feelings. Wanting to battle out that joy and fear is part of my music.

Everything has such order and everyone is so focused on doing what they're doing that no one ever pays attention to you spinning and dancing around supermarkets. It's something you find in places like supermarkets and airports, where everything is really ordered. There's something about those places that makes you feel really anonymous.

I'm down to bleach my eyebrows again. I tell you what, though - that didn't go down well with my boyfriend. Girls love it. Guys, not so into it.

Broke your jaw once before
Spilt your blood upon the floor
You broke my leg in return
So let's sit back and watch the bed burn
Well love sticks sweat drips
Break the lock if it don't fit
A kick in the teeth is good for some
A kiss with a fist is better than none

You live and you learn.

I started off singing in church as a child. The sound of voices coming together, that was my first moment of touching something outside of myself.

Touring, and being in a band, it's almost like the other stuff, the other parts of life, get put on hold.

I've been having this really weird anxiety dream about arriving too late or too early, and the people in charge are like, 'You have to leave! You have to go back to the hotel and get ready!' And I use the wrong exit, and I'm running down the red carpet in pyjamas, like, 'No! Don't look at me!'

My mind has claws and sets of teeth if left unchecked it will eat and eat

-Depressive Pacman

I was a heavy heart to carry
My beloved was weighed down
My arms around his neck
My fingers laced to crown.
I was a heavy heart to carry
My feet dragged across ground
And he took me to the river
Where he slowly let me drown
My love has concrete feet
My love's an iron ball
Wrapped around your ankles
Over the waterfall

My style of playing is more enthusiasm and instinct than skill.

A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes.
I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind.
The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out.
You left me in the dark.
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight.
In the shadow of your heart.
And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat.
I tried to find the sound.
But then it stopped, and I was in the darkness,
So darkness I became.
I took the stars from my eyes, and then I made a map.
And knew that somehow I could find my way back.
Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too.
So I stayed in the darkness with you.

It was a complete dream to work with David LaChapelle. I collected his books as a teenager, and I fantasised that he would direct the video for 'Spectrum' from the moment the song was written. I still cant believe it actually happened, and I'm completely overjoyed that he felt such a connection with the song.

To give yourself over to another body
That's all you want really
To be out of your own and consumed by another
To swim inside the skin of your lover
Not have to breathe
Not have to think
But you can't live on love
And salt water's no drink
We're dying of thirst so we feast on each other
The sea is still our violent mother
The blood round here pours down like water
Each wave a lamb lead to the slaughter
And like children that she just can't teach
We break, and break, and break
And break ourselves upon the beach- Body of Water

If you do something with your whole heart and it's a mistake, you can live with that.

I love that sense of release as you throw yourself into the crowd as hundreds of arms are carrying you.

I made music with my friend, who we called Isabella Machine to which I was Florence Robot. When I was about an hour away from my first gig, I still didn't have a name, so I thought 'Okay, I'll be Florence Robot/Isa Machine', before realising that name was so long it'd drive me mad.

I'm just a black hole for stuff. No one should ever hand me anything, because I get so easily distracted. I'll be like, 'Oh, look, something shiny!' I'm glad I never learned how to drive. I would be really dangerous.

On stage, you can use your emotions. It's the place where you can channel them. They have a purpose.

Music can tear me up inside.

I tend to lose myself in the moment. I'm not very good at holding back. I don't know how to do this without feeling everything. My emotions are the tool I use to perform.

For someone so conflicted, who am I to give advice to anybody? It's such a funny, grandiose idea

I look really odd in jeans and a hoodie - it doesn't feel or seem right.

I feel a responsibility to the fans who have paid to see me and I want to give as good a show as I possibly can.

I'm a light sleeper. I've never been one of those people who can put their head down and suddenly everything disappears. Nighttime is the time I get most scared, anxious or worried. In those darker moments before waking or sleeping is when I feel most, I don't know, I can turn on myself, and my imagination can take me dark places.

I've got some incredible fans actually - so loyal and they make me birthday cards and Christmas cards. I got this package of poems and artwork based around the songs. They've got this thing called 'Floetry' where they all have to put in artwork. They've set up their own competitions and stuff which is kind of amazing.

My room is like an antique shop, full of junk, and weird stuff. There's a big sword in there. And a taxidermy bird, and a couple of birdcages. And a lot of newspaper cuttings. I used to have a weird thing about cutting out morbid headlines from newspapers, and collecting them. I was fascinated with drowning, which is kind of strange.

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart

I didn't want to become a personality, I wanted to be a musician, but because I didn't have an album to stand by yet it was hard for people to see that. But now, two albums in, I'm happy with things.

If you asked me to go back to being 14 or 15, I couldn't - it was a terrifying time. I was so awkward in my own skin. I used to hide behind my hair because I was so ridiculously self-conscious.

I was always that girl growing up who you could find dancing down supermarket aisles. It's that sense of not feeling inhibited. Dancing in supermarkets is my favorite thing.

I try to write lyrics so that they won't age, which sort of leaves you with the big subjects like death and love and sex and violence.

There's such an extreme feeling to be in love, especially in quite an emotionally destructive relationship, where you're both kind of really bad for each other, but you love each other so much. Those extreme emotions, I think, can only be described with extreme imagery.

The stage is a place where I can be wholly myself. Even though you're in front of people almost to be judged, it is a place without judgement.

The aesthetic came along the way, I think - just through experimenting, and going on tour, and trying stuff out on stage, having fun with it, and not taking it too seriously. If I had a ballgown at home, I'd wear it onstage. If I found something in a charity shop, I'd wear it. That's where it grew from - just wanting to play dress-up.

There's green eyes in my eyes
And a lover on my mind
And I sing from the piano
Tear my yellow dress and
Cry and cry and cry
Over the love of you

Going to parties usually makes me feel depressed, just because I have such social fear after meeting people.