Florence Welch discusses new album - “I wasn’t making myself happy. I felt really unstable”

Florence Welch has spoken for the first time about the difficulties in approaching new album ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’.

In an interview on Radio 1 with Zane Lowe, she confessed about how “I wasn’t making myself happy. I felt really unstable”.

“I had a bit of a nervous breakdown,” she told Zane, elaborating on her “chaotic” relationship with drinking. Going between albums, she explained: “It was a bit of a crash landing in a sense… I’ve been so used to having a gig every day, always touring. You go from these huge stadiums and all of a sudden I’d moved out of my house, I was on my own.”

Discussing the songwriting process for her third LP, she said: “The thing with ‘Ceremonials’ is we had a very clear idea of what to do, which is take the best of ‘Lungs’ and [expand it]. With this record it’s like, ‘Oh, I did that’.”

The new album attempts to change Florence’s maximalist approach, but she admits: “That’s kind of what happened again.”

“This idea of space, something earthier. ‘Ceremonials’ was a glacier wall of sound. I was looking for a bit of musicality, trying to find what we’ve done now and pare it down. But it’s me - I wanna add horns. I wanna get a brass section!” she joked. “It’s the most personal record I’ve ever made.”

Listen to the full interview from 60 minutes in here.