Scarlet Fever: Florence and the Machine
STYLE QUEEN: Florence's unique dress sense has made her the darling of the fashion crowd
Florence of the flaming hair. Florence of the Mercury Prize nomination. Florence of the Machine. Florence Welch, standing six-feet tall, is an editor's dream.
And this has certainly been her year. Lungs, her debut album, has been certified platinum, and she has promised to have a follow-up out by the end of 2010.
A full schedule has left her tired, but still engaged and fond of lively debate. Articulate and a swift thinker, a quip on The Irish Independent's part about the recent X Factor live final develops into a conversation about television in general, with Florence taking the lead.
"Don deLillo said something funny about television. He said the way to avoid the fear of death is to watch a lot of television. I was thinking about that when I was on a plane, and you know the way there are loads of televisions on planes. There was loads of turbulence, and I'm terrified of flying. I found that if I watched the telly, it would sort of numb my fears a little bit. Television really switches you off. Maybe if I just sat around and just watched television, I'd be a lot happier and not so afraid or nervous," she concludes merrily, before admitting excitedly that "I love Come Dine With Me so much."
Interesting. Would she like to go on the show? "No, the cameras in the house would be annoying. Mind you, I'd like to organise one with my friends. We were going to do 'Indie Come Dine With Me', and have people from the Horrors, The Maccabees and Big Pink. What would I cook? Maybe a fish stew and lots of salads and stuff. Starter, I would probably have a selection of pitta breads and dips. For dessert, I'd just have cheese. I'm not that much of a puddings person. I'd get a nice selection of vinyl, some old blues records."
Appearances on cookery competitions aside, Florence's star has risen almightily over the past year. Touring the globe, including a recent sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York, Florence has charmed the world. This is due in part to her raucous live shows, which showcase her fondness for climbing the riggings and her idiosyncratic dress sense. This ranges from gothic black lace, to checkered plus-fours, to a Jetson's-inspired green and gold leotard for a Bestival performance.
The looks may be dramatic, but they're all her own. "I'm not really a pop star. I don't have a hairdresser or a make-up artist or anything on tour with me. The secret's out! I do it all myself." It's all a far cry from her early gigging days where "on the NME tour, we once had a kitchen as a dressing room. There were four other bands, and we were always the first one on. So, if there was a tiny dressing room to be had, we were in it. But one time, there wasn't even a dressing room -- we just had a kitchen".
Now the darling of the fashion crowd, how does she feel about the 'How to Dress Like Florence' features appearing in ladies' magazines? She giggles. "I honestly don't know. I look maybe like I've fallen out of a jumble sale. I'm interested in clothes and fashion, so it's nice to be part of that. I am mainly interested in the art aspect of it, the kind of fantasy of fashion. I'm flattered, I suppose."
It wasn't always so, however. By her own admittance, it's only recently that Florence has become used to her startling looks, and leggy physique. "I was like a really awkward, 13 to 16-year-old. Bad hair, chubby, slightly uncomfortable with my body. And then I got quite tall and everything stretched itself out, but I was quite an uncomfortable child. Not pretty really. You know you have those girls at school who are already beautiful when they're 12 years old, but I was not one of those girls.
"It worked out for the best in the end though", she concludes. "I think maybe being like that, it encourages you to develop your own sense of reality. Maybe you want something different, maybe you don't want to be the same as everyone else and you run off into strange places... I'd rather be different. I wouldn't say it's a conscious effort, but I don't think I could ever try to be normal."
'Normal' certainly isn't a common word in Florence's vocabulary. Her mother Evelyn Welch frequented Studio 54 in its heyday (although "My mum doesn't really talk about her experiences in Studio 54. She was more of a voyeur"), before moving to London to focus on academia.
Diagnosed with dyslexia and dysmetria when she was younger and suffering from ongoing sleep paralysis -- "I have it when I'm tired or stressed, or over-tired. My body just keeps me on overdrive. I'm just dreaming loads. I can't quite sleep in a dark room by myself, because I'm always imagining something creeping in the dark corner, or looking through the window" -- Florence uses music as a shield, as a screen through which to understand the world.
"Art is my way of understanding something about myself or something about the world. It's through songwriting that I can do that. It means that without saying it directly, you can express something personal, but without leaving yourself so exposed. With me, especially, I think I hide a lot behind things I create. It allows me to get something off my chest without letting the cat out of the bag."
Despite further probing, she refuses to name specific characters or instances thathave directly influenced her songs, and verbally retreats into imagination and fantasy. "A lot of my thinking is so deeply entrenched in fantasy that I can't quite be sure what is real and what's not. I'm often not quite sure if I'm just exploring darker aspects of my psyche or nightmarish visions, and it's not actually anything to do with anyone."
She pauses, before adding firmly: "I like to focus on the dark recesses of my nightmares, rather than on specific boys." With that, the subject is closed. Thoughtful, witty and simultaneously secretive and open, Florence remains as much of a delightful enigma as she began. 'Normal' she may never be. But, despite her protestations, a pop star she certainly is.
- Ailbhe Malone
Irish Independent
