FLORENCE & THE MACHINE TALKS TO RIP IT UP

With four of her songs from debut album Lungs making the Hottest 100 this week, Florence Welch is hot property right now. Speaking to Rip It Up in the wake of her Triple J success, Florence is in Australia readying herself for St Jerome’s Laneway Festival. For a longer Rip It Up interview with the lovely Florence check out next week’s issue, but here’s a sneak peek of the bits we couldn’t fit into the magazine.

Marina & The Diamonds have already been pegged as 2010’s answer to Florence & The Machine, so is that an honour or does it make you look over your shoulder for those coming over the horizon?

“I think we’re both very different artists and I think Marina’s great – she’s an exciting new artist. There are enough ears out there for everyone to listen to different stuff, isn’t there? I’ve met her and she’s really sweet and I really like her music. There’s enough space for many more exciting female artists – it’s not like there’s only one position that has to be filled.”

You were the only artist in the recent Q Artists Of The Century list with only a single album to your name. Was that daunting being in a list alongside U2, Kings Of Leon, Green Day and Paul McCartney?

“I know! It’s just so bizarre really and I find it very surreal when I find myself alongside artists like that. I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’. The wish to better myself and my own internal dissatisfaction drives me to want to create more. I’m such a perfectionist that I always pick apart things, but I’m too close to Lungs right now to tell you what I don’t like about it. Ask me in a year and I’ll be able to tell you more objectively, but right now I feel too close to the whole project.”

Is it right you banned alcohol at gigs before shows because you’ve been doing silly things?

“Well we haven’t banned it, we just decided it was probably wise not to start drinking three hours before the show. An hour before is alright, but you don’t want to be plastered on stage.”

What’s this about you suffering from dyspraxia, which affects your organisational skills, and dysmetria, which affects your co-ordination?

“I don’t have dysmetria – I think that’s just a Wikipedia rumour. I have dyspraxia, but only very mildly. I was diagnosed with dyspraxia when I was in school, but I don’t think it affects me that much. I’m totally muddle-headed, but I don’t think I’m that dyspraxic – I just lose things all the time.”

See Florence & The Machine headline St Jerome’s Laneway Festival at Fowler’s Live on Fri Feb 5.

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