04 November 2025
Newsdesk
Ahead of the release of Florence and the Machine’s new album, Everybody Scream, singer Florence Welch told John Kennedy on Radio X that she sometimes wonders if her success is ‘a barrier to personal happiness’ and is ‘robbing’ her of other parts of her life. Florence also said that she wanted to work with Mitski on the album’s title track after her music ‘brought her to her knees with emotion.’
Key
Florence Welch – FW
John Kennedy – JK
Florence Welch admits that she sometimes thinks her success is ‘a barrier to personal happiness’
JK: “‘Drink Deep’ is followed by ‘Music By Men,’ which you've mentioned already, and it starts with acoustic guitar and voice and there's a lot of different things going on here. It's such a fascinating song, just lyrically, and it can be really personal. But it's also quite general as well, and it taps into these themes that you've mentioned before about being a female artist in a kind of male world in a way. You know, this kind of music industry, but also just the world that we're all part of.”
FW: “Yeah, sometimes I think that if I was male, would I feel somehow ashamed of my success? Do you know what I mean? Like, there's a sense of, like, that the things that I have created are somehow, in other ways, if I was a man they would be attractive to people, are things that I have to sort of hide or feel or shrink from. Do you know what I mean? Or apologise for. So, a sense that I have to apologise for being so big, you know, and try and just sort of like shrink my achievements in some way to make people feel comfortable. And I do wonder, like, would I? Would I? Also, I don’t know if that’s just being English? Haha!”
JK: “Yeah, or like the imposter syndrome that we can all feel in various different ways.”
FW: “Yeah, or I don’t know if it’s just imposter syndrome. But I do sometimes wonder if like my success is actually a barrier to personal happiness in a way that maybe I don't like. And because I'm living a kind of like non-traditional role, is that somehow, like, robbing me of other things, you know? Like having a family, like having kind of like things like that.”
Florence Welch reveals she wanted to work with Mitski on ‘Everybody Scream’ after being ‘brought to her knees with emotion’ by her music
JK: “And how did Mitski get involved?”
FW: “She's one of my favourite artists. She was, you know, one of the influences for what I wanted to do with this record. There’s this song, ‘Bug Like An Angel’ that came out, and it was so simple but also just like brought me to my knees in terms of emotion. I had that song and I had ‘Buffalo Replaced’ on this playlist I sent to [Mark] Bowen of like inspirations, and she was in town, and I don't know, I didn't know if she does write for other people's records. I just reached out was like, ‘Would you want to come down and hear what I've got going on or write a song together?’ And she just said yes. She just said yes! And it was a really incredible experience. She's amazing.”
