Jessica Ochoa

English 1120

Professor Kennia Lopez

10 October 2023

Florence and the Mechanics of Being a Woman

Drugs have been involved and accredited for many artists’ best works. Some artists even

claim that drugs are the reason their work is so appreciated and loved. A study conducted by

Mathias Benedek, titled “Creativity on tap? Effects of alcohol intoxication on creative

cognition”, explored the effects of alcohol intoxication on creativity in a ‘placebo-controlled

design’, meaning subjects involved in the study were separated into groups and some were

provided alcoholic beer while others were provided nonalcoholic beer. This academic study

concluded that there are some beneficial effects for creativity when the subjects consumed

moderate amounts of alcohol, in contrast to when subjects were involved in excessive alcohol

consumption, which drastically impaired creative productivity.

Are drugs responsible for creative genius, or is the creative mind just more inclined to

partake in drugs? Florence Welch, born on the 28th of August 1986, is the lead and sole vocalist

in her world-renowned band Florence and the Machine. Much of Welch's upbringing in

Camberwell, London was lived as a self-proclaimed ‘Party Girl’, this lifestyle exposed Florence

Welch to the habit of drinking alcohol and later drugs. Her words used in the New York Times

article “Florence Welch Thrives on Horror. And She Still Wants to Smell You.” by Phoebe

Reilly, where “I thought the way to hang onto your rock ’n’ roll roots was to be the drunkest
person in the room”, and for much of her career, she was. Florence Welch has confessed to

working drunk and through extremely heavy hangovers on many occasions, especially at the

beginning of her career. Welch's drinking had caused her to skip out on quite a few studio

sessions. A quote used in the article “How Florence Welch’s Nightmare Brought Florence and

The Machine’s Success” by Zehra Kabak divulged that Welch suffers from a lot of anxiety as

well as a hyperactive imagination, which she has had since her childhood, “I learned ways to

manage that terror – drink, drugs, controlling food. It was like a renaissance of childhood, a

toddler’s self-destruction let loose in a person with grown-up impulses.” explains Kabak in a

quote from Florence Welch. Throughout her career, Welch's unhealthy coping mechanisms and

lifestyle made her dream profession feel like a burden more agonizing than flesh and blood can

stand.

Florence Welch, the vocalist, and songwriter of her band, often includes personal

narrative in the music. She uses songwriting to work through her internal problems. In the song

“Hunger” by Florence and the Machine, produced in 2018, Welch sings about the eating

disorder and substance abuse that weighed her down as a teenager as well as through most of her

career. Florence Welch sings “I thought that love was in the drugs, but the more I took, the more

it took away and I could never get enough”, this line in her song reveals that she perceived her

relationship and addiction to drugs as love, Welch reflects that when she was high, she would

end up self-sabotaging and not living the way she wanted to; her addiction to drugs and alcohol

was not real love. The song “Hunger” has more examples of things Florence Welch Interpreted

as love, but indeed was not. Florence Welches's eating disorder, for example, felt like love

because she could own it and control it, it was an ‘emptiness’ she understood. The song was a
coming of age as well as a farewell send-off to her addiction, she had been sober for 4 years

before she released her song “Hunger” and has remained sober ever since.

The lead singer of Florence and the Machine often sings about her creative process and

has many songs that are about her relationship to her career and music. During 2022 when Covid

19 was at its peak she was excited to have a break from performing but later was unsure of how

her career could continue. The uncertainty around how and when things would get better made

her question whether she could ever have a live concert ever again. Welch compares being on the

stage in front of an audience to being at the gates of heaven. To process her fears, she did what

helped her the most and what she loved, she wrote poems. She was not aware that she would be

writing her next album at the time, later released under the name of Dance Feaver, but she was.

In her song titled “My Love” Welch sings “And when it came, it was stranger than I had ever

imagined, No cracking open of Heaven, But quiеt and still (All my friends are getting ill)”, This

line is about how during the lockdowns in Covid, she felt like her career was ending, thus the

world was ending. Florence could not see herself as being anything other than an artist. In an

interview with Kate Mossman, published by The Guardian in the article “Florence Welch: ‘Who

am I kidding? I’m a showboat!’” Florence Welch admits that “being in the flow of making a

song is one of my absolute favourite places to be. And that really has got so much better since I

got sober: it’s such a lie that chaos is creativity.”, Welch expresses how it feels for her to actually

be in love when she is writing she feels real love, her creativity is not from her addictions, or

from her suffrages, it is all her. Of course, the lockdowns and restrictions that came along with

Covid did come to an end and Welch the ‘showboat’ was back in the game with a new album

and a world tour to boot.

 In her sobriety Welch communicates that she is a much less anxious person because how

she deals with her anxieties is not the same, she also is now aware of where many of her fears

come from, so she does not have to hide away from them in the bottom of a bottle, she can

confront and overcome them. Welch is 37 years old and that brings about a new anxiety for her

about children. Welch wrote her song “King” about exactly that. Florence Welch's song “King”

from her album Dance Feaver begins with an argument she is having with herself alone in her

kitchen. The lyrics in Welch’s song are “We argue in the kitchen about whether to have children,

About the world ending and the scale of my ambition, and how much is art really worth? The

very thing you're best at is the thing that hurts the most” These first few words in the song

“King” shove Florence's internal monologue right down your throat. She is directly referencing

her own fears that having children means that she can no longer have a career, or at least her

career will never be the same as it is right now.

Florence Welch is very ambitious, and her profession is more than what makes her

money, it is what gives her existence meaning. She is fighting with herself in her song “King”

about her identity as an artist. This phenomenon is deeply researched in the academic journal

“Creative Labors: The Lives and Careers of Women Artists.” By Geraldine S. Brooks, this study

followed and examined the lives of women artists and divulged their findings through the many

different stages of life, disclosing common fundings among the feelings of the women in the

study towards their artistic careers. Geraldine S. Brooks writes “The women's middle years

involved a different type of struggle. By their late 30s, each of the participants had entered a

period of professional and personal transition that significantly changed her relationship to her

work. This transition phase was often tumultuous, sometimes painful, and typically involved the

women setting new goals for themselves and taking new risks in their work and other life roles.
Ultimately, however, each woman emerged from this challenging phase with a clearer sense of

herself as an artist and as an individual and with a confirmed sense that pursuit of an art career

was central to her identity and to her fulfillment.” This paragraph explains the exact situation

Florence Welch has written about in her music.

Welch has come to a point in her life where her career is right where she always wanted it

to be but the call of more of what life has to offer has snuck up on her and has given her new

career anxieties, she is wondering if this will be the death of her dream. Florence Welch's song

“King” ends with the revelation that Florence is “no mother” and “no bride” she is in fact

“king”. This conclusion to her so g is parallel to the findings of the study, she has a much

clearer view of herself as an artist and that is apparent in how the end of the song contrasts with

the beginning. Florence Welch found clarity in her career and in where she wanted her life to go.

Florence Welch, the lead vocalist of the band Florence and the Machine, started her

career while under the influence of physical addictions and mental disorders. It was easier for

herself and the public eye to categorize her as an artist who was only good because of drugs and

outside influences. It has been proven that alcohol or drug consumption does not produce

creativity, and Florence Welch herself has attested to that fact by becoming sober and only

becoming more creative.

The creativity of a woman artist is not a short flame that burns out when they come to the

point in their lives when they decide they want to start a family. Florence Welch has proven this

by bringing her listeners along on her journey of navigating the questions of what happens to a

woman's career when the desire for children arises. She pushes aside stereotypes and makes her

own path, her creativity is all her own and so is her simultaneous want for her career to be

ongoing while also yearning for a family.

 Sources

Brooks, Geraldine S. “Creative Labors: The Lives and Careers of Women Artists.”

Career Development Quarterly. Vol. 46 Issue 3, p246-261. 16p. Mar 1998, 23 Oct 2023.

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live&scope=site.%20Acesso%20em:%2028%20out.%202023>

Constantinescu, Claudia, “’ To Be a Rock and Not to Roll’. Artists and Their Drug of

Choice." Artists and Their Drug of Choice, 2022 REV. Universitara Sociologie. p. 243-253.

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org.libproxy.unm.edu/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/rvusoclge2022&i=821>

Grdešić, Maša. “Beyond the Madonna: The Woman Artist in Jagoda Truhelka's Plein

Air.” Knjiženstvo., Issue 12, p1-20, 20p. 2022, 23 Oct 2023. <https://search-ebscohost-

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Kabak, Zehra. “How Florence Welch’s Nightmare Brought Florence And The Machine’s

Success” Rock Celebrities.Web. 6 October 2023, 23 Oct 2023. <https://rockcelebrities.net/how-

florence-welchs-nightmare-brought-florence-and-the-machines-success/>

Benedek, Mathias. “Creativity on tap? Effects of alcohol intoxication on creative

cognition”. In Consciousness and Cognition Volume 5, Pages 128-134. Nov 2017, 23 Oct

2023.<

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 Mensah, Jenny. “Florence Welch celebrates nine years of sobriety: ‘I can't quite believe

it’” RADIO X. Web. 2 Feb 2023, 23 Oct 2023.<https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/florence-the-

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Mossman, Kate. “Florence Welch: ‘Who am I kidding? I’m a showboat!’” The Guardian

News & Media. Web. 15 May 2022, 23 Oct 2023.

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Reilly, Phoebe. “Florence Welch Thrives on Horror. And She Still Wants to Smell You.”

The New York Times. Web. 3 May 2022, 23 Oct 2023.

<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/arts/music/florence-welch-machine-dance-fever.html>

Webb, Kate. “Kill Your Darlings: What Must a Woman Sacrifice to Become a Great

Artist?” TLS. Times Literary Supplement. Issue 6237, p17, 1 p. 14 Oct 2022, 23 Oct 2023.

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Welch, Florence. “Hunger”. YouTube. 3 May 2018, 23 Oct 2023.<

https://youtu.be/5GHXEGz3PJg>

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 Welch, Florence. “King”. YouTube. 23 Feb 2022, 23 Oct 2023.<

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