Florence Welch’s music is inspired by witches and each song is a "magic spell" to her.
The Florence and The Machine singer has admitted to founding a "witch coven" when she was in middle school and claims her fascination with witchcraft still influences her musical style.
She explained: "I think there’s a kind of idea where each song is like a magic spell in order to exorcise something from yourself. There’s a big theme of desire and transcendence and using the songs, almost like chants where it was to make something happen or break something; you wanted something out of you or you want to get something into you.
"So, I’ve always been attracted to that kind of imagery. The first bands I went to see live and the first things I was interested in had this kind of shamanic energy and this idea that it wasn’t just a drink it was a kind of exorcism. And so I think being surrounded by those things kind of draws you into these kind of themes."
The 28-year-old star says that when she takes to the stage, she sees her performances as "small" exorcisms and misses them when she’s not touring.
She told the blog Noisey: "Every performance is kind of like a small exorcism, or I definitely use them as such. So, I think that’s why I had such a strange time when I took a break off because that connection was very important to me as a way to understand myself."
Florence also confessed to trying to put spells on boys she fancied at school with the help of her coven.
She recalled: "Me and my two friends made these spell books where we’d try to do spells on our classmates. One time, I tried to make one of my classmates fall in love with me so me and my coven put his name in a bottle, and the rule was that there had to be a drop of blood and… well, I don’t know if it ever worked [laughs]."
Florence Welch started a witch coven at school
