thais avelino silva

Thais Avelino Silva



Index

INTRO 9
bio
18
welch 23

lungs 11
ceremonials
FONTS 11
23

5



intro



intro

Let’s talk about magic. Because music, at its best, is a kind of
magic that lifts you up and takes you somewhere else. Florence
writes her best songs when she’s drunk or has a hangover, because
that’s when the freedom, the feral music comes, creating itself wildly
from the fragments gathered in her notebooks and in her head.
“You’re lucid,” she explains, “but you’re not really there. You’re floating
through your own thoughts, and you can pick out what you need.
I like those weird connections in the universe. I feel that life’s like a
consistent acid trip, those times when things keep coming back.”

Florence herself is a mass of contradictions: she’s tough yet she’s
terrified, a bundle of nerves and passion, of darkness and pure joy.
“I feel things quite intensely, which is why the music has to be so
intense. I’m either really sad or really happy, I’m tired or completely
manic. That’s when I’m at my most creative, but it’s also dangerous
for me. I feel I could write some good songs, or break some hearts.
Or tables. Or glasses.”

As a performer she can seem fearless, but she’s also far too quick
to pass judgement on herself. This is the woman, after all who got
into Camberwell art college by making a huge floral sign telling herself
‘You are a twat.’ She says she’s a geek, who loses all control when in
love. She’s also something increasingly rare and precious in a time of
karaoke pop: an artist who has found her own, authentic voice.

9





Her soaring, epic vocals, quirky melodies and self-contained
musical world have already won her the 2009 Critics Choice Award
at the Brits. Some compare her to Kate Bush. You’ll also find
touches of Tom Waits and Nick Cave in her dark visions, and if you
heard a little of Bjork too, she’d find it a compliment. But mainly,
Florence is out on her own: an exhilarating place to be, she points
out, but also a little scary.

Her debut album ‘Lungs’ is made of harps, choirs, drums, elevator
shafts, bits of metal, love, death, fireworks, string quartets, stamping,
sighing, strange electronic wailing, lambs, lions, sick, broken glass,
blood, moon, stars, drink, coffins, teeth, water, wedding dresses.. and
the silences in between. The songs are full of Gothic imagery, of
fairytale flights of fantasy, and although much has been read into
her lyrics, Florence says it’s usually simple. “Everything is about boys!”
she laughs. “The whole album is about love – and pain. People see
my lyrics as crazy, but to me it’s an honest, heartfelt album. I didn’t
set out to be wacky. I just want it to be emotive.”

Florence grew up in Camberwell, south London, the oldest of
three children. One of her earliest musical memories is standing on
top of the trunk where her dad kept his vinyl collection, dancing
with him to the Rolling Stones. She started singing along to Nina
Simone and Dusty Springfield at home, expanded her vocal range
with arias, then became a pre-teen skatepunk before getting lost
in the Camberwell art college squat party scene. It’s an eclectic mix,
but for her, the common thread is always the emotion. “Anything
that has real feeling in it always excites me. Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change
is Going To Come’, Eva Cassidy singing ‘Wade In The Water’, even
Rhianna’s ‘Umbrella’ – I’m obsessed with music. I’ll play Beyonce, Lil

12 Wayne, Bob Dylan’s ‘Hurricane’, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Going Down’.”

Florence found her own space by going out to clubs and pubs,
by singing onstage and in her bedroom. By the time she left school,
she’d already written songs like ‘Kiss With A Fist’, and knew she
wanted to make music but not how to go about it. So after a year
working behind a bar she went to art school, making tents under
the desk to sleep off her hangovers while trying to convince her
tutors she was an installation.

It wasn’t until she wrote the haunting ‘Between Two Lungs’ that
it all came together. Instead of percussion, Florence pounded the
studio walls with her hands. She built the melody on the piano even
though it’s not an instrument she knows how to play, and recorded
the backing vocals first, before writing the top line. It’s bonkers and
totally unconventional, but of course it is also glorious – a strange
but yearning song about losing yourself in love. “I’d found my voice,
and I just felt euphoric,” she recalls. “It’s been a real process of me
learning that the way I wanted to do it was actually the right way.
This whole album has been about having faith in myself.”

13

14
14





BIO

bio

Florence and the Machine (stylised as Florence + the
Machine) are an English indie rock band, consisting of lead
singer Florence Welch and a collaboration of other artists who
provide backing music. The band's music received praise across
the music media, especially from the BBC, before they gained
mainstream success. Specifically, the BBC played a large part
in their rise to prominence by promoting Florence and the
Machine as part of BBC Introducing.

The band's debut album, Lungs, was released on 6 July
2009, and held the number-two position for its first five weeks
on the UK Albums Chart. On 17 January 2010, the album
reached the top position, after being on the chart for twenty-
eight consecutive weeks. As of October 2010, the album had
been in the top forty in the United Kingdom for sixty-five
consecutive weeks, making it one of the best-selling albums of
2009 and 2010. The group's second studio album, Ceremonials,
released in October 2011, debuted at number one in the UK
and number six in the US.

The name of Florence and the Machine is attributed to
Florence Welch's teenage collaboration with Isabella “Machine”
Summers. Welch and Summers performed together for a
time under the name Florence Robot/Isa Machine. Later, this
was shortened to Florence and the Machine as it was felt
to be too cumbersome. The current band members include
18 musicians Robert Ackroyd, Chris Hayden (drums,

percussion and backing vocals), Isabella Summers (keyboards
and backing vocals), Mark Saunders (bass guitar and backing
vocals) and Tom Monger (harp). In the past, Welch has praised
the Machine for understanding her creative process, claiming,
“I've worked with most of them for a long time and they know my
style, know the way I write, they know what I want.”

According to Welch, “The name Florence and the Machines
started off as a private joke that got out of hand. I made music
with my friend, who we called Isabella Machine to which I was
Florence Robot. When I was about an hour away from my first gig, I
still didn't have a name, so I thought 'Okay, I'll be Florence Robot/Isa
Machine', before realising that name was so long it'd drive me mad.”

In 2007, Welch recorded with a band named Ashok, who
released an album titled Plans on the Filthy Lucre/About
Records label. This album included the earliest version of
her later hit “Kiss with a Fist”, which at this point was titled
“Happy Slap”. She signed a contract for Ashok with a manager,
but feeling that she was “in the wrong band” she resigned,
which cancelled the contract. Florence and the Machine are
managed by Mairead Nash (one half of the DJ duo Queens of
Noize), who decided to manage the singer when an inebriated
Welch followed Nash into the toilets at a club and sang Etta
James' 1962 song “Something's Got a Hold on Me”.

19

“you’ve got the
love I need to see
me through”



performances

Florence and the Machine started off by playing a handful
of gigs in and around London, and in August 2007, the band
performed at the debut year of the 1-2-3-4 Shoreditch Festival,
performing alongside Lightspeed Champion on the MySpace
Main Stage which was hosted by manager Nash's DJ double
act, Queens of Noize. In May 2008, they supported MGMT on
tour in Europe. The BBC played a large part in Florence and
the Machine's rise to prominence by promoting her as part
of BBC Introducing. This led to them playing music festivals in
2008, including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds and Bestival.
Florence and the Machine were also part of the Shockwaves
NME Awards Tour 2009 in January and February.

Florence and the Machine played at Australia's Splendour
in the Grass music festival in July 2010. The group drew one of
the biggest crowds of the three-day festival. They performed
in the natural open-air amphitheater, which had to be closed
off by security due to safety concerns as an unprecedented
number of festivalgoers rushed to see the performance. It
is estimated that 28,000 people of the 33,000 people that
attended the festival crammed in to see Florence and the
Machine. The amphitheater was reopened shortly after the
start, once the safety fear was over.

22

In October 2009, the band's equipment and instruments
were caught in a trailer fire during their European tour, forcing
the
band to use rented instruments to complete their remaining
shows. Welch stated, “You could hear the harp's strings ping in the

fire. Strange sound. We recorded it and I want to use it in a song.”

On 27 October 2009, Florence and the Machine played
their first official New York City gig at the Bowery Ballroom,[74]
and performed “Kiss with a Fist” on The Late Show with
David Letterman. On 5 November, the band performed
“Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Welch
stated although she would like to tour the United States, she
is fearful of becoming homesick due to the time it would take
to tour the country.

After the success of Lungs topping the UK Albums Chart

in January 2010, seven months after the album was released,

Florence and the Machine announced an eleven-date UK and

Ireland tour called The Cosmic Love Tour in May 2010.Support

acts include Babe Shadow and The Drums. Florence and the

Machine performed at Oxegen 2010, T in the Park 2010, the

Isle of Wight Festival 2010, Roskilde Festival 2010, V Festival

2010, and the San Miguel Primavera Sound 2010. In March 2010,

it was that confirmed that the band's first headlining festival

would be Latitude 2010, having been booked the previous

September before achieving mainstream success. 23

The Cosmic Love Tour kicked off at Dublin's Olympia
Theatre on 2 May 2010 where the group debuted a new
song called “Strangeness and Charm” and ended at London's
Hammersmith Apollo on 15 May 2010. On 25 June, the group
played the Glastonbury Festival 2010, where they performed
“Strangeness and Charm” and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's
“The Chain” during their ten-song set. Their performance drew
one of the biggest crowds of the day and one of the biggest
in the Other Stage's history.

Welch and Dizzee Rascal's performance of a mashup
version of the band's single “You've Got the Love” and
Dizzee's single “Dirtee Cash”, titled “You Got the Dirtee Love”,
at the 2010 BRIT Awards on 16 February 2010 was described
as “a definite highlight of the evening”. This collaboration
was released as a charity single the following day, peaking
at number two on the UK Singles Chart. She reprised the
performance when she joined Dizzee on stage during his
performance at the Glastonbury Festival 2010. Florence and
the Machine opened for U2 on the North American leg of
their U2 360° Tour in June and July 2011.

It was described as “both ethereal and downright joyous”.
After the performance, Lungs rose to number two on the
iTunes albums chart and “Dog Days Are Over” rose to number
nine on the iTunes singles chart. In addition, Florence and
the Machine became the number-one search on Google and
received 1,700 tweets per minute on Twitter. Florence and
the Machine performed “Dog Days Are Over” on The Ellen
24 DeGeneres Show on 15 October 2010. On 20 November 2010,

the band performed “Dog Days Are Over” and “You've Got
the Love” on Saturday Night Live. They performed an online-
only concert at New York City's Ed Sullivan Theater on 16
December 2010 as part of the Live on Letterman concert
series.

Welch and a number of other female singers opened the
53rd Grammy Awards on 13 February 2011 with a tribute to
an ailing Aretha Franklin. On 27 February 2011, Welch replaced
pregnant Dido and sang her portion of Best Original Song
nominee “If I Rise” (from 127 Hours) with A. R. Rahman at the
83rd Academy Awards. Two years of worldwide touring are
scheduled to promote Ceremonials.

Florence Welch has been compared to other female singers
such as Kate Bush, Siouxsie Sioux, PJ Harvey, and Björk.
During an interview, Welch cited Grace Slick as her influence
and “hero”. Florence and the Machine's style has been
described as “dark, robust and romantic”. Their music is a mix
of “classic soul and midnight-on-the-moors English art rock”.
Florence Welch stated that her lyrics related to Renaissance
artists : “We're dealing with all of the same things they did : love
and death, time and pain, heaven and hell”. From 2008, Welch had
a relationship with Stuart Hammond, a literary editor: their
temporary split provided inspiration for much of the Lungs
album. In 2011 the couple announced that they had broken
up by mutual decision because of conflicting career demands:
the breakup provided material for Florence and The Machine's
second album.

25

Florence and the Machine won the Critic's Choice Award
at the 2009 BRIT Awards after coming third in the BBC's
Sound of 2009 poll. As well as attention from the BBC, the
band received significant support from NME magazine, who
included them on their annual Shockwaves NME Awards Tour
for 2009, along with Glasvegas, Friendly Fires and White Lies.
[The Sunday Times described Welch as “the most peculiar
and most highly acclaimed female singer of the moment” and
“the latest in a line of great English pop eccentrics”. Allmusic
referred to Lungs as “one of the most musically mature and
emotionally mesmerising albums of 2009”. Spin magazine rated
Lungs eight out of ten and wrote, “You've gotta hand it to
the girl: She always makes you feel something.” The magazine
named it the eighth best album of 2009. In December 2010,
Florence and the Machine appeared on one of Spin's three
holiday issue covers as Artist of the Year.

Florence and the Machine won the MasterCard British
Album award for Lungs at the 2010 BRIT Awards, having also
been nominated for British Female Solo Artist and British
Breakthrough Act. On 19 February 2010, Florence and the
Machine won Best International Band at the 2010 Meteor
Awards. The group led the nominations for the 2010 MOJO
Awards, with four nods.They received a nomination for Best
New Artist at the 53rd Grammy AwardsIn April 2011, Florence
and the Machine were ranked 51 in the 2011 Time 100 poll,
which annually lists the 100 most influential people in the
world. American recording artist Beyoncé Knowles, cited
Florence and the Machine as an influence on her 2011 album.
26

awards

B R I T A w ar d s -
C ritic ' s C h oic e
A w ar d

M e d ia S t u d ios -
S on g of J u l y 2 0 0 9

S h oc k w av e s N M E
A w ar d s -
B e st T rac k

M e t e or S t u d io -
B e st I nt e rnationa l
B an d

E l l e S t y l e a w ar d s -
M u sician of t h e y e ar

27

28





welch

“And it’s over,
And I’m going under,
But I’m not giving up!
I’m just giving in.”

32



life and
career

Florence Leontine Mary Welc (born 28 August 1986)is an
English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the
lead singer of Florence and the MachineBorn in Camberwell,
Florence is the niece of the satirist Craig Brownand
granddaughter of former deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph
and former Daily Mail parliamentary sketchwriter Colin
Welch.She is the daughter of Evelyn Welch, a Professor of
Renaissance Studies and Academic Dean of Arts at Queen
Mary, University of London, and Nick Welch, an advertising
executive. Her father Nick contributed a "rock and roll element
to the family mix"; in his 20s he used to live in a West
End squat and attended the Squatters' Ball organised by
Heathcote Williams where The 101ers played regularly A self-
confessed "frustrated performer", if Nick, as he put it, "nudged
Flo in any way, it's only been to listen to the Ramones rather
than Green Day". Evelyn had an equally strong yet completely
different influence on her daughter. A visit to one of her
mother's lectures left teenage Florence deeply impressed. She
explained, "I aspire to something like that but with music. I
hope that my music has some of the big themes—sex, death,
love, violence—that will still be part of the human story in 200
years' time

Florence was educated at Thomas's London Day School
then went onto Alleyn's School, South East London, where
she did well academically. Welch often got in trouble in
34

school for impromptu singing. Welch has been diagnosed
with dyslexia and dyspraxia Following her meteoric rise to
fame, she suffered a bout of depression. Upon leaving school,
Florence studied at Camberwell College of Arts before dropping
out to focus on her music. Welch's fascination with terror and
doom was intensified by the death of her grandparents within
a few years of each other. At the age of 10 Welch witnessed
her grandfather's deterioration, and her maternal grandmother,
committed suicide when Welch was 14.

35

“I WANT MY MUSIC
TO SOUND LIKE
TROWING YOURSELF
OUT OF A TREE, OR
OFF A TALL BUILDING,
OR AS IF YOU’RE
BEING SUCKED DOWN
INTO THE OCEAN AND
YOU CANT BREATHE.
IT’S SOMETHING
OVERWHELMING AND
A;LL ENCOMPASSING
THAT FILLS YOU UP, AND
YOU ARE EITHER GOING
TO EXPLODE WITH IT,
OR YOU’RE JUNT GOING
TO DISAPPEAR.”

fLORENCE
WELCH

38

musi c r
care e

According to Welch, "The name Florence and the Machines
started off as a private joke that got out of hand. I made
music with my friend, who we called Isabella Machine to
which I was Florence Robot. When I was about an hour away
from my first gig, I still didn't have a name, so I thought 'Okay,
I'll be Florence Robot/Isa Machine', before realising that name
was so long it'd drive me mad." In 2006, Welch's performances
with Summers in small London venues under the joint name
Florence Robot/Isa Machine began to attract notice.

In 2007, Welch recorded with a band named Ashok, who
released an album titled Plans on the Filthy Lucre/About
Records label. This album included the earliest version of
her later hit "Kiss with a Fist", which at this point was titled
"Happy Slap". She signed a contract for Ashok with a manager,
but feeling that she was "in the wrong band" she resigned,
which cancelled the contract. Florence and the Machine is
managed by Mairead Nash (one half of the DJ duo Queens of
Noize), who decided to manage the singer when an inebriated
Welch followed Nash into the toilets at a club and sang Etta
James' 1962 song "Something's Got a Hold on Me".

39

40





LUNGS

44

TLRI SATC K

d o g d a y s ar e o v e r
R A B I T HE A R T
I M N O T C A LL I N G YO U A L I A R
H O WL
G I R L W I T H O N E EYE
DRUMMING SONG
B E T WEE N T W O LU N G S
C O S M I C L O VE
M Y B O Y B U I LD S C O F F I N S
HU R R I C A N E D R U N K
BLINDING
YO U ' VE G O T T HE L O VE

Happiness h
a bullet in
Struckfroma
Bysomeonew
know better
The dog day
The dog day
Canyouhea
Cause here

hit her like
n the back
agreatheight
ewhoshould
r than that
ys are over
ys are gone
arthehorses
e they come

LU N G S

Lungs is the debut album by English indie pop band
Florence and the Machine, released 6 July 2009 by Island
Records. On 10 January 2010 the album returned to number
two extending its stay at the runner-up spot to six non-
consecutive weeks. The following week it reached its new
peak position of number one for two consecutive weeks. So
far it has spent sixty-five consecutive weeks within the top
forty and thirty-three of those inside the top ten. Lungs was
a main contender for the 2009 Mercury Prize and received
largely positive reviews from music critics. Additionally, the
album won the Mastercard British Album award at the 2010
48 BRIT Awards.

production

Florence and the Machine recorded Lungs in the United
Kingdom with four different producers — Paul Epworth (who
has previously worked with several other British artists,
including Bloc Party, Maximo Park and Kate Nash), James
Ford (who is part of the electro group Simian Mobile Disco),
Stephen Mackey (former member of Pulp) and newcomer
Charlie Hugall. Most of the songs on the album were mixed
by Cenzo Townshend. The album is noted for having a much
more expansive production than Florence and the Machine's
previously recorded demos.

49

50

51