(Credits: Far Out / Florence + The Machine)
Few artists own a creative identity quite as strong as Florence Welch.
Go to any one of her live shows, and you will find a cohort of die-hard fans, adorning her spiritual appearance as a means of exercising their love for the artist. She’s captured the hearts of those living in the shadows and pulled them into the sunlight, where together they can enjoy the world of folk-horror fantasy that she has crafted.
In an age of relentless pastiche and homogenised culture, you could argue that Welch is perhaps one of the only artists truly owning a singular identity. The tinges of influence are certainly there, yet her artistic idea is completely clear for all to understand. Within that, she crafted a safe space for her own voice to evolve, from her free-spirited debut album Lungs, to her most recent Everybody Scream, which grappled with her own trauma with brooding angst.
So steadfast in her individuality, it’s truly hard to picture her ever wanting to be another artist. But there is one, amongst the names who’ve been cited as all-time influences, that she has gone as far as labelling the artist she simply wishes to be.
“I wish I was Tom Waits,” Welch boldly claimed. She continued on to succinctly explain what it was about his music that stirred her envy. “His songs are so visceral and bloody,” Welch explained, adding, “I just love his use of imagery.”
Waits is an artist who has more of a grip on modern culture than certain fans would be willing to attest. Because it’s not just Welch who cites Waits as an influence, but Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten also. Explaining the root cause of his brilliance, Chatten said:
“Tom Waits is someone who has made for the majority, the least compromising music throughout his career, but gotten quite big. And I think that he’s probably one of the biggest influencers on me as an artist, personally, in terms of, I don’t know, just a really healthy relationship with songwriting. He just seems to be forever in love of it, and never letting that relationship stagnate.”
As this modern swell of alternative music washes over the world, inspiring new musicians to pick up an instrument and get creating, it is Waits who exists in the undertow. His gravelly vocals and honest songwriting style have been a beacon of inspiration for artists desperately trying to emulate a similar sense of integrity in a modern musical landscape that fosters anything but.
With Waits still actively releasing music today, there is a chance that we could see these eras of influence collide. Sure, Welch will never be able to enact her one true wish of becoming Tom Waits, but there’s nothing to suggest a collaboration could never happen.
Welch’s latest album, Everybody Scream, boasts the sort of soundscape that Waits made his own. It’s cinematic yet intimate, brooding yet stirring and has all the bloody viscerality she links so closely to Waits’ work. With the world at her fingertips as an artist, surely a phone call to Waits is somewhat achievable.
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