Exploring ‘Between Two Lungs’, the first song Florence Welch ever wrote
Florence Welch has been in the music industry since 2006. Her early performances in small London venues began to garner attention, eventually leading to the release of her highly acclaimed and commercially successful debut album Lungs in 2009 under the name Florence and The Machine.
One song from the album stood out amongst the others, and that was the first song Welch ever wrote. She had come across the general mood and feel of the track when playing in her friend’s studio, creating the drumbeat by pounding against the walls. From there, Welch sat at the piano even though she had no prior experience playing it and chose a simple melody from amongst the keys. She wrote the backing vocal first before settling on a melody and lyrics for the main vocal. Welch admitted in 2009 that when she listens to the song, it’s like “hearing myself learning how to make a song, piece by piece.”
The singer later opened up on the process of getting her first song together. She wrote on her website: “That was the first song I ever wrote by myself, so it’s crazy to me that it’s on the album. I was still at art college, but my first guitarist, Matt, had left, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to be making music. I was still doing gigs, but I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.”
Welch noted that the song began with the drums. “I’ve always been interested in the lulls between notes and the atmosphere that silence creates,” she wrote. “It’s all about the build and the final release – the euphoria that you can get from music. But the silence around it, and the studio hiss – I love studio hiss!”
Thematically, Welch notes that the song is about “being built by someone who has no idea how to play anything, and is making it all up as they go along.” detailing further, she added: “The title actually comes from an 80s pulp book I’d found in a second-hand shop. It has some great titles in it. It became about a kiss – the air you share when you’re kissing someone. And the way it fills you up, and you don’t want the bubble to burst.”
‘Between Two Lungs’ set Florence Welch on track for a stellar career in the music industry. Since then, she has released five studio albums under the name Florence and the Machine, including her most recent one, Dance Fever, released last year.
