FLORENCE Welch has spoken candidly about her "chaotic" battling an "on and off relationship with drinking" and suffering from "a bit of a nervous breakdown".

"Cermonials and Lungs all blurred together, we didn't take any time off," the Florence + The Machine singer told Zane Lowe.

"It was a decision to have a year off. [I had] a bit of a nervous breakdown... It was a bit of a crash landing in a sense... In the year off, I was still going out and going to events but something wasn't quite right, I was spiralling a bit. I wasn't making myself happy. I wasn't stable.

"It was a really vulnerable time for me when we first started making the record and because of that it's the most personal record I've ever made."

Welch appeared on Radio 1 to discuss her new album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.

The interview came in the week Lowe revealed he would be leaving Radio 1 for "exciting times" at Apple.