German Indie-Alt Singer-Songwriter Fløre is just the medicine you need

Guten Tag! (Good Day!) I greet German singer-songwriter Fløre (pronounced Fleur) over a zoom call; I picked up some German as a kid and it stuck. “That’s cute’ she says, when in fact she is the one who is really cute, like insanely adorable. Her hair is dyed half pink and half black and styled with little odango buns on top, and she is decked in black, she is wearing a sheer black top with ruffles her neck is adorned with a black chocker and chains. You can see some of her tattoos underneath her top.

What time is it in your part of the world? I ask, continuing on with the opening pleasantries, ‘It’s 11am’ she answers, ‘What about you? What time is it?” she asks. “Uh…it’s 5pm” I answer looking at my watch. “Oh, so you’re living in the future” she then responds, and it is this quick-deep thinking persona that Fløre reveals in our 20-minute interview. She’s sweet, soft-spoken, easily smiles and you can tell is a shy person but when we talk about her music, she opens up and we end up chatting like friends.

Her new single ‘Bad Medicine’ which talks about toxic relationships and the irony of being in one, has hints of dark-pop that come with a steady beat and a catchy melody, which are paired perfectly with her soft yet passionate vocals and help paint a picture of love being a drug but it doesn’t make you feel better.

At the beginning of ‘Bad Medicine’ is the sound of a heart machine of sorts-I struggle to remember what the machine is called the one that beeps, and goes toot, toot – what is that sound effect doing at the start of the song? What were you thinking of adding that particular sound effect to the song?

She laughs, then answers, “It’s like this beating machine, well, we thought of creating more of the mood, if I had like a music video in my head, it would be in a weird hospital. I always imagined a big anatomical heart coming from the other person, and I’m laying in the hospital bed and there’s this infusion going inside the vein because I’m living from the heart of another person. The sound is there to create a medical aspect to the song, since it’s called ‘Bad Medicine’. We talk about the possibility of a music video from her, she shares that she’s thinking of doing a bigger musical video that contains multiple songs, she’s looking into finding the right director to bring her vision to reality but admits that as a newcomer it’s not that easy to realize all the ideas that you have. “This is a project, I’d really love to work on, because I have so many ideas” she says, drumming the tips of her fingers together like a mad genius.

How has the pandemic affected you as an artist? Has it had an effect on your song-writing process in anyway?

Yes, it does. As a songwriter, or as a creative person in general, you absorb the things that surround you and the things that you experience, and if there’s a pandemic and you can’t do anything, you have nothing to absorb but in general, my life has not really changed because I’m often at home and not really out (Same here!) so quarantine is my life- kind of, but then I realized that quarantine affected me in such a way that I want to go out, only to realize that I don’t want to go out, then write about it later.

When writing her music, Fløre has her trusty iPad where she records the vocals for her demos, she has her guitar which she uses, but mostly it’s her with her iPad recording in their pantry, since its the smallest room that they have and serves as her sound booth. She laughs as she describes this process. Fløre then sends these demos to her producer, Berlin’s Indie-Pop artist NOVAA, (together, Fløre and NOVAA have been called “the quirky queens of the underground music” by A1234). It then becomes a back-and-forth process of sending these files, until the songs are finally recorded in production.

In a previous interview, you said that you wanted to write songs that ‘bite back’ has this been a conscious goal for the songs that you have been writing?

Oh yes, I remember that (laughs). For Dead Boys I wanted something that was more rough, something that didn’t fit in a box, something that was more grundgy so I wanted the songs to bite more back but I think you can never really influence your creative process, so if I have something in my mind and it doesn’t work out, I’m not going to force it.

Fløre then talks about Bad Medicine going through a number of production changes (three) in the course of four years, when she first started writing it, the song had a different name before, different lyrics and a different production and was in fact, stuck in her drafts folder and for her current EP, they were scrolling through old demos and thought a new spin would bring the song a new life.

If ‘Bad Medicine’ was written four years ago and was only released now, what’s the shortest song that you wrote?

‘Dutchman’ (a track, which heavily uses strumming of guitars and a has a steady beat, from her last EP, Superbloom) was very spontaneous and it was just me on the iPad and the version that you hear on Spotify is just an iPad recording (Listen to it! Its so good!) and I remember writing it in 20 minutes.

We started talking about her influences in her music and I was surprised to learn that she is actually a big Taylor Swift fan and that she started playing the guitar at the age of thirteen because of her. Fløre then lights up when she recalls the very first time, she heard Taylor Swift, which was in a car ride in the Netherlands, when she was around ten or eleven and Love Story came on the radio and she remembers thinking that it’s the most beautiful song she’s ever heard.

The 25-year old singer-songwriter is also a mental heath advocate, “Depression is a serious disease which needs to be normalized and talked about, cause nothing kills you like your own mind. And I’m so proud and feel so strong writing about mental health. For me it feels like you will never get rid of a major depression. It’s about handling the demons and maybe even becoming friends with them.” In an interview with Glasse Factory she points out “It’s okay to be not okay. It’s okay to be sad and to feel alone and to be weird.”

We talk about her bravery to talk about toxic relationships, particularly for Bad Medicine, “I know what it’s like (to be in a toxic relationship) I think almost everyone has this person, who they know is not good for them, but they just can’t let go and sometimes that can be self-destructive, like you just want to get hurt, it’s weird, humans are weird. (laughs) and I’m glad to know that maybe the song can bring awareness and maybe some people can reflect on the song and can somehow help them understand their feelings.

Before we wrapped up our time together, Fløre talked about music, giving her life meaning, it’s her reason to live, It’s the reason I feel alive, every time I’m writing something, or I just got the first master of the song I wrote, I feel like – I created this! She says excitedly.

Watch her first ever global live stream on Amazon Music Session and see her perform live here!

And make sure to stream ‘Bad Medicine’ on Spotify.