Laura Marling felt her time away from the music industry was ''undignified''.

The singer/songwriter - who has just released her fifth studio album 'Short Movie', her first in nearly two years - has insisted she had ''little choice'' in delaying her album release.

She said: ''I had little choice in the matter. It didn't seem to want to happen. It was undignified - that's exactly what it felt like.

''My music and my ability and my confidence in my ability were a huge part of my persona. Because that's such a grounding thing to be confidently doing what you are lucky enough to be good at. And I didn't have that - for the first time ever. It was horrible.''

With it being her first release in over 15 months, the 25-year-old folk musician wanted to take control of the whole album and opted to co-produce it alongside her drummer Matt.

She added to news.com.au: ''I felt like it was a little bit fragile and that I needed to protect it. When I thought about producing it myself, it wasn't that I thought 'I'm going to do all of this' it was more that I knew if I produced it myself I would work with these particular people no questions asked.

''The string players are three of my oldest friends, the engineer was a lovely friend of mine in a tiny studio that I love and my drummer Matt basically co-produced with me. They were all just gentle, ego-less people. It's hard to get all of those people in a room if there is someone else running the show.''