Florence Welch knows she has written a hit song when it sounds like a ''prayer'' to her.

The Florence + the Machine singer is always confident she has created a track that will resonate with people when she can recount it like a religious offering or a ''spell''.

In an interview with the Evening Standard Magazine, she said: ''I always know a song is working when I sing it to myself outside the studio. It keeps you company a little bit. It's like a prayer you can say to yourself, or like a spell.''

When writing the band's new album 'How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful', the 28-year-old musician quit drinking alcohol to avoid her self-destructive tendencies and ensure she was fully focused on the LP.

Florence - who previously admitted she had ''a bit of a nervous breakdown'' during her year off from the band over 2012 and 2013 -revealed: ''I am very prone to pressing the kamikaze button when things fall apart and drinking too much, but I had to start making this record and I thought, 'I don't want to break this as well.'

''I was writing a prep talk to myself, almost. I like to hide behind reverb and a lot of backing vocals but producer Markus (Dravs) pushed my vocals forward and was quite adamant about it. It's another layer of taking down your defences and I was scared.''