Florence and the Machine frontwoman Florence Welch suffered a "nervous breakdown" during her year-long hiatus from music.

The British star decided to take time off after recording her debut album Lungs and the follow-up Ceremonials back-to-back, but she suffered a "crash landing" when she stopped working.

Welch also reveals her "on and off relationship with drinking" meant the year was even more "chaotic".

She tells Britain's BBC Radio 1, "Ceremonials and Lungs all blurred together, we didn't take any time off. It was a decision to have a year off. (During that time 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 (new) record and because of that it's the most personal record I've ever made."

The star has spoken in the past about her mental health woes and in 2010 revealed that a bad break-up led to a bout of depression.

Florence and the MAChine's new record How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful is set for release in June (15).