Lily Allen admits making music was easier before she got sober.

The Hard Out Here singer gave up drugs and alcohol almost five years ago but, speaking in a new interview, the singer-songwriter says she found it easier to be creative in the past.

“Drugs and alcohol were very good at drowning out my inner critic,” she told The Observer. “When you take cocaine you think all of your ideas are brilliant and need to be shared.”

Although the Not Fair hitmaker has been back in the studio and apparently has around 100 songs in the can, according to the profile piece she “doesn’t feel like they’re any good” and has decided to call “time on that side of her career for a while” to focus on acting.

Next summer, she is due to star in a theatre production of ‘Hedda Gabler’ in Bath, with Lily confessing she misses performing live.

“I can really miss those extreme highs,” she reflects. “Like I miss being on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury and rushing my tits off. I know that I will never experience that again, and there’s a sadness that comes with that.

“But I am level. I’m no longer having really terrible, long periods of time of absolute despair.”