FLO Turned The Dance Floor Into A Place Of Healing

FLO have always understood the power of connection. Since their 2022 breakout single “Cardboard Box” introduced Renée Downer, Stella Quaresma, and Jorja Douglas as three of the most exciting new voices in British R&B, the trio has continued to redefine what a modern girl group can be through honest storytelling, vocal chemistry, and a strong sense of identity.

With their sophomore album, Therapy At The Club, released on August 7, FLO transform the club from a place associated only with nightlife into a space for confession, emotional release, and self-discovery. Following the emotional arc of a night out—from the excitement of getting ready with friends to the vulnerability of the morning after—the album explores desire, heartbreak, confidence, and healing. Sonically, the album draws from Y2K-era R&B and ’80s influences, combining the era’s sleek grooves, layered vocals, and rich production with FLO’s contemporary approach to R&B and pop.

Written alongside collaborators like Amy Allen, Steph Jones, Julian Bunetta, Boy Matthews, Bounty, OAK, and Sevyn Streeter, Therapy At The Club also represents a new level of creative involvement for FLO. Across the album, Renée, Stella, and Jorja took a hands-on role in songwriting and shaping the project’s direction, creating a record that reflects exactly where they are now.

The idea behind Therapy At The Club came from a feeling the members were already experiencing in their own lives. For Jorja, the album’s title became clear shortly after the group recorded the song “Therapy At The Club.”

“Shortly after we received the song and actually recorded our vocals on it, we kind of realised that it’s really personable,” Jorja tells Genius. “There’s actually so much we can talk about within the subject, because it felt like our lives at the moment.”

“We were finding a lot of release from stress and from work and our hectic lifestyle by going out and partying and being with our friends,” she says. “It felt like the perfect second album title.”

For Renée, the club represents the joy of sharing experiences with others.

“I think to me, it means just having fun with your friends,” she says. “The club is a nice way to meet up with people, meet new people, have really thought-provoking conversations, dance, laugh, cry. So much can happen in the club. It’s just an opportunity to have fun and let loose.”

Stella sees the club as a place where people can embrace every emotion they are feeling.

“I think the club is a place where you can really feel everything without consequence in a way,” Stella says. “Obviously, there’s always a consequence, but it feels like you can really delve into your feelings, whatever they are, and figure them out or find solutions or just let go.”

“There’s just so much that can be done there,” she continues. “It’s very freeing.”

That sense of freedom also shaped FLO’s approach to creating the album. Compared to their previous projects, the trio found themselves taking much more ownership over the entire creative process.

FLO officially came together in 2019 in London, when Renée and Stella met while studying at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. After the pair discovered Jorja through her singing videos on Instagram, the three began building their identity as a group. Working with British producer MNEK, FLO developed their sound before making their debut in 2022.

Their first studio album, Access All Areas, established FLO as one of the leading new names in British R&B, opening with 1.88 million streams on Spotify in its first full day and later surpassing 100 million total streams on the platform.

For Jorja, one of the biggest differences with Therapy At the Club was learning how to lead sessions and trust their own ideas.

“The way that we were taking charge of the rooms, and we were making the music and having the ideas, and really making sure they were put into fruition,” Jorja says. “We saw a result that we are really proud of.”

For Renée, the group’s involvement extended far beyond the initial songwriting sessions. FLO wanted to be present throughout every stage of making the record.

“Even outside of just the sessions, finishing the songs and mixing the songs, and just really being a part of every kind of thing from start to finish—the tracklist, creative—we’ve just been so involved in the process of this album,” she says. “So it really feels like our own.”

The group’s songwriting process changes depending on the session, but Stella says creating the right environment is always important. Usually, the music becomes the starting point.

“Typically, it would stem from the beat itself,” Stella says. “Usually, we’ll get the producer to either play beats, or if we’re on a great vibe, we’ll just start naturally vibing with instruments and then find the song through that.”

That collaborative process helped FLO create an album that feels connected to their current lives, especially when compared to their debut.

While Access All Areas introduced listeners to different sides of the group, Jorja believes Therapy At The Club captures a more realistic version of who they are.

“I think that we kind of go through normal experiences that everybody else does,” Jorja says. “I feel like a lot of Access All Areas was a little bit fantasy. When we were writing them, they were kind of hypothetical, and they hadn’t necessarily happened.”

That contrast between imagination and reality became one of the biggest differences FLO noticed while creating their second album.

“With this album, we tried to make it more everything from a real place, a personal experience, or even writing from each other’s points of views,” she says.

Even when the members were writing separately, they continued to think about each other’s experiences.

“When we were in sessions by ourselves, we were still very much thinking about each other,” Jorja says. “‘What has Renée gone through that I can write about? What has Stella gone through that I can write about?’ Those things made us more aware of writing about things that had actually happened this time.”

Jorja’s focus on real experiences also connects to one of the album’s most emotional tracks, “Don’t Break Her Heart.” The song highlights female friendship and the importance of protecting the people you love, making sisterhood one of the central themes of Therapy At The Club.

“I think sisterhood is at the crux of everything we do,” Renée says. “It’s the whole point of girl groups, the whole point of this girl group.”

The bond between the members became even more meaningful as they navigated the music business together.

“It’s very important that we, and especially in the music industry, are all friends, we all support each other, we all fight for each other,” she says.

“We wanted to really make sure that when we had a sisterhood anthem, it was going to be the right one,” Renée says. “That’s why we love this song, and it just feels so right for now.”

Throughout Therapy At The Club, FLO also found inspiration in unexpected places. One example is “Side Effects,” which Stella says began from a simple observation that eventually developed into a full song. Stella had been thinking about the unexpected disclaimers that come with medications, and that became the starting point.

“There were a lot of disclaimers,” she says. “Like a hay fever tablet can give you heart failure, like crazy stuff like that. That’s a nice little idea that actually comes out into a good song. That’s always really satisfying.”

In creating their concept album, FLO also had to think beyond individual tracks and consider the larger world they wanted to build.

“I think we wanted to make songs with a purpose and obviously a theme,” Renée says. “We were asking ourselves, ‘Does this fit within the narrative that we’re trying to tell? Is it just a good song, or is there a story behind it?’”

For Stella, that desire to create something meaningful comes from FLO’s constant ambition to evolve.

“We love to make music, and we always want to one-up,” she says.

That mindset shaped the entire direction of Therapy At The Club, especially when it came to creating an era that listeners would remember.

“That’s always the hardest part, because the whole point of an album is to create a world,” Jorja says. “And that can manifest itself in many different ways.”

Rather than following a strict formula, FLO wanted the album to represent a specific moment in their journey.

“There isn’t a specific way it has to be, but we were definitely mindful of how we were going to make this feel like an era of FLO and a specific time period,” Jorja says.

The goal was to create music that could transport listeners back to this chapter years later.

“Then you can listen back to the song in 10 years and think, ‘Oh yeah, I remember what was happening when FLO dropped that song,’” she says.

Across Therapy At The Club, FLO creates a record built around the idea that healing can happen anywhere—even in the middle of a crowded room. By combining personal storytelling, creative independence, and the unbreakable connection between its members, the album captures a group stepping confidently into their next chapter.

Rather than seeing vulnerability as something to hide, FLO embrace every emotion that comes with growth: the excitement, the heartbreak, the uncertainty, and the joy. In the world of Therapy At The Club, the dance floor becomes more than a place to escape—it becomes a place to feel, connect, and heal.