Songstress Miley Cyrus has praised rock band The Flaming Lips for helping her to break out of the darkness she's been feeling over the past year. 

Speaking to the Rolling Stone, the 'Wrecking Ball' star explained that the group showed her how to take sadness and to work with it, and to sing through it so that she can perform even when she's feeling like retreating from the world:

"They taught me to sing into the sadness, and that's helped me a lot on tour."

"Because I would've felt like I can't keep smiling, and I can't, like, go dance on this gold car, and act like I'm happy when I'm f**king not."

The 'We Can't Stop' superstar went onto add that they're writing songs together for her next album, which excites her because they're very talented musicians who don't rely on technology to correct or enhance their sound and style:

"On my last record, everything we did was with computers. But they're real musicians – they can change keys on a whim. I've never seen anything like it. They've had me on this journey that's greater than anything I've been on. It's really deep."

Watch Cyrus and The Flaming Lips performing together here: