Placebo's lead singer:
"We became a cover band of our own songs and that's fine."
The
well-known singer, Brian Molko, spoke with La Tercera about their new Santiago show and how
they managed to overcome their career's setbacks after 20 years.
Interview
by Claudio Vergara - 14/03/2014 - 08:53 for La Tercera Chilean journal as
retrieved from: Latercera
Translated into English by Diana E.T. F.
Any poll could reveal that this last
season hasn’t been good for rock music. At least when it comes to mainstream
music: Grammy Music Awards big winners have been mostly dance music bands such
as Daft Punk or Pharrell Williams. And the biggest sells in the music industry are
pop artists such as Adele, Lorde or Taylor Swift. But Brian Molko (41)
Placebo’s lead singer seems not to care about it: "I don’t really know
anything about them. I don’t follow the
music scene. I don't own a tv, read the
tabloids or even pay attention to lists, awards and ceremonies. Right now, I
don't know what's cool. I just want to focus on what we do, since it is
something that still works for us".
 |
| Richard Isaac - Photographer |
It's under these principles
that the singer reveals the character that has transformed his band in one of
the most resilient bands of British rock, from their first success during the
90s, where the band showed themselves with an iconic somber sound and ambiguous
aesthetics, until the past decade known for irregular
records, fatherhood, internal conflicts -the departure of drummer Steve Hewitt
- and the generalized feelings of a certain creativity exhaustion.
"Placebo is also about
perseverance and about refusing to disappear. This band is the only thing we
have done in our lives and it's the best thing we know how to do, this is why
we think that today, as adults, we still have so much to give" said Molko,
over the phone from London with La Tercera, referring to the band status incarnated
in their latest album Loud Like Love, that they will perform during their 4th
visit to the country, on April 10th at the Movistar Arena
(puntoticket). A new gig in Santiago where they became in 2005 one the most
genuine cults in recent years with two sold-out shows in Mapocho, although
their following visits to the country turned out to be less crowded.
Is it
getting harder for you to repeat the kind of success you had in the past?
First I must say that coming
back to Santiago it’s a very emotional experience, our fans there are still
very generous and expressive, and it was the country that spread the word about
our music in Latin-America, from that station designed, as far as I know, by
Gustave Eiffel right? And these years every show is a challenge, because
nowadays as a band we cannot take anything for granted. You cannot let
self-complacency devours you, you must give more and more each time and that’s
our attitude nowadays.
The first
for albums are part of your Golden Age. What do you think about them today,
compared with your most recent work?
I haven’t listened to them in
many years, and sometimes I don’t listen to our most recent work for a long
time as well. It is basically because you can get a distorted view about them.
When you look back into your own career you do it with a hypercritical eye and
you find all the mistakes you made or what you would like to have done better.
Besides we have to travel the World and many of those songs have change
throughout time, we play them very differently from the original version;
therefore I see them as a picture of a certain stage of our past. We like our
songs to have a life beyond the studio. We have become a cover band of our own songs
and that is fine.
 |
| Joseph Llanes - Photographer |
Taking
into account that the original members are now around 40 years old, what
picture of you does the new album represents?
When we did the last record,
Battle for the Sun, in 2009, we were a band who was suffering from a very traumatic
divorce (with Steve Hewitt’s departure) many lawyers gained a lot of money, and
we got a lot of resentment. But now we have young Steve Forrest on drums and we
are much more comfortable, there is an almost telepathic connection among us
that is why our sound is much more colorful and even vulnerable.
In
your recent album you deal with themes like the social networks. Is this a way
to get close to the new generations?
It’s a little bit of
everything really. I’m very happy that our fans from the 90s have remained loyal
to us, but I’m also happy to see that every time we make a new record, in the
first 10 rows of our shows there is a whole new generation of teenagers who have
discovered our music. So, in a way we have been able to remain relevant and to
establish an emotional connection with young people. That is the key. And the
adults are still there, maybe farther in the audience, away from all the
dancing on stage, which is exactly where I’d be.
Loud
Like Love tracks were thought as part of a solo album. How did they become part
of Placebo?
I wanted to prove to myself
that I could record something without the rest of the band, playing every
instrument. It was a personal challenge, almost like going to the gym; I wanted
my muscle to keep working by itself to see if I could do it without them. But
when we started to record this new album I offered some of these tracks y they
worked very well. However I don't discard the idea of a solo album.
You
are one of the few English pop bands from the 90s who didn’t suffered long
break ups or recesses. Do you consider yourselves as part of the classics?
No, because we have never had
a particularly British identity. And labels are for others to say. I rather not
to think about it because I would become too self-conscious and I would block
the necessary renewal that we look for every time we write a new album.
THANK YOU: A big hug and lots of kisses for the translation into English goes to Diana E.T. Fogin !!
Sources: Picture (moving pic cover) Sciri Lulaby
